Page 55 of Her Three Tech Bros

“Just thinking about everything that happened. Haven’t heard from Jade, either. I don’t know if I should see how she's doing or leave her alone.”

I sit on the armchair by the liquor cabinet. “I think it’s best to give her space. She did say to talk to her when we fix our own shit.”

“You think if we can’t agree on something, that’s it for her?”

It’s pretty obvious that she won’t choose just one of us if we no longer want to do the group dating. She cares for the three of us and won’t find it in herself to choose, knowing the other two would be hurt. I’ll admit, if she didn’t pick me, it would drive me insane.

Not to mention, it would probably ruin our friendship and our business.

“Pretty much,” I say, answering his question.

“What if it’s just me and you that agrees? Do you think she still won’t accept it that way?”

“She likes Logan, too. We promised we wouldn’t make her choose and that’s still putting her on the spot.”

“Hold on. Let me move to a quieter place. It’s getting fucking loud, and I’m starting to get pissed off.”

He catches me off guard. It takes a lot for him to get annoyed or angry this quickly. I can’t blame him, though, knowing exactly how he feels.

The noise slowly fades into the background as he gets farther from the bar. Then I hear the ruckus of cars and wind blowing on the phone’s speaker. It’s louder than inside the bar at first, but then it’s suddenly quiet again.

“Where’d you move to?”

“My car. I didn’t want other people listening to our conversation. They kept looking over my way.”

I can hear in his voice that he's at his wit’s end.

“Tell me the truth. Are you really fine with this group thing? Or do you feel the same way as Logan?”

Another pregnant pause. “Sometimes I do.”

“I see.”

I had a feeling that’d be the case. Oddly enough, I don’t feel angry about it. It’s impossible not to have those types of thoughts. Even I have them.

“I don’t feel bad about it. Just so you know,” he says.

“I don’t expect you to. But even if you feel that way –”

“I know, I know. And you know what? I’m not even pissed at Logan anymore.”

“Neither am I.”

“Then what are we going to do from here? He won’t answer any of us.”

“I don’t know.”

Saying those words out loud leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. It makes me feel like I’m between the sword and a wall. I don’t even think I felt this way when we were busting our asses to build the company.

I rub my temple, feeling a headache forming. To ease the incoming pain, I serve myself a small glass of whiskey. Just something to gather my thoughts at least.

Ryan exhales sharply. “It shouldn’t have been this complicated. But it was hard sharing her with you two. I know you said no competition or whatever, but a part of me wanted to hog her.”

“Then why did you agree to it? You could’ve said no.”

“You know why. I didn’t want to lose Jade. Just like you and Logan didn’t want to.”

I can almost laugh at how fucked up this turned out to be. The illogical side of me wants to be angry at Jade for having a chokehold on all of us. I want to insist that she’s the one who created this rift in our long friendship.

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