Page 28 of The Woman with the Wallet

“That will be nice. I would come, but Tyler is coming into town finally, and we all—“

“Oh, I know what you all plan on doing. Good thing I have plans. I could use not to be locked up in my room with noise-canceling headphones on for, what, six or seven hours?”

“We told him to pick up some electrolytes on the way over,” she said, already getting dreamy-eyed at having the third member of their little relationship home for a bit.

“Morning,” Nicole said, coming out of the bedroom wearing a comically oversized hoodie. “Oh, fresh coffee.” She took a deep breath as I reached for mugs for the both of us.

“Max has plans with Lil today.”

“That’s probably smart,” Nicole said with a wicked little smirk. “Though, personally, I think you would be better off spending your time with that hottie from last night. Looks like he could star in the next Scorsese movie.”

As if on fucking cue, there was a knock at the door.

Megs made her way to the door, glancing out the peephole, then unlocking the door and letting Miko into the apartment.

“Shit,” he said, wincing as he looked at me.

“That good, huh?” I asked.

The mirror had been too fogged after my shower to really get a good look at myself. But a little prodding around told me that my cheek, jaw, and at least under one eye were bruised.

The throat pain was halfway managed, thanks to the throat spray Miko had thought to pick up the night before.

“It’s not that bad,” Megs insisted.

“It is,” Miko countered.

“I’m inclined to believe Miko on this one,” I said, pouring my coffee into a travel tumbler. “Want a cup?” I asked. “Nicole has a whole collection of these things,” I told him, waving the travel mug at him.

“Listen, is it my fault that they put those damn cups right by the registers when I’ve been on line for long enough to fall in love with them?”

“Sure, I’ll take a cup,” Miko agreed, looking surprisingly comfortable in a room with three strange women.

Even Taylor, who was dating two women at once, would sometimes comment that our apartment could be ‘almost uncomfortably’ feminine.

It was then I noticed three separate hair ties and clips scattered across different surfaces. Too many blankets and squishy animal pillows on the couch to cuddle up and watch movies with. A heating pad was plugged in and draped over one of the chairs. And someone had bought a box of tampons and hadn’t brought it from the kitchen where they unloaded it to put it in the bathroom yet.

Miko was unfazed, though. But he had mentioned having sisters when I’d said I don’t like chocolate.

“Black is good,” he said when I finished filling his cup.

“Alright,” I said, putting the cap on my own coffee, then grabbing my jacket. “We’re heading out. You guys have fun. Preferably in your own room and not on all of our common furniture and surfaces,” I said, getting a shared smile between the girls.

“Do I want to know what that was about?”

“Their boyfriend is coming into town. I’m glad to be getting out of the apartment for a while.”

To that, I got a little laugh out of Miko as we moved into the elevator.

“Does it ever get awkward?”

“When I hear all three of them fucking? Yeah,” I said, sipping my coffee, suddenly wishing I’d thought to ice it.

“I meant having them all in a relationship.”

“It probably would if I was around all the time. But I work a lot.”

“What do you do?”

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