Cooper
I was over-caffeinated; that was my only excuse. Well, maybe justification…or explanation. Yes, I liked that better. It was my explanation. Caffeine, sugar, chocolate, and excitement were a bad combination.
As more of our stuff started moving from the apartment to the house, it made everything more real, and more wonderful. When I thought about how wonderful it was, my excitement kept growing, and somehow that led to more coffee consumption. I still wasn’t sure how that happened.
By the end of my shift, I’d had three, no four, oh, maybe more than that.…Yes, too much caffeine. It made the day pass by faster, but it also seemed to turn my brain off. As I was dancing around the storeroom, getting ready to leave, April finally came in demanding answers.
“You’ve been bouncing around the store since I came in. And according to everybody else, you’ve been doing it all morning. I even had one of the customers a few minutes ago say that they thought you’d had too much caffeine. So spill it.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the door. “What? Did Sawyer ask you to marry him? If you were a girl, I’d ask if you were pregnant. You’re glowing, and you’re stupid excited.”
Oops.
I had no idea what to say. “We’re getting a new place?”
Unfortunately, that came out as a question, which didn’t help my situation.
April gave me a suspicious look. “Why?”
“Because we need more room?” Shit, a question again.
“I know neither of you are pregnant. So unless you just got married and are trying to adopt a baby from some third world country, I don’t see why you need a bigger place. Your apartment is cute.” Her face went from frustrated to concerned. “Are you guys having money issues? Did you get kicked out? No, that doesn’t explain the excitement.”
“No, everything’s fine.” Everything was perfect.
“What the hell is going on? I thought I was your friend, but you’re lying about something. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.” As her tone changed to hurt, I was even more conflicted.
She was right. She was my friend. But there was a huge part of my life that I’d left out.
After telling Sawyer that I approved of whatever decision he made about his job, I’d done my best to ignore the fact that I had the same decision looming. “It’s personal. I don’t mind sharing with my friend. But I’m not sure it’s something my boss needs to know.”
I finally sat down on one of the chairs and tried to pretend I was calm. “Can you see my dilemma?”
April nodded, but she didn’t look pleased. “I thought you knew me better than that. As long as it honestly doesn’t affect your work, it’s not my business as your manager. As a friend, you can tell me anything.”
I had a feeling I was going to test that “anything” to the limit.
Deciding to just go for it, I blurted it out. “Sawyer and I are moving in with Jackson. He’s our third. We met him online. We’re in love.”
I was pretty pleased that I’d managed to leave the puppy stuff and the BDSM out of it completely.
April’s eyes widened. “You guys are in an open relationship?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s just the three of us. We’re all committed to each other, and we’re tired of going back and forth between his house and the apartment.”
“Is this new?” She wasn’t running away screaming, but she still seemed confused.
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. “Well, we’ve always known we wanted a third. If that’s what you mean. But we met Jackson a few weeks ago. Things just grew from there.”
“Wow.” The frustration had faded, and it looked like the confusion was starting to clear. “That’s great. You seem really excited. I can’t wait to meet him. This explains why you guys haven’t invited me over for dinner lately.”
I winced at that. “We haven’t really told anybody besides his family. I honestly wasn’t sure if it would freak you out.”
April nodded, finally seeming to understand. “I guess I get it. You’re going to get a lot of shit from some people. But honestly, this isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve heard from a friend.”
“Yeah, I just don’t want it to keep me from moving up in the company. I like my job.” Then I gave her a little pout to lighten the mood and make her laugh. “And I want the manager job at the new location.”
She smiled but didn’t get sidetracked. “Eventually, one of the other managers or employees will ask you about your family—there’s no way around that. But I honestly can’t remember having a personal conversation with anyone at the corporate office.”
I could see her starting to think back through previous conversations, and finally, she shook her head. “No, I don’t remember anybody asking me if I was even married, except that lady in HR. As long as you hire people who are open-minded and fit in with the overall feeling of the company, I don’t see where you’ll have a problem.”
“Great, that’s a load off my shoulders.” Standing up, I started patting myself down to make sure I had my keys and phone. “I have to go help unload the car, because they were going over to the apartment to get a load of stuff.”
“When am I going to meet this fabulous guy who’s got you so excited?” April grinned.
I shrugged. “Why don’t you come over for dinner next week? Let me talk with the guys and see what works best for everybody’s schedule.”
Beaming, April nodded. “Perfect. I get free food and entertainment.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “You’d better behave.”
“I make no promises.” She shrugged. “I said the same thing when I met Sawyer for the first time. Remember?”
“Well, this will be just as G-rated.” Nodding, I made a vow to make sure everything weird was picked up and put away.
“If I’m going to live vicariously through you, it needs to be at least PG.” She smirked and stepped away from the door. “Okay, go home to your men. You’ll have more fun than I will tonight.”
I gave her a little wink as I turned the handle. “I know.” Her laughter followed me out the door.
****
“I can’t see anything. Can you?” Pressing my face harder against the window, I kept trying to see what was happening over at the other building.
When Lee had pulled into the parking lot over by the training center, Jackson had gone out to meet her. Sawyer and I had waited in the house, watching as they talked in the driveway. They both looked stiff and slightly uncomfortable, but as they kept going, their body language changed.
Lee’s hands came out of her pockets, and Jackson laughed. We were too far away to hear what they’d said, but things looked like they were going well. When they finally went into the building, Sawyer and I stayed glued to the window.
Deciding that he needed a distraction, and probably because I was still too over-caffeinated, I started telling him about work. “I might have accidentally told people about us.”
Sawyer groaned. “What part about us?”
I giggled. “Not the good stuff.”
He gave me a frustrated look. “That doesn’t tell me enough.”
“Just that we’re moving in with Jackson. Nothing about the puppy play, or the spankings, or the BDSM, or the fact that his sister writes dirty books.” I thought, overall, I’d done pretty good.
Sawyer snorted. “I guess when you put it that way, us just living with a third doesn’t seem so weird.”
“Nope, that’s what I thought.” I leaned over and gave him a kiss. “April wants to know when she can meet him.”
Laughing, Sawyer started to relax. “She’s going to love him.”
“Because he’s so hot and perfect. It’s going to drive her crazy to be single when I have two sexy men.” And I was going to enjoy every minute of it.
Before Sawyer could respond, his phone went off. It was Jackson.
“What does it say?” I leaned over his shoulder trying to look at it.
“Just be patient.” I ignored his short tone because I knew we were both excited.
“That’s not going to happen.” He finally angled the screen so I could see. “That’s not enough information.”
Sawyer nodded. “I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”
Sending us a short text that just said to come out to the work building was not sufficient. In seconds, we were out the back door and heading over to the work side of the property. As we got closer, I could feel the tension in the air.
“He wouldn’t even have us come down if he didn’t like her.” I reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “So at least we know you have good instincts about employees.”
Sawyer gave a small bark of laughter, but it didn’t sound funny. “What if she thinks we’re weird?”
“We are weird.” I gave him a look that said it was a stupid question.
“Okay, what if she’s shocked and horrified and tells everybody at my work?” He was sweet when he was nervous, but I gave him another “You’re a moron” look.
“We’ve had this discussion. I love you. Jackson loves you. Even if you get fired tomorrow, nobody will starve, and nothing bad will happen. Hell, even if we both get fired tomorrow, nothing bad will happen. Jackson won’t be angry or disappointed. We’ll be able to figure it all out.”
I loved being able to say that. No matter what happened, we could deal with it.
“Now if we’re unemployed for a long time, Jackson’s going to make us start cleaning the house naked. There’s no way around that.” I gave Sawyer a wink and released his hand as we got to the door. “Are you ready?”
He smiled, looking a little calmer. “Yes.”
The door opened, and Jackson was standing there looking very pleased and relaxed. “Come on in. I have someone I want to introduce you to.” Lee was standing there, looking slightly awkward, with her hands folded across her chest. She was dressed in jeans and a plaid button-down, and with her short hair, she did have a very gender-neutral look. But overall, she was really cute, and I had a feeling the customers would like her once she relaxed.
When we were watching them talk, she seemed friendly and open. I wasn’t sure what they’d discussed, but now she was clearly concerned.
Smiling, I waved. “Hi, I’m Cooper.”
“Hi, I’m Sawyer. We met briefly the other day.” Sawyer looked just as awkward as she did.
Jackson shook his head at them both. “Lee is going to be working with me part-time. To start, she’s going to be here a few afternoons a week, and then she’ll help out with the classes on Saturday. I explained that I was looking for someone open-minded, because my living arrangements were not traditional.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s going to think you’re insane or doing something weird.”
Lee was now giving him a suspicious look. I liked her. She was smart. Jackson didn’t seem to mind her skepticism; he just ignored us both and continued. “Lee, I would like you to meet my boyfriends, Sawyer and Cooper. We’re keeping our life fairly quiet, but because you’re going to be here so often, I didn’t want to lie to you.”
She thawed a little, but I had a feeling it would take her a while to get used to all of us. She glanced at the three of us, then gave a slow nod. “Nice to meet you. I’m Lee. I’ll trade you one awkward question for another. Yes, girl pronouns for now, but I don’t know about later. So what’s the deal with all three of you—you’re really boyfriends?”
Sawyer wasn’t sure what to say, so I took this one. “If you ever want us to start using different pronouns, just say so. And yes, we’re together, but kind of in the closet, sort of. At least with the fact that there are three of us.”
“Yeah, my dad mentioned that Sawyer had a long-term partner.” She glanced at Jackson. “He said you were a friend of theirs.”
Sawyer finally spoke up. “Because work doesn’t know. I plan on telling him this week before the barbecue.”
She rolled her eyes. “He’s stupid about some things, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about—if that’s what you’re thinking. Dad is one of those clueless open-minded people. He’ll probably say something offensive, eventually, but he won’t understand why it was wrong.”
It was clear that he’d aimed some of his stupid remarks at her.
Sawyer shrugged. “As long as I don’t get fired, and he doesn’t get too weird, I’m good with a few stupid remarks.”
Jackson didn’t look like he was fine with that idea, but he held his tongue. I had a feeling we would hear about it later, though. Turning to Jackson, I tried to break the tension that was beginning to grow again. “So when does she start?”
“Monday.” Jackson looked relieved to be able to say that. “She’s going to be learning where everything is and watching some of the classes. Then once she’s up to speed, she’s going to help with some of the office stuff as well. She’s got school in just a few weeks, but we should be able to work around her schedule.”
“That’s great.” Jackson would get more time off, and it would make everything easier. Maybe even dates on a regular basis and more sleep for him. We hadn’t realized what crazy hours he’d been working until we moved in with him. He would take time off when we were around but would then work insane hours when we were gone—neither of which was good long-term.
Overall, I thought it was going to work out great.
And even though it wasn’t my business, it looked like Lee needed a place where she could be herself. So I had a feeling it was going to work out for her as well.