Page 63 of A Mutually Beneficial Proposal

“How about the three of us go do something fun this weekend? You don’t have to go back to work until Monday, right?” Kenzie asks.

“Yeah, and as much as I love both of you, I’m going to do some things on my own,” I reply.

Kenzie waggles her brows. “Alone alone? Or alone with you and B.O.B.?”

I lightly shove her back with a laugh. “Thanks to you, I’m missing a B.O.B. from my collection.”

She straightens her shoulders and stands tall. “Oh, how I wish I’d been there. I was going to wait in the airport, but I thought you’d find that too suspicious if we didn’t just drop you off. Tell me, was the TSA agent at least hot?”

“I hate you so much right now,” I grumble while fighting off a smile.

Kenzie winks. “There’s a fine line between love and hate, my gorgeous friend.”

She’s right, and I couldn’t hate her even if I wanted to. Not her or Piper. They’re my people. My forever friends. My sisters from other misters. The only two people in this world I know I can count on, which is why I need to kick them out of my house.

I grab each of their hands and smile. “I’m so thankful for both of you, but you need to leave.”

Piper squeezes my hand back and smiles knowingly. Kenzie scoffs and glares. “Why the hell do we need to do that?”

“Ella has some things she needs to do,” Piper answers for me.

Kenzie backs out of reach from Piper’s outstretched hand. “Like what?”

I look each of them in the eye. “Like figuring out how to love myself as much as I love the two of you.”

“Fuck,” Kenzie mutters, and her eyes brim with unshed tears. She grabs on to my shoulders, meeting my gaze. “You are a fucking goddess. You are perfect in every way. Your smile lights up a dark room. Your heart is depthless and too good for this world. You are sexy as fuck, and your ass is to die for. Seriously, those cheeks are like chef’s kiss. I believe in everything that you are, and I can’t wait for you to see yourself the way we do. I’m so damn proud of you for taking this first step and doing this on your own.”

I can’t hold back my tears while I listen to Kenzie’s speech. I wrap my arms around her, and Piper joins in. We’re a tangled mess of tears, laughter, and hugs, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you two,” I murmur.

“You’d be really bored,” Piper says.

I laugh and wipe my cheeks. “Truth.”

“Alright, we’re going to go, but Monday night there will be dinner with the three of us, so you can tell us how your weekend of solitude goes,” Kenzie says.

“Absolutely. I love you both,” I reply, wiping my cheeks dry.

Piper gives me another hug. “We love you, too. More than all the stars in the sky.”

“More than all the dicks on Earth,” Kenzie corrects, making all three of us laugh again.

I nudge both of them toward my front door. “Okay, enough. I need to shower and sleep and finalize my plans for the weekend.”

“You’ve got this, El,” Piper says before they leave, and I believe her.

My self-love might have been damaged from the relationships of my past, but I’m not broken. I can sense who I’m supposed to be buried deep beneath all the garbage. It’s just going to take time to unburden myself from the shit I let other people make me believe was my problem.

It’s time to be Ella Danes the way I have always wanted to be and forget about the version I think other people expect of me.

---