Page 89 of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Tripod

“Three x’s. I think he said he’s out of town for the long weekend, but it sounded like he may be back before Monday.”

“Awesome, thanks!” Janey slips on her flipflops and follows me out of the room. I drop the sheets by the washer to take her downstairs. “Let me know if you think of anyone else. I really need some new consistent content partners,” she groans as I open the door for her.

“Am I not enough for you?” I feign shock, hand on my chest and mouth agape.

“You’retoo muchwoman for me,” she laughs. I drop my hand and grin.

“I’ll have a think. I’ve worked with a few that I definitelywouldn’trecommend,” I add with a grimace.

“I get it. I appreciate any suggestions. See ya!”

I close the door and practically stomp up the stairs, still not completely sure why I hated suggesting Miles. It’s just work. I’m not possessive, I’m not jealous. I never have been. He’s very obviously into me. If I doubted that before, yesterday made it perfectly clear.

The memories of his skills are enough to make even me blush while I dump the sheets into the washer and add the detergent. Just as I shut the door and turn around, Natalie leaves her bedroom. Her hair is still damp from her shower as she passes me, headed to the kitchen.

“Axe throwing tomorrow?”

“Yeah, what time is the reservation?” I follow her, but I need to shower as soon as possible.

“Three, I think. I’ll double-check. That still work or will you be with one of your guys?”

“God, I hate that you just said that,” I groan.

“And I hate that you’re dating two men. We can’t always get what we want.”

“Unlessyou’regoing to take me off the market, I’m going to have some fun with this. I’m seeing Brody tonight, but Miles is out of town this weekend.”

Natalie pulls the kettle from the stove and fills it with water before returning it to a burner. She twists the dial and the open flame sparks to life with a click.

“You talk about it so casually,” she mutters, but there’s a smile on her lips when she takes a mug from the upper cabinet.

“Is it really so bad that I’m enjoying my time with them?” I don’t know how to do this. I’m a completely different person than I was when Caleb and I started dating. I don’t know what the norm is anymore. Whatmynorm is.

“No,” Natalie sighs. She turns to grab a tea bag from her little wooden box on the counter and drops it into the mug. “I just want you to be careful. Men can get jealous.”

“As if I don’t know that.”

Natalie shoots me a look, but then her expression softens.

“I’m sorry. I know you know what they can be like. We both do. I just worry about you.”

I step up next to her and put my arm around her waist, then lean my head on her shoulder. She’s a couple of inches taller than I am, so I don’t have to lean too far.

“I know, Nat. And I love you for it.”

Natalie gasps and spins out of my grasp to rush to the side wall enclosing the refrigerator. She picks the calendar up from its hook and grins at me.

“Time to change!” she exclaims, showing me the weird bird calendar. It’s full of colorful drawings of birds, very simply done, but with human-looking legs. They’re all ridiculous.

“What do we have for September?” I ask as she flips to the current month.

“Oh, look at this!” The drawing is of a yellow bird sitting with its human legs on the side of a bird bath.

“He looks sad.”

“That bird is thinking about Shakespeare.”

“Ok, but one of the sad Shakespeare plays.” I snort.

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