Page 34 of Mayhem
“Have you tried stripping it apart and looking at each, what are they called, lines separately? Is that a thing you can do?”
Cruz looked at her for a moment, and Erin wondered if what she said didn’t make any sense or if that was what someone usually did in a situation like that, and she’d suggested it like it hadn’t crossed his mind.
“Yes, I can do it, but Ihaven’t.I’m not sure why. Thank you, Maly.”
“You’re…welcome?”Cruz raised a brow at her because she’d formed it like a question. “I thought I wasn’t making sense, the way you paused.”
Cruz shook his head. “No, it’s just that I don’t usually talk work, at least the software side, with women I’m dating. It tends to bore them.”
“I’m not the other women you’ve dated,”she informed him, turning her attention to Frankie, who’d just returned with their drinks.
Erin took a sip of hers, telling Frankie it was delicious when he asked before placing it on the table. She’d been stalling in her questions, unsure if she wanted to do so now or wait until after they’d eaten. However, Erin figured the present was as good a time as any.
“So, you said the first woman you dated together was an accident. How did that happen?”
“After we slept together, we both stayed in contact with her and took her out. We knew we were doing it, and she’d told us both as well, but it didn’t bother us,”Cruz responded.
“For a while, it was just us doing things with her individually, being with her individually, but then we started going out together, which turned into sleeping together. Everything seemed to fit into place,” Paetyn added.
“How did you end up breaking up?”
“It’s tiring for any woman to deal with the sex drive of young men. So, dealing with two simultaneously got overwhelming, and people like to talk and have opinions on what others do, and she couldn’t deal with their judgment after a while,”Paetyn supplied.
“We both figured it happened, and it was done. So, we returned to what everyone considers normal dating, but it never really worked out,” Cruz told her.
Erin nodded. She could understand how other people’s opinions may have affected their first relationship. They’d all been young; sometimes, it was easier to fold under scrutiny. Erin firmly believed in people who didn’t mind their business being put in their place. She also didn’t let people’s opinions affect her because they weren’t doing anything for her, and she didn’t depend on them to live.
“Will you switch seats with me?”she asked Cruz.“I want to be able to look at you both without being between you.”
Erin switched places with Cruz, not sitting directly where he’d been but moving slightly further down on the L of the sofa to look at them both.
“Tell me something you would prefer I didn’t do,”Erin requested. Cruz lifted a brow at her as Paetyn ran his finger over the beard of his extended goatee.
Erin was reminded that she’d never been attracted to facial hair on men until she’d laid eyes on both of them. They both had an extended goatee, which they kept nicely manicured. Cruz’s wasn’t as thick as Paetyn’s, and she’d notice that the latter would allow it to grow in during the colder months and thin it out when it began to get warmer.
“So, as an example, but I mean it, I don’t want you comparing me to other women you’ve dated. I understand that it may happen mentally, but don’t tell me.”
“Apologies, Maly,”Cruz stated. “We can do that, but we need you to do the same.”
“Don’t try to play us against each other,”Paetyn stated.
Erin felt as if that was a given. You couldn’t be in a relationship like they started and think doing something like that wouldn’t hurt the foundation you were building. She couldn’t fathom someone willing to tear apart something they wanted to be a part of, someone pulling the rug from under their own feet. However, she knew it’d happened to them before because Paetyn felt it necessary to bring it up.
“I wouldn’t do that,”Erin responded.
“In any aspect, Angel.”
Erin knew what it meant to play them against one another, but she wondered if Paetyn included something else under that category. She would rather ask now than find out later, having done whatever it was.
“You mean if I ask you to do something….”Erin trailed off.
“And I say no. Don’t throw it in my face that Cruz would have done it,”Paetyn told her.
“That wouldn’t happen. There isn’t a scenario where I ask either of you for something that you tell me no. So, we don’t have to worry about that,”she said with a smile, and both men chuckled. “But let’s say I ask you for something, and you tell me you don’t have time because no is not an option, and I then ask Cruz.”
“That’s fine, Maly. We’re speaking more in terms of trying to use that as a weapon against us.”
“Idon’t need that as a weapon,”she smirked at them. “I have my own.”
