Three Alpha Romeo

“We didn’t want to put you in that position. Plus, you’ll be cooking and prepping for four, instead of three. That okay?”

I nodded mechanically. My head was still spinning.

“We’ll have to bump up the food budget. And of course pay you extra.”

“Extra’s nice,” I agreed.

“Good,” Nathan smiled. “Glad that’s out of the way. And again, sorry about Chase. He probably shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“No, no…” I said absently. “It—It’s okay.”

N

athan bent his six-foot-five frame at the waist, bringing his head next to mine. His voice was low and husky as his lips brushed the hair near my ear.

“I’m the one who should’ve kissed you,” he said, before closing the computer’s window and walking off.

Six

KAYLEEN

I prepped their food like a robot all morning, and well into the afternoon. Not one of them emerged again, or came out into the kitchen. I figured they were in ‘the zone’, or at the very least giving me my space.

It wasn’t until I got home that I finally broke out of the fog.

A three-on-one relationship agreement.

It was the craziest thing in the world! Totally unlike anything I’d ever heard of. It wasn’t exactly polygamy, or whatever the term for the reverse of it was. And yet…

Yet for some reason, it seemed logical, too. Like it might be something that could actually work for them.

Oh please! The little voice in the back of my head was bitingly sarcastic. How the hell do you know that? You barely even know them.

That was true, I supposed. I knew Chase pretty well, and I knew Nathan a little bit too. They were both great guys, but the main details of their lives were for the most part unknown to me.

And Burke… well, he was little more than a dark, brooding mystery.

I glanced down, to where Beast was practically humping my leg. His food bowl was empty again. I’d forgotten to pick something up for him.

“Sorry little man,” I apologized. “You’ll have to eat with me.”

It turned out Beast had no interest in my arugula and strawberry salad, but I split half of my honey-basil chicken strips with him. He rolled over contently as I flipped on the television, happy to just put my feet up and veg out for a while. Now if only he’d bring me my furry Ugg slippers…

BWOOP!

My phone was clear on the other side of the room when it sounded off. Doesn’t it always work like that?

Grrrrr...

I wanted to ignore it, but the text-message could be important. I guess I was getting those slippers after all.

Half a minute and one pair of slippers later I was back in comfy-land. I pulled the couch blanket over me and punched a few buttons to see what was up.

The message was from Chase… and he’d included the others, too. The guys normally used the long-running group text between the four of us to let me know when they’d run out of something, or even to make dinner or recipe suggestions.

Hey! Just wanted to make sure

you weren’t too shell-shocked