“You know she’s going to just tell everybody she can find. She’s probably already posted it on Facebook. We probably already have our own Reddit subgroup.”
“I really couldn’t care less,” Jack says. “Lying is too hard. This is easier. Let’s do this.”
I pause for just a beat. “Let’s do what, exactly?”
Chance shifts around, taking a chair next to me. He takes my other hand so that now I’m holding both their hands, suspended between them. I’m instantly transported back to maybe one of the first times I ever met them. Five years older than me, big and strong when I was little. Maybe I was nine, or ten? We were walking somewhere. Oh, yes… Walking along the beach of Lake Michigan. One of those wide concrete promenades. Birds flew over our head, the sun beat down, there was a cool breeze coming off the lake. They walked on either side of me, each holding one of my hands. Every so often they would both lift at the same time so that I could swing my legs into the air, kicking until I was practically airborne.
It was a beautiful day. I loved the feeling of freedom, the feeling of knowing that they would catch me as I fell back to the earth, and then send me skyward yet again.
“Just say the words,” Chance prods encouragingly.
“You’re the boss,” Jack reminds me.
Say the words, I tell myself. Say what words?
But I know I need to say something. There needs to be some kind of declaration. There needs to be a moment where we go from playful messing around to organized with direction. A self-organized system. Even if it’s a completely weird system. It’s definitely one that works.
“So, this is a thing?”
Jack raises one eyebrow. “A thing? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of genius?” Chance scoffs. “Nice vocab, there, Chelsea.”
I take a deep breath and glare at each of them. But they’re looking at me so expectantly, it’s like having a couple of puppies waiting for a treat. I can’t believe they’re so open right now. No artifice, no defensiveness, just the trust and affection of people I’ve known my entire life, almost. As long as I’ve been me, anyway. As long as I can remember.
These handsome, trusting faces. These loving faces. They challenge me. They dare me. They take me places I’ve never been, just like they said they would.
“Okay,” I say finally. “We will be, like, together. Boyfriends. Plural. And girlfriend. Singular.”
“There, now, was that so hard?” Jack says.
“Actually, it was really hard,” I admit.
“Well, I kind of like it,” Chance adds. “You know, I don’t think I have ever been anybody’s boyfriend before.”
“Wait, what?”
They glance at each other then start grinning like fools, shaking their heads.
“No, he’s right,” Jack smiles. “Nobody ever laid that word on us before. Or we haven’t let anyone. Not really, not officially.”
My eyebrows arch in surprise. “Wow! Well I am… Really honored.”
“Yeah, I was expecting it to be harder, to be honest,” Jack admits.
Chance leans toward me, taking my cheeks in his hands. He cups my face and tips it toward his, stroking my cheekbones with his thumbs before kissing me sweetly, deeply, shamelessly.
“Yes, Chelsea,” he sighs, his breath mingling with mine. “It’s the easiest thing in the world.”
Jack tugs my hand and I pull back from Chance, drawn immediately into Jack’s sweet, passionate kiss. His lips are firm and insistent, and I can feel the longing in his heart. It matches mine, totally in sync.
“Easiest thing in the world, Chelsea,” he agrees.
“Of course it is,” I sigh, smiling with happiness and relief. “It’s the truth.”
Epilogue
Chelsea