Page 85 of Neighbors With Benefits

“Beer or wine?” she asked. “I’ve already made a dent in this bottle of red, but I have a white in the fridge, if you’d rather have that.”

“Whatever you’re drinking sounds good to me,” I said, admiring the way she looked. She was wearing a flowing peasant dress, and a tight-fitting top that was open in the back, revealing her lean shoulder blades. There was no doubt about it, now: she intended forsomethingto happen tonight.

Bash flared his eyes at me quickly, then said, “I’ll take a beer.”

Jazz got his beer first, then retrieved a glass for my wine. “Looks like I put a bigger dent into this than I thought,” she said, dribbling the remains into my glass. “Good thing I have two bottles!”

She’d already drank an entire bottle of red by herself? She was nervous. Not that I blamed her. I was nervous, and I’d done this before.

Ifthiswas what I thought it was.

“I brought Candyland, in case that’s what you wanted to play,” Bash said, waving the box.

“I brought the usual, plus chips.” I placed them on the kitchen table.

“Good, I’m starving!” Jazz tore open the bag and began munching. She was definitely a little more hyper than I was used to seeing her.

We sat down and started a game of Candyland. It was awkward. There was an elephant in the room, abigone, and none of us wanted to acknowledge it. Bash drank his first beer quickly, so I did the same with my wine to grease the wheels, so to speak.

When I was properly lubricated by the alcohol, I said, “Sorry for keeping the truth from you for so long. You have no idea how embarrassed I was about texting the wrong person.”

“He’s not joking,” Bash added. “He was so embarrassed that he hid it from me for a while. And he usually tells me everything.”

“I’m not mad anymore,” Jazz admitted. “I get it. If I had sent a text likethatto the wrong person, I would lock my doors and never leave my house again.” She laughed a little too hard. She was definitely buzzed, bordering on drunk. “There’s one thing I want to know, though.”

I met her intense gaze from across the table. “What’s that?”

A glimmer of mischief sparkled in her eyes before she asked, “Who did youmeanto text?”

“There was a woman who was interested in… our situation,” I explained. “We met on a polyamory dating site. She seemed interested. I was expecting to hear from her the evening after your housewarming party. So when I got a message from an unknown number, claiming they wanted to take me up on my offer, I replied without thinking.”

“That has to be the worst timing in the world!” Jazz said, eyes jumping back and forth between me and Bash. “I was going to ask you for dishwasher detergent!”

“Yeah, you mentioned that.” I chuckled nervously.

“So what happened to this other woman? Did she eventually contact you?”

“She turned us down,” Bash explained.

“Ah. Too bad. I guess her loss is my gain!” Jazz giggled.

“You seem a lot more… comfortable with all of this than I expected,” I said.

“I spent the past twenty-four hours doing nothing but thinking about it,” Jazz said. “My friend, Cat, also helped put things in perspective about the whole situation.”

“Cat’s an enlightened bisexual,” Bash told me.

“I think I remember her from the housewarming party,” I said.

“Yes! That’s her. She told me that I was extremely lucky, and that if I didn’t agree to this whole thing, she would take my place.” Jazz turned and jabbed a finger at Bash. “No. Don’t even think about it. Cat can’t have you two.”

Bash held up his palms. “I wouldn’t even consider it.”

“Good answer,” she said.

I looked around the room. “Did you paint this room?”

“YES!” Jazz exclaimed, pouring more wine from the new bottle. “Bash helped. At the time I thought he was areallyfriendly neighbor, but now I know he was just trying to get into my pants.”

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