Page 74 of The Plus One
“What the fuck happened?” he said, waving his hand toward the front yard.
All was silent, and he eventually looked around, his face morphing into confusion and worry. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Who died?”
Indira panicked a teeny-tiny bit.
“Jeremy walked in on us naked!” she yelled.
Each word dropped like a metric ton of concrete into the room before everything went silent.
Like… disturbingly silent.
Indira had watched a few documentaries about black holes, and her statement seemed to have a similar effect. All the air was sucked out of the room, sound and energy collapsing in on itself, Collin’s gaping mouth the center of the pull.
Eventually, Collin blinked, closing his mouth and swallowing. “Excuse me?” he whispered.
“Naked,” Indira repeated, as if it made anything even remotely better.
“But you… you two hate each other,” he said, eyes bouncing between Jude and Indira. Jude took a step forward, arm outstretched like he was approaching a dangerous predator.
“Turns out we rather like each other,” Indira said. “Believe me, I was stunned too.”
Jude shot her a glare over his shoulder, and Indira tried her best to look placating.
“I… I’m having trouble thinking?” Collin said, looking around desperately until his eyes landed on Jeremy. “What the fuck is happening?”
Jeremy zipped to his side. “The apocalypse is upon us, it seems,” Jeremy said, giving Collin a kiss on the cheek, and resting a hand on his back.
“This isn’t just a random, one-off hookup.”
It took Indira a moment to process that Jude was the one who spoke, and her eyes bulged at his admission. He glanced at her and blushed, then moved to hold her hand.
Collin looked like he was about to have a conniption. “But you… you’re leaving after the wedding.”
Jude nodded slowly.
“And you… you just got out of a relationship,” he said, pointing at Indira. She shrugged. “And you’re mylittle sister.”
“Okay, turned a bit patriarchal there at the end, but keep going,” Indira said, waving her hand encouragingly. “This verbal processing is good.”
“I… How in the hell is this supposed to work? What evenisthis?” Collin rubbed his hand across his chest.
“We…” Indira fumbled for words because, truly, what were they? Fake dating was pretty damn far from what she actually wanted with Jude, but they also had so much to figure out.
“We’re together.” Although his face was tight with tension, Jude’s words were calm. Steady. Sure.
Together.
She liked that.
They weren’t perfect or fully figured out, but they were in it together. And that was all that really mattered.
Jeremy beamed, but Collin’s expression was still a mess, his eyes wide and forehead lined with deep grooves as his gaze shifted between them.
“I… Don’t hurt each other!” Collin blurted out, clutching Jeremy’s hand.
Indira blinked in surprise. “What?”
“Don’t hurt each other,” Collin repeated, taking a step toward them, Jeremy in tow. “You two… you are my two favorite people. And I, uh, I don’t want to see either of you hurt. And I can’t lose one of you either.”
