"No…" she simply says, sitting by my side as if she’s shell shocked. She looks pale and sickly, and there are tears welling up in her eyes. "I can’t believe she’d go this far…" she mutters, a sob making her convulse. Burying her face into her hands, she starts crying, and I feel my heart fucking breaking. "My own mother."
"Hey, hey," Drake whispers, kneeling in front of her. "It’ll be okay."
"It’ll be okay, Natalie," I repeat, peeling her hands off her face and then wrapping my arms around her body. I don’t know how we’re going to solve this fucking mess we’re in, but I can fucking guarantee you that we will; I’ll go to hell and back for this woman.
"Hey… I’m sorry too," I tell Drake, turning to him. "I guess I should've trusted you."
"You should have," he says, but his face opens up into a smile. "But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re here. The three of us, together."
"That’s right," I agree, and the three of us fall into a tight embrace. I don’t know why, but I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t even know how to fucking describe it; it’s like my heart has grown lighter and heavier at the same time.
And then Natalie turns her clear blue eyes to me and… Fuck, she’s the most beautiful woman on Earth, there’s no doubt about it. And Drake and I are the luckiest bastards alive.
You know, I was fucking pissed about what Drake did, but I have to admit, it wasn’t about the money. The three of us belong together, and when I thought that Drake was abandoning us I just fucking lost it. I tried to mask my sadness with anger, but there’s no mistaking it; what I really felt was sadness, a deep cold feeling that tried to choke out the happiness I felt.
But now we’re together again and, whatever the world throws at us, we’re going to face it head on.
"I love you," I find myself saying, unable to stop the words before they leave my mouth.
"I love you," Drake tells Natalie exactly at the same time, our voices blending into one.
She raises her head, wipes one sole tear with the back of her hand, and then smiles. And fuck me if hers isn’t the brightest smile I’ve ever seen in my life. Leaning toward me, she brushes her smooth lips against mine, and then does the same with Drake.
"I love you too," she whispers, the tears giving way to happiness. "I really do."
Smiling back, I just wrap my arms around her and pull her close. Drake sits by her side too, and he puts his arms over us.
We sit there in silence, everything we felt finally out of the shadows.
Whatever happens next, it’ll be all right.
Natalie
One.
It might sound corny, but I don’t care: Sloane, Drake, and I have become one. Unity, that’s the right word for us. Sure, ours isn’t exactly a normal relationship, but wh
o cares? It makes us happy. The whole world might judge us, but it’s not like I’ve ever let society dictate my next move. I am, after all, the proud owner of a sex toy company. And, besides, it’s just perfect with them.
Since that night at Python, when we came clean about our true feelings, we progressed from just fucking to actually having a relationship. Which, if you think about it, is totally weird. Not weird because we’re three people in a relationship, but weird because the three of us were never known as ‘relationship people’.
Drake has already been married twice, Sloane always dreaded the world ‘commitment’, and I never really bothered with boyfriends. One and done, that was the way I lead my life.
But this feels right, you know? More than right, actually. With them, I feel exactly the same thing I felt when I quit my job in finance and started my own company: the feeling that the planets are aligned, and that the future couldn’t be brighter.
Seven.
We’ve gone on seven dates now. And when I say dates, I mean proper dates. We spend most of our time indoors, too busy having fun with our bodies, but it feels good to get out of the house from time to time.
Dinner, movies, and a walk in Central Park. Simple stuff, sure, but at the same it just makes so fucking happy.
We’ve tried to keep our cards close to our chests, though. I could feel my mother lurking in the shadows, ready to come out swinging, and I thought it would be better if we didn’t offer her a clear target.
In the end, though, it didn’t matter.
Two days.
That was how long it took Drake to get his board to come around and remove the hold they had on the banks from lending money. He had to fight for it, and I bet that was because my mom was making the rounds, enlisting people on his board to her cause.