Just keep calm, I remind myself as I wait for Mallory and Gail. Their photos are ready, and since Fallon is living at my place, I figured it would be better to meet here than at my house.

As I sit here waiting, I can’t help but consider asking Mallory for her help. With Fallon questioning me lately, I need to have Mallory around, even just once.

Then the ladies walk in, I stand and give them both hugs.

“How are you guys doing?” I smile, gesturing for them both to have a seat.

“We’re good. How are you?” Gail asks me.

“I’m okay.”

“What’s wrong?” Mallory is examining me the same way she always does. She knows we so well, so I decide to go with my gut and just ask. Besides, what would it hurt?

“I kinda need your help with something.” I make sure to include both of them in the statement.

“Please tell me it isn’t for a threesome,” Gail blurts out, and I find it a bit comical that is what she thinks.

“Oh God no, I’d never ask you that.” I try to smile, knowing I need to ask them, but fuck, it’s hard. Gail is really intimidating. She has her arm over the back of Mallory’s chair as if she can sense she’s not going to like the favor. And I have no clue if Mallory told her about us or not.

“Would you just tell us already?” she demands.

“Mallory, you remember when you met my friend Fallon all those years ago?”

She nods, and Gail sits up straighter, angrily looking at me, trying to figure out what I’m getting at.

“I never told her we broke up.”

“What? Why would you do that?” she blurts out.

“This is him?” Gail asks, her dark brown eyes filled with venom.

Mallory looks between the two of us and then gives her a tiny nod. “I don’t know why,” I tell her. Obviously, Gail knew she had been with a man, she just didn’t know it was me.

Gail looks at Mallory waiting for a response. But she’s gone silent.

“You need to tell your friend you two broke up,” Gail adds. “Mallory is mine, and I’m not cool with her parading around pretending to be your girlfriend anymore. What she did in the past was a mistake. I’m sorry, Parks.” With those words, I get up from the table. This was wrong. I’m sure Mallory feels bad for me, but she is not going to side with me. Hell, I wouldn’t side with me, either.

“You’re right, that’s what I’ll tell her. It was a dumb idea. I’m sorry again.”

It isn’t fair to bring other people’s lives into my bullshit. So, I slide them the disc of photos and the prints they chose. “The photos are on me, ladies. I hope you both love them.”

“Thank you,” Mallory says, and I walk away, leaving her and Gail sitting in the restaurant. Fuck, I’m pissed at myself. I get why Gail doesn’t want to help, Mallory is her fiancée, and here I am some dumbass from her past trying to use her to help myself in some strange, fucked up way. I shouldn’t have even brought it up.

I can only be pissed at myself. I need to figure out how to handle this shit once and for all.

Walking back to my condo, I’ve got a stomach filled with anxiety. I know it is wrong to continue the lie, so maybe I should tell her that Mallory and I broke up . . . or I’ll go the easy route and stick with my current story that she is always traveling for work.

* * *

“Maybe I should just file for unemployment,” Fallon says from her bedroom.

“Why? What happened?” I ask going through some photos on my laptop in the living room.

“Because, everything I’ve applied for, I keep getting these generic declined emails. It’s like I’ve been blacklisted. Parks, I have a fucking degree in physical therapy, that should at least warrant me an interview.”

“The right job will come along, just be patient.”

“I’m trying, but I need to move out and get my own place.”

I don’t want her to move out; I love having her here. After closing the lid to my laptop, I go into her room. She’s sitting cross-legged, and I can see the despair written all over her face as I sit next to her.

“You don’t need to go anywhere.”

“Yes, I do. Your girlfriend is not gonna appreciate another woman living with her man.”

“Well, she really has no say in the matter, does she?”

“Parks!” she scolds me, her forehead creasing as she scowls. The look on her face is one of my favorites. She’s trying to be so serious, but for Fallon, that’s hard, she’s a goofball.

“Focus on you. I’ll handle Mallory; I told you she’s fine with you being here.”

Jesus, I hate lying.

Every untruthful word I let out of my mouth sends a twinge of remorse through me. But I can’t seem to tell her that we broke up, even though I should.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s sweet of you. Thank you.”

I nod and can see how much this is all affecting her, so I lie back and pat my chest. She places her laptop on her nightstand and lines her body along mine, letting me wrap my arms around her and hold her.

As we lie here together, she traces the pattern on my T-shirt with her finger. The simple touch of her hand on my body makes me think very bad thoughts. “Are you okay?”

She nods not saying a word, and I hold her tighter, enjoying this moment. Wishing only one thing—that she wasn’t just my friend, that she was my lover, too.