I almost spit out my wine. Ginny was surprised too, but found more humor in my reaction. She patted my thigh and said, “You’re supposed todrinkthe wine, notbreatheit.”
“Good to know.” I cleared my throat. “The tiebreaker was that you had some real experience. The other guy only had a degree.”
“Also, you’re really fucking hot,” August repeated. “I wouldn’t want to kiss that guy. Yuck.” August leaned his chin on a fist on the loveseat. “Speaking of kisses. What was that all about last time we were here?”
I shot him a glare. We had been having a great time without any discomfort, and he just brought it up out of the blue?
“Uh, you kissed me,” Ginny replied.
“And it was super great!” August replied. “What’s up with that?”
“Dude…” I warned.
“What? I want to know. We’re just three friends hanging out. Chatting.”
“You’re making it weird.”
“You’remaking it weird by acknowledging the weirdness,” he countered. “Now shut up. Ginny and I are having a conversation.”
Ginny took another long sip of wine. I assumed she was uncomfortable, but she seemed normal when she spoke. “It was a good kiss. Unexpected. Maybe that’s what made it so good.”
He pointed at me. “Better than your kiss with Mikey?”
Ginny’s big, round eyes cut over to me, and my breath went still. “Both were good.Reallygood. That was totally an accident, by the way. I was going in for a hug, and we both leaned the same way.”
“I know. I didn’t mean for it to happen either.” She was still staring at me, waiting for more, so I quickly added, “But it was great! Really great. You’re a great kisser.”
“Mikey normally has a vocabulary more expansive than just the wordgreat, but I think he’s extra nervous tonight for some reason.”
I shot him another look, which he promptly ignored.
“Okay, let me ask you two a question,” Ginny said. She pulled her legs up underneath herself on the couch. “You made a joke about it beingthat kind of party. And just before I left, you were both staring at me.”
“As I have established, you are extremely nice to look at,” August said with a grin.
“No, what I mean is you had a look on your face. Both of you. Like you were hoping we would…” She trailed off, unable to say the words.
“Like, the three of us?” I said into the following silence. I punctuated it by pointing at August, then her, then me. “You thought the three of us would—”
“No, of course not,” Ginny interrupted. She drank some more wine. “But afterward? I wondered about it. If that’s what you two were thinking. Were you?”
I glanced over at August. He was my best friend, and had been for over a decade. We’d been through a lot together. But the thought of doing something likethatwith him—athreesome, I made myself say the word in my head—felt like a bridge too far. I didn’t know if I could do that and not feel weird about it. Didn’t that change people? What if we could never look at each other ever again?
“Ehh, it would probably be weird,” I began to say.
“I’d be cool with it,” August said casually while swirling wine around in his glass.
I swung my head over to him. “Really?”
“Sure. As long as you weren’t, like, trying to fondle my balls or anything, I don’t care if I’m around another naked guy. Better you than some rando. Hell, if you two wanted to make out while I just watched, that would be super fucking hot to me.”
What the fuck, dude?I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not because I was surprised by this information, but because I was shocked he would say it out loud to Ginny. This was the kind of thing that made women run away and never look back.
But Ginny didn’t look afraid. Surprised, maybe. She had a sparkle in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
She’s thinking about it.
“I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” August said. “If you’re a prude, that’s fine.”