Page 70 of The Missus
Alanna wasn’t sure what to say. She’d been trained to agree to that if asked. Only this wasn’t the usual set of circumstances.
Luckily, Keira took the lead. ‘Why do you ask?’ she questioned, looking like she knew full well why.
‘Because I was just wondering if you’d mind if I joined you. Both,’ the woman said with a knowing smile. Alanna finally understood what was happening.
Keira laughed. ‘Yeah, we’re just having a quiet drink. Not looking to get involved in a tricycle tonight,’ Keira said casually to the woman.
‘Shame,’ the woman said. ‘OK, bye,’ she said, all interest lost as she flitted away.
‘Well, that’s a first for me,’ Alanna said.
‘What, being offered group sex?’ Keira asked, grinning.
Alanna rolled her eyes at Keira. ‘I’m sure it happens to you regularly. You probably haveménage à trois once a week.’
Keira looked horrified at the thought. ‘God,no. No thanks. Don’t do ‘em.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. I tried once, years back. Me and two hotties. Can’t remember their names.’
Alanna gave her a dry look. ‘Of course not.’
‘Let’s call them One and Two,’ Keira smiled. ‘Anyway, it was before my policy about going to other people’s houses, so it was at One’s house. When we got to the bedroom, Two saw that she had some dorky collection of… fuck, I didn’t even know what it was, some toy thing, it was too niche. I mean, I appreciate that we’re all a dork for something, but these two were dorks in a way that their general appearances hid. They looked like Kardashian wannabees, but they were both secret nerds. So, of course, when they saw that they were both into whatever the hell the thing was, well, they were pretty jazzed. They got chatting and forgot all about me. I let myself out. I don’t think they knew I’d gone.’
‘That’s kind of a romantic story. Forthem, I mean.’
‘You’re not kidding. I ran into them a few years later. Married now.’
Alanna smiled. ‘And to think, if you’d managed to be the meat in that sandwich, they might never have found their future wives.’
‘Hence the policy. Nobody wants to be the obstacle in someone else’s romantic comedy.’
Alanna snorted. ‘I guess that’s probably how Benjamin and Kelly look at both of us now. Obstacles on their path to romance.’
‘Give it time and that genre’s gonna switch. To horror.’
Alanna laughed. ‘I was trying not to say that.’
‘You don’t say that stuff because you’re a good person. I don’t tend to worry about that. So I’ll be horrible for both of us.’
Alanna gave Keira a long look. ‘I’m no better than you. I was very snarky about it all, right to their faces.’
‘Well, I guess I feel I’m more selfish than you. On the whole.’
‘You’ve done some very selfless things in the time I’ve known you. I mean, you took my mother in. And you can’tstandher.’
‘I didn’t do it for her. I did it because you asked,’ Keira said. Before Alanna could decide what to feel about such a big, bold statement of beautiful emotion—at least it was coming from the usually aloof Keira—Keira said, ‘Maybe we should risk going home now.’
‘Oh. OK. I’m gonna pee first then,’ Alanna tried not to feel disappointed as she went to use the facilities. It was only classic Keira. There one minute, gone the next.
Twenty-Eight
Keira was playing a dangerous game here. She kept finding herself tiptoeing up to the line with Alanna. She didn’t mean to. She was never gonna tell her the truth, so it didn’t matter if her stomach did backflips when Alanna looked at her with those intense, dark eyes. Keira wasn’t that person. She couldn’t love anyone beyond its physical definition.
Only, it hadn’t been that way for a while, had it? She hadn’t slept with anyone in weeks. She didn’t even have that anymore. What the hell had happened to Keira? Who had she become?
Well, she wasn’t quite ready to give herself up. She was fighting it because she didn’t like this new part of herself. The part of her that was even now waiting for Alanna to come back from the toilet and missing her company already. That part of Keira was truly sickening. But it was oddly strong. And frightening.
