Page 82 of Shared By my Ex's Best Friends
Ethan finally speaks, “It’s working now, but that won’t last if we don’t give her something solid to hold on to. This is new territory and Maya doesn’t like it when she doesn’t know the layout of things. She needs more than words.”
I tip my chair back and let it balance dangerously on the back legs. “Yeah, but what does that even look like? A ring? Three rings? A shared Google calendar and a therapist on retainer?”
Still nothing.
I sigh and let the chair thud back to the ground. “Okay, wow. No one even cracked a smile? Harsh.”
Liam drags a hand through his hair, frustration etching new lines into his forehead.
“She’s scared,” he says, quieter now. “I see it in her face. She keeps waiting for this to fall apart.”
My chest tightens. “Can you blame her? We’re writing our own rules here.”
Ethan taps his finger against the wood, steady, rhythmic. Thinking. “So maybe we make it more official. More permanent.”
I look at him. “You got a plan?”
He shakes his head slowly. “Not exactly, but I’ve been thinking—we’ve been rotating nights, going on dates, staying over at her place… it’s starting to feel like borrowed time.”
Liam nods, slow and solemn. “Because itisborrowed time. She’s doing all the work—hosting us, balancing us, carrying the weight of all our needs while pretending she’s fine.”
That one lands hard.
I sit up straighter, planting both feet on the ground. “So what if we do something big? Something real. Something she cansee.”
Ethan lifts a brow. “Like?”
I glance between them, and the idea comes out before I have time to second-guess it. “We get a place.”
Liam’s brow furrows. “A place?”
“Together. The three of us. For her.”
The room goes still.
Not the kind of still that means resistance. The kind that means attention. Focus. Like everyone’s brain just clicked into gear at the same time.
Ethan leans back, thoughtful. “You mean… live together?”
“Yeah,” I say, a slow heat curling through me. “Why not? We’re already basically doing it half the week. Rotating nights, waking up in the same bed, eating in her kitchen like it’s ours. What’s stopping us from making it official? Somewhere she doesn’t have to wonder who’s staying over or where she fits. She just… belongs. We’ve already decided we’re all in, right.”
Liam exhales like he’s been holding it in since we started. “That’s a big step so soon.”
“No bigger than the one she takes every time she chooses us,” I say, and my voice cracks a little from the weight behind it. “She lets us love her and she never asks for more than we can give. But I think…” I press my thumb into the wood grain. “I think she’s starting to wonder how long that’s going to be enough.”
Ethan folds his arms across his chest, nodding slowly. “A house. Something with enough space. Neutral ground. Ours.”
“For her,” Liam adds, softer now.
I grin. “For all of us.”
And Iseeit.
A house with a porch light that stays on until all of us are home. Maya’s favorite mugs in the cabinet next to Ethan’s precise rows of tea. Liam’s free weights stashed in the garage beside my pile of half-finished DIY furniture.
A shared space. A real life.
“She’s not going to ask for this,” Liam says after a pause, voice quiet. “You know that, right? Even if she wants it.”
