Happenstance

by Tessa Bailey

Tobias riles me up, irritates me. Banks is like looking into an emotional mirror, giving me a strange sense of camaraderie. And Gabe? I’m protective over him. A man twice my size.

“Do we trust the elected representative?” Banks sips his beer. “I’ll be honest, I’m not sure either of you should trust me not to ask her out. Alone.” “Same,” Gabe says, his expression saying he holds the winning lottery ticket in his giant mitts. “I’d cook a pot roast for her.”

Gabe gives off big Drax vibes from Guardians of the Galaxy. I adore it.

This, these men, is something I wouldn’t be allowed to do halfway. My intuition is telling me they would require all of me. Every little bit. I don’t even know what all of me looks like. I haven’t given my all to anything in a really long time.

But I’m caught off guard when Tobias stands suddenly, zipping his pants over a thick ridge of flesh. “Fuck me,” he grates through his teeth. “I can’t be inside of her. It needs to be you now, Banks, you lucky bastard.” Even as Banks maneuvers me around to face him, his shaft already in hand, he shoots Tobias a confused glance. “Why exactly can’t it be you? You’re as obsessed with her as we are.” His gaze burns into mine. “That’s the problem. I think…” He drags a hand down his face. “Good God. I think I actually need her to like me first.”

“Gabe, you’re secretly kind of diabolical.” “Thank you.” He nods for a moment. “What’s diabolical?”

The meeting between the four of us is starting to feel less like happenstance and more like fate. Some inevitable providence that none of us saw coming.

“Does anyone have any rope?” Tobias poses the question while lunging to his feet from the couch. “Now seems like a good time to show off my shibari skills.” I back away, gasping. “You are not going to tie me up.” Features tight, Tobias follows me step for step while examining my face. “Turns you on a bit, though, doesn’t it?”

“Look, I’ll keep in contact with you guys and when the situation blows over, we’ll—” Banks shakes his head. “No.” “You’re pushing us away, Elise.” “Rope.”

Banks is so full, hurting me slightly with his ownership but in a way that I want. I want to feel like a corrupted virgin—I don’t care if that’s weird or wrong. I want to feel like a seductive vixen, too, and I’m getting that from Gabe. Tobias looks up at me with nothing short of hero worship, like I’m saving his soul. His life. I’m redeeming him. “There you fucking go, love. All three of us. Your men. Your men for life.” And I’m all of these things. I make myself all three. They help bring me here. I’m everything in these moments with them. I’m the universe.

And Gabe is still hard. I must have made that discovery out loud, because everyone’s heads move on a swivel. We look at him, then down at his still extremely erect penis. With a cocky smile, he pulls up his sweatpants and swaggers down the hallway. “I think I’ll save it for tonight,” he calls back over his shoulder. We all stare at his retreating back like he’s an alien lifeform. Tobias exhales. “I feel like a proud father—” Gabe comes running back down the hallway coated in sweat. “I lied. I can’t wait that long. Please, Elise. Even a hand job…” “Bloody hell,” Tobias mutters.

“But I won’t be able to marry Elise. None of us will.” “God, man. I’m just hoping she talks to me again.” Tobias exhales roughly. “But since we’re on the subject, I’ve done some internetting and…there are commitment ceremonies.” I watch Gabe sit up straighter in the rearview. “There are?” “Yes,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I checked into it, as well.” Gabe curses. “I really need to figure out the internet.”

Especially from Elise’s parents. The weekend we met them for the first time takes up an entire five pages in my scrapbook. The napkin her mother wept into when we broke the news. A transcript of her father’s phone call to the police. The label off the bottle of whiskey he drank when the police informed him no laws were being broken. A picture of their faces when Tobias told Elise’s parents how he made his fortune. A shard of the plate that Elise’s father threw at Tobias’s head. That was an interesting weekend, to say the least, but it ended in Elise’s parents being overjoyed for their daughter. Finally believing her claim that she’d never been happier. The final picture in that weekend’s section of the scrapbook is the six of us posing in front of our new house, a SOLD sign swinging in the breeze to our left.

“What makes you think we would have met no matter what?” “Something this perfect can’t be happenstance,” I say confidently. “I have to agree,” Tobias drawls, coming up behind Elise, planting a kiss on her bare shoulder. “Banks?” “You’ll get no argument here,” Banks concurs.