Page 41 of Just Between Us

I roll my eyes. “You know you’re enjoying it. I saw it on your bedside the other night. You’re already three-quarters through.”

He places a hand on his heart and says, “And it’s been painful.”

I laugh, that unfamiliar warmth working its way through me again. I guess outside of the sex, I do enjoy being around both of them. Maybe that does make us friends. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not.

When we get back to Levi, he’s off his laptop and in the kitchen chopping up a red bell pepper by the counter. “Decided to make dinner,” he says. Cole goes up to him and kisses him on the side of his mouth. It’s quick, clearly out of habit but it has me looking away like I’m intruding.

“Need any help?” I ask.

Levi shakes his head. “Nah, you just sit there and look pretty,” he says just as a glass of red wine is placed in front of me by Cole.

And there it is, that warmth again and I feel a little embarrassed. Was I craving some sort of male friendship this desperately all along?

As they continue making dinner, we easily fall into conversation about childhood movies until Levi looks at me carefully and asks, “Favourite Harry Potter movie, go!”

“Easy. It’s obviously the Goblet of Fire.”

“Prisoner of Azkaban,” Levi says at the same time.

He narrows his eyes behind his glasses. “I’ll give you a pass since that’s my second favourite.”

“I’ve never watched them,” Cole chimes in.

My mouth falls open because how can anyone born at least twenty years ago have missed the hype?

“How don’t I know this?” Levi asks, looking at Cole with the same look of disbelief.

Cole shrugs, leaning on the counter. “I’ve never been into movies, and I didn’t want to ruin the books for myself.”

“I can safely say this is one of the only movies that does justice to the source material,” I say.

Cole looks sceptical.

“You have to watch them,” Levi says to him. “I can’t believe we have been dating for this long and Harry Potter has never come up. If you’d said this to me sooner, we might not have made it this far.”

Cole lifts an eyebrow. “I had you gagging on my cock within the two hours of meeting me. You sure about that, Evie?”

Both embarrassment and lust flare up inside me at the same time. There’s always an underlying knowledge that I’m the third party in this, that Levi and Cole are outside of me, and they’ll exist after me. It makes me wonder how long this will last. What if they get bored of me?

Levi doesn’t miss a beat. “Wouldn’t have if I knew the truth about you.”

Cole rolls his eyes, crossing his arms.

“It only makes sense that we make him watch them, right?” Levi asks me.

“I—” I clear my throat. “I guess I haven’t watched the first one in a while.”

Levi grins. “Perfect.”

After dinner, instead of sex, we’re watching Daniel Radcliff discover he’s a wizard. Cole sits between Levi and I. Levi leans into him, his arm lazily stretched over his middle. I keep my back straight.

“Is their acting this bad in all the movies?” Cole asks.

“They were twelve. It’s cute,” I say, laughing at his genuinely perplexed expression, “But it does get better. Don’t worry.”

We go through the first movie and halfway through Chamber of Secrets, my eyes start feeling droopy. I barely got any sleep last night and I am still slightly sore from taking both of them.

I’m not sure how it happens, but when I open my eyes again, I’m sleeping on Cole’s shoulder. I briefly look up and both of them are still awake, Chamber of Secrets still on. I know I need to go home but I can’t keep my eyes open—I fall asleep again.

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