The Arrangement

I glanced over at Nathan. He was smirking back at me like we’d just robbed a bank together.

“Done what?”

Kayleen threw an oven mitt at me with surprising accuracy. It sailed across the kitchen, end over end, until it bounced off my forehead. It all happened so fast I didn’t even have time to duck.

“Okay, okay,” I said as she reached for the other one. “I give.”

“And?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “We’ve done that before.”

Nathan sipped his coffee, maybe hoping it would spare him her second shot. But Kayleen was busy pouring the omelet now.

“So I’m not the first girl you’ve tried this with,” she said casually. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I sensed the slightest hint of disappointment in her voice.

“No, you definitely are,” I said quickly. “I mean, we’ve never put out an ad before. We’ve never moved a girl in here, or tried to—”

“But you’ve shared a girl before.”

I looked at Nathan and shrugged. “Yes.”

“We roomed together in college,” Nathan said, taking over. “Chase and I had an apartment with some other people. There was this one cool girl who hung out with us a lot, and… well… we kind of both ended up dating her.”

Kayleen stared down impassively, working her kitchen magic. A minute or two went by before she flipped the omelet and turned back to face us.

“You dated her together,” she insinuated.

“Yes.”

“What was her name?”

I paused, but only for a second. “Dana.”

“Hmmm,” was her only reply. She seemed half interested, half contemplative. It was sort of cute. “And what about Burke?”

“He wasn’t involved,” I said.

“So you both… shared her.”

“Yes.”

“Like you shared me?”

I nodded. There was no use denying it. “All the time.”

Kayleen slid the omelet onto a plate, garnishing it with a little salt and pepper. She pushed it my way, then grabbed her own coffee before settling into the empty chair between us.

“So is that where you learned you liked it?”

“Liked what?”

“Sharing a woman,” she answered. “And not just switching off day by day, but actually screwing her together as a team effort.”

Nathan and I looked at each other again, this time with more uncertainty. I wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to hear.

“We enjoy it, yes,” I said, leaning into her. “You could say we get off on it.”

“Like you got off in me?”