I thought I was hiding it, but apparently not well enough, because one of the servers came up to me a little bit later. “You okay, boss?” Brandi asked.

“I’m fine, why?”

She gave me a pitying look. “Something’s bother you. I can tell. Want to talk about it?”

Ididwant to talk about it, but definitely not with someone who worked for me. Word would spread and everyone would gossip about the slutty boss who was sleeping with two-thirds of her neighbors.

“I’m fine,” I said. Then, to sell it, I added, “It’s my grandma. She’s been in the hospital.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Brandi came around the desk and gave me a hug, even though I was sitting down. “It’ll be okay. I’ll pray for her.”

I stared as Brandi went back to work. That was incredibly sweet of her. And it made me feel like an asshole for lying.

My brain was going to vibrate out of my skull if I didn’t talk to someone though, so I texted Cat.

Me: Hey, are you back from your overnight conference?

Cat: I’m on the Metro right now. I’ll be home in half an hour. Why?

Me: I have an emergency relationship situation.

Cat: Say less. I’m in. Lunch at Bruno’s Cafe?

Me: I can’t step away today. Can you meet me here at Top Golf? I’ll buy you anything you want off the lunch menu here.

Cat: Sold.

There was a room for private events attached to the restaurant at work, and that’s where I led Cat once she arrived. “I want the southwest chicken salad,” she said while I closed the doors. “And since this is an emergency friend request, I’ll take one of them to go. I’ll eat it for dinner tonight.”

“Whatever you want,” I said, punching the order into the computer by the door.

Cat slinked into one of the chairs. “I expected you to push back on that. This must be serious. Did you sleep with Bash?”

“First of all, yes,” I said.

She let out a squeal. “I knew it! Victory sex after destroying that jerk-face couple at Pickleball. I love it. I wish my hookups were that fun. I’m guessing things are all weird now because of it?”

“Things are absolutely weird, but not because of that,” I replied. “Hold onto your seat, because this is a doozy.”

As I caught Cat up to speed, her jaw opened wider and wider. By the end, her eyes were the size of golf balls.

“You okay?” I asked. “I put us in this room because the walls are thick, and I expected you to start shrieking at the top of your lungs.”

“I’m stunned,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to say.”

“See?” I pointed at her. “That reaction worries me more than if you were jumping up and down and throwing chairs around. I’ve never seen you stunned tosilence.”

“It’s because I’m thinking. Things just gotserious.”

“They weren’t already serious?”

“Of course not. Before, you were having casual fun. But polyamory…”

“You know what that is? I had to look it up.”

“Of course I do. As an enlightened bisexual, I know pretty much everything. And polyamory is queer-adjacent, in the sense that it’s not really accepted by a lot of people.”

“Okay, so what am I supposed to do?”