Kent pulled out a chair, grumbling. “Now we’re taking orders from an intern?”
“Shut up,” Damien snapped.
“I just want to know what’s happening,” Kent replied.
“If you open your ears and listen, you’ll find out,” Sean chimed in, taking a seat near the window.
I faced the three of them down the table, drawing a deep breath. This was it. This was my final pitch. Either I lined up everything I had ever wanted, or I left the room empty-handed. It wasn’t quite that grim, I reminded myself. I already had Damien and Sean on the hook. It was really only Kent who needed convincing.
I wasn’t sure how to proceed. I wasn’t the one to explain the deal to Sean. Damien had already broken the ice, and all I had to do was move in for the kill. With Kent, it was different. He wasn’t great friends with either Damien or Sean, and involving him was my idea.
I couldn’t shake my conviction that he would make an excellent lover. And once we got past the awkward stage, I could see the three of them hitting it off splendidly. Damien was willing to try, and Sean might have objected in private, but he made it clear that he wanted me any way he could get me.
“I like you,” I began. I decided to start with the basics and make sure that Kent knew I valued his contribution.
Kent smiled but then looked at Damien and Sean warily. “What about them?”
“I like them too,” I said.
“You have to pick,” Kent dictated.
Damien and Sean exchanged a look that gave Kent all the information he needed. He shot a startled gaze at me, finally coming to realize what the meeting was all about. He shook his head, a knee-jerk reaction to something unexpected.
“No,” Kent whispered.
“Hear me out.” I slid a hand toward him across the table, calling his attention back to me. “I’d like to try dating all three of you. We could mess around together or separately. I would like to eventually have a single encounter, but we don’t have to do that right away.”
“You mean like an orgy?” Kent croaked.
I looked at Damien for help.
“It’s called polyamory,” Damien replied stiffly. “It wouldn’t be an orgy because we would all be in a relationship.”
“A single relationship?” Kent still didn’t grasp the fundamentals.
“A joint relationship,” Sean clarified.
“And you two are okay with this?” Kent demanded, turning to his colleagues.
Damien wagged his head back and forth to indicate that he had some reservations. Sean shrugged. Neither of them committed to saying anything, and all the attention in the room swung back to me.
“Do you know my sister?” I asked.
“No.”
“You know Vlad,” Sean offered.
“Yes.”
“He’s in a polyamorous relationship with Meara’s sister.”
“Oh.” Kent sucked in a breath, finally realizing what we were all talking about.
“It works out well for them, and I think it could work out well for us,” I continued. “Damien and Sean are willing to give it a try. Would you be interested?”
Kent studied me for a long moment, trying to decide. I could see the conflict etched into his features. He wanted to say yes but was getting hung up on propriety. In his mind, there should be just two people in a committed relationship, and the idea of sharing me with his partners wasn’t quite sitting well.
He took a few minutes, standing up to pour himself a cup of coffee. There was a machine in one corner that held a variety of expensive coffees for clients. No one said anything as Kent helped himself. There were more important things at stake than a line item on an expense report. Staff was ideally supposed to buy their own or make it in the kitchen, but we were waiting for him to say something, and the fact that he was cutting corners didn’t seem to matter.