Page 47 of Lucy and Her Wicked Three

"Fuckin' A," I nod.

"Yes, this is disconcerting. Was it addressed to you?"

"As opposed to Lucy?" Matty asks.

"Yeah. I mean with what her friend did, this seems kind of in line with that, does it not?"

"You think Delaney did this?" He growls.

Noah shrugs. "Who else?"

He grits his teeth, snatching the fake naked picture of himself out of Noah's hands and stuffing the box back in his bag. Unfortunately, it's a pretty close likeness. Even AI, or obviously doctored, if a picture like that started circulating online, it could hurt Matty's reputation.

We might not hide our wicked sexy time fun, but we don't advertise it either. We've never denied being into poly relationships. But no one's ever asked before. Matty has a serious job, he's the CFO of a major financial powerhouse, he's respected in his community. We also know excellent lawyers through Atrium—one of the owners, in fact—so he's never worried about his private life getting leaked and impacting his job security. He's got ammunition and discrimination fights locked and loaded.

But this is different. This is a personal defamation. Or… a trophy?

"Hey, what if what happened to Lucy wasn't about her?"

"What do you mean?" Matty asks, sitting back down on the couch, having hidden away the evidence of the fucked up gift.

"Well… we talked to Lucy tonight about what her friend said to her yesterday. She admitted to being involved. But said she didn't orchestrate it."

"Delaney is delusional. Lucy's too forgiving, too trusting."

"Yeah, yeah, I get that. But what if this isn't one of those things? I mean, Lucy said she doesn't trust Delaney… but she also didn't completely dismiss that Delaney had help with what she did to you two."

"And?" he asks brusquely.

"And," I sigh, annoyed with Mateo, "what if she was telling the truth?"

"This was Delaney. She's been a creep toward me since I met her. She stares, she hits on me, she tries to get my number, tries to get me to work with her." Matty shakes his head. "No, this has Delaney written all over it. Look, I don't want Lucy to know about that picture. I don't want to worry her."

Noah grimaces. "I don't like the idea of lying to her."

Matty snaps, "Did you forget she'smy—" The words freeze in his throat.

I laugh, "Didyouforget, Matty?"

Dejected, his shoulders drop. "It's been a while of just the two of us. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, man. It's different this time, isn't it? It's not like Vanessa, or Alana…" I list off other women we casually dated together. We spent a little time with them one on one, but mostly, our relationship consisted of group sex and the occasional dinner date. None of our previous relationships got a chance to mature to the point Matty and Lucy's did.

This is new territory for him, so I don't give him shit for almost accusing Noah of forgetting she's not his girlfriend. She'sours. Which makes me grin.

"Noah asked our girl if she'd go on dates with us tonight and she said yes. So she's officially our girlfriend, too."

I shouldn't be surprised when Matty's shoulders relax and he asks hopefully, "Really?"

Noah smiles, remembering the conversation.

"And she was sober when she agreed to this?"

I laugh, but Noah answers, "Yes, this was before she drank her weight in beer."

"She doesn't get drunk that often. Did something happen?"

"No, I think she was just processing everything. She really didn't start pounding them until she started talking aboutDelaney and her online account. And about how she thinks she lost her income by not posting."

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