Josh: Because you can’t stop thinking about us? ; )
Me: You wish.
Reed: Yes, we do wish because that would mean we’re one step closer to you giving in to our plan.
Me: Mighty confident to assume that I’ll eventually give in.
Josh: We have every reason to be confident. You cannot resist us.
I scoffed and took another sip of my coffee. Their egos were overinflated, and the last thing I wanted to do was exacerbate the problem.
Me: I did it for a year and a half. Wasn’t too hard.
Reed: That argument doesn’t work. We have two very recent examples of when you couldn’t resist either of us.
Me: That was the exception not the rule.
Josh: Should we come over and prove it to you?
I started typing a response at least five different times before I gave up and set my phone down. I’d been thinking for more than two days, yet I still didn’t know what to do. I knew what I wanted to do, but what Ishoulddo was another issue.
I’d never had a hard time separating sex and feelings before or with anyone else. But with the two of them, they were completely intertwined. Although we were supposed to be a one-night stand, it was one night that had continued to follow me.
For nearly a year and a half, I’d tried so hard to forget. The effort I went through to erase it from my memory, or at least lock it away in an impenetrable box, was impressive. But it was useless. The more I tried to forget about it, the more I thought about it. And something told me there was a reason I couldn’t let it go. Deciding between the two of them, or letting them both go, was something I knew I’d have to face if I wanted to explore anything with them. And it was something that didn’t have to be decided in that moment while I stared into my quickly cooling coffee.
I picked up my phone.
Me: That’s not necessary.
Reed: Worried you weren’t going to respond.
Josh: Still thinkin’ about us? ; )
Reed: Stop smiling at your phone like an idiot, Sunshine.
Me: Are y’all together?
Josh: We’re mid-workout.
Reed: What are you thinking?
Reed doesn’t have to include my name in the message to know he’s asking me.
Me: That I should be institutionalized because I think I’ve gone crazy.
Reed: Are you saying...?
Josh: No. Fucking. Way.
I took a deep breath and tried to talk myself out of what I was about to do, but it was no use. All of the arguments I could muster were nothing compared to how much I wanted to try.
Reed: I’m not trying to rush you, but I’m trying to rush you. Josh is bouncing up and down like an idiot and I need you to make it stop.
Me: Plan the dates.
I held my breath and waited for their responses, but several seconds went by without any texts and I began to worry that maybe in the two seconds it took me to respond, they’d changed their minds. That would be just my luck.
Reed: That backfired. Now he’s really jumping up and down. And whooping.