Page 101 of X's and O's
Levi shoved to his feet, the two of us facing off.
X lazily kicked out a leg, pushing his foot between me and Levi at stomach height and wagging his toes to either side, alternately poking each of us in the belly. “Separate!”
Levi and I both stared at him while his toes jabbed us in the gut.
He dropped his foot, his face turning serious. “Look. It’s clear we have a problem here. We all want Violet. True?”
“True,” Levi and I both agreed.
“We all have to work together, true?”
“True,” Levi and I said in unison again.
X grinned. “We all want Whip and Levi to kiss. True?”
I kicked X in the shin hard enough he doubled over, half laughing, half howling, to clutch his hopefully bruised leg.
“You two have no sense of humor,” he complained.
“You were right about the rest of it though. We can’t keep fighting over her,” Levi said.
X nodded. “Agreed. So I propose a friendly competition.”
I glanced at him. “It’s probably the only time I’ll ever say this, but talk more.”
“We all get three days. They don’t have to be consecutive. Three days to do nice things for her. To treat her like a princess, without interference from the others. No crashing dates. No punching anyone.” He eyed me. “No locking anyone in their house. And then bam!” He slammed his hands down on the coffee table, startling us all. “We make her choose a winner!”
He sat back and tucked his hands behind his head. “Which, of course, will be me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “We aren’t just going to have a competition with her as the prize, X. She’s not a raffle.”
Levi nodded in agreement. “Exactly. This is demeaning.”
X rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone, hit a few buttons to make a call, and put it on speaker.
Violet’s tentative, “Hello?” came down the line.
“Hey, wifey. Just wondering, if Levi, Whip, and I spend the next few days doing nice things for you, taking you places you find interesting, making you nice meals, giving you massages and foot rubs, that sorta thing, and then at the end you chose a winner, would you find that demeaning?”
She paused for a moment. “Uh, no? I mean, that sounds pretty nice actually.”
X raised an eyebrow at me and Levi triumphantly.
I rolled my eyes and made a motion with my hands that X should end the call.
So I could throttle him.
X grinned. “Also just wondering if you think Levi and Whip should kiss?”
I leaned over and pushed the red “end call” button before she could answer.
25
VIOLET
It was late by the time the Uber dropped me back at my apartment, but I wasn’t tired. I felt as if I’d downed half a dozen coffees between Whip’s place and mine.
I didn’t know what I was anticipating more. Whip’s request that I see him tonight. Or X’s phone call, asking if three men could have a competition to win me over.
