I waited for Adrienne to say something, to correct her father, to tell him that this was her decision, but instead, she stayed eerily quiet and stared straight ahead, refusing to meet our eyes.
But I couldn’t stand by and stay quiet, not when something so important was on the line. I leaned in closer toward her father. “This little ‘stunt’, as you’ve called it, is three adults in a loving, consensual relationship. If you can’t handle it, that’s your problem.”
With that I stood, and Will stood to join me. My chest was heaving, and Will’s hands were curled into tight fists. We both stood there for a moment, our eyes trained on Adrienne’s father, whose steely blue eyes stared back at us, eerily calm and focused.
I tried to look at Adrienne, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. She stared down at her hands, which were folded in her lap, tears on the brink of falling from her eyes.
“Fuck this,” Will grunted, loudly pushing his chair back and marching out the front door. I followed him, ready to storm out of that house and never look back. But a small tug at my heart made me turn before I’d taken two steps.
I watched Adrienne from the doorway, waiting to see if she would leave with us, choose us over the family that clearly couldn’t accept us. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks as she leaned across the table to comfort her mother, whose face was buried in one of her maroon embroidered napkins.
When she didn’t turn to look at me, I knew she had made her decision. I followed Will to the front door and headed outside. I joined Will in the rental car and climbed inside.
“Fuck!” he roared, slamming his fist against the steering wheel.
We hadn’t even been there long enough to unload our overnight bags from the car, which in hindsight, I guess, was a good thing. It meant we didn’t have to go back inside. But then I realized that meant Adrienne’s bag was still in the trunk, too. I climbed out and unlatched it, reaching inside to retrieve her rolling suitcase, and a small purple duffle bag that still smelled like her. I carried them to the front porch and set them down before turning for the car again.
Part of me hoped Adrienne would come rushing out the door, but the other part of me knew she wouldn’t. That’s just not how life worked—not for me any way. If life had taught me anything so far, it was that love wasn’t in the cards for me.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said to Will.
He started up the car, and took off down the gravel driveway, sending up a plume of dust behind us.
With each mile down the road, the tension in my body only seemed to coil tighter. Will stayed silent beside me, and I knew he felt just as shitty.
It was an hour into the drive before he finally spoke. “I’m fucking starving.”
I shook my head, realizing that we never got to enjoy a single bite of our first ever family Thanksgiving dinner. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
He shot me a sidelong glance. “You too, man.”
“What happens now?” I asked.
Will blew out a slow breath. “Don’t know.”
A few more miles ticked past in silence before either of us spoke again. I wondered if Will was replaying the words Adrienne’s dad had spewed at us, and the way she sat there silently, refusing to look at us.
“Finn was cool,” Will said at last.
“Do you think they know he’s gay?”
He shook his head. “I don’t even think he knows. How well do you think that would go over in that household?”
“Like a lead balloon.”
“Exactly,” he murmured.
A few minutes later we pulled into the airport to buy an overpriced flight home, and into a new, uncertain future, one that didn’t include a woman we were both in love with.
Chapter Twenty-four
Adrienne
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I watched Will and Sullivan storm out of my parents’ home, feeling hurt and completely helpless.
My dad stared angrily at his plate, his jaw clenched and his hands flat on the table. I rose to comfort my mom who’d left the table and was sniffling quietly in the kitchen.
When she saw the look on my face, my mom reached her arms out to pull me in. And that’s when I totally lost it.
I fell into my mom’s arms, burying my face in her shoulder as the sobs poured out of me. It felt like I was in high school all over again, but instead of being heartbroken over some boy, this time it was so much more real—and so much worse.
“Oh, honey, it will be okay,” she said, stroking my hair like she used to when I was little.
“I don’t know if it will.” I pulled back to look at her face, hoping she would have something more comforting to say. But all she could do was look sadly right back at me and nod. My mom loved me, but she wasn’t the kind of person to lie just to make me feel better. I knew she understood the gravity of this situation, and didn’t know what to say any better than I did. The truth was, this might not be okay. It might not be something we could solve.
“I’ll try talking to your father.”
I huffed out a deep sigh, and leaned one hip against the counter as she stormed out of the kitchen.
From my spot in the kitchen, I could hear my mom’s stern, hushed voice scolding my dad, as well as his frustrated voice angrily replying. I knew she’d get him to calm him down eventually, but when it came to changing his mind? That would take a miracle.
Carrying his half-eaten plate into the kitchen, Finn shot me a worried look. “How are you holding up?”
I shook my head, knowing that if I opened my mouth to speak, I’d just break down crying again.
“Come on,” he urged, pouring me a glass of white wine, and urging me into the living room.
While my parents continued to argue, Finn ate his turkey at the table—some Thanksgiving this had turned out to be, and I took my glass of wine and curled up into a ball on the couch, distraught and exhausted. Tears continued to fall as I tried to figure out what to do next.
I knew that my dad was going to have a hard time accepting my new relationship, but I had no idea he would be so angry. Or that he’d make a scene in front of Will and Sullivan. Without my father’s approval—or even a little bit of his acceptance—I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stay in this relationship at all. Knowing my relationship made my dad so upset killed me, but the thought of walking away from these two men I’d fallen so completely in love with killed me even more. I’d been through bad breakups before, but leaving Will and Sullivan? That would be a whole new level of broken I hadn’t ever experienced.
A couple hours later, my dad still wasn’t speaking to me, and I decided I needed to get out of here. My mom had tried to convince me to just stay at home with them, but I knew I needed someone else to talk to—and to not be around my disappointed father for any longer than necessary.
I decided I would fly back home and stay the night at Dani’s.
When it was time to go, I hugged my parents and Finn goodbye, unable to ignore the grim look in my dad’s eyes as I gathered my bags and walked away.
After an uneventful flight, Dani picked me up at the airport. Once I got in the car, she leaned over to hug me over the center console.
“You okay, girl?” Her expression said it all. I looked like shit. She was right. I knew my eyes were bloodshot from all the crying, my face puffy and red.
Tears welled up in my eyes again, and I bit my lip and nodded. “I just don’t know what to do,” I said after a long pause.
She nodded somberly. “Well, the good news is I’ve got a bottle of wine at home with our name on it.”
We spent the rest of the ride to her place in relative silence. Dani vented to me a little bit about her own hectic Thanksgiving. Her mother-in-law insisted on judging every single dish Dani brought to the meal and scolded her at one point for letting the baby nap in the middle of the day. I nodded along and tried to listen and be empathetic, but my mind was still running a hundred miles an hour, trying to find a solution where I could stay with the men I loved without
losing my relationship with my parents.
When we got to Dani’s, I took a long, hot shower, hoping the steam and soap would clear my head. The shower felt amazing after a long and emotionally draining day, and after I changed into my pajamas, I was ready for some wine and girl talk.
Dani and I curled up on her couch, each tucked under our own fluffy blankets like we used to in high school. She insisted that I have something to eat, and a slice of uneaten pumpkin pie sat in my lap.
“Alright,” Dani said, settling into her spot on the couch, “tell me everything that happened.”
I took a long sip of wine and released a heavy exhale. Then I launched into my story, explaining every detail from the way my dad greeted the three of us when we walked through the door to the way Will and Sullivan stormed out after things got heated between them and my dad. Dani nodded along quietly, her eyes growing wide and worried at each twist and turn.
When I finished, she let out a low sigh. “Adrienne, I’m so sorry. That sounds about ten-thousand times worse than my Thanksgiving. Have you talked to the guys yet?”
I shook my head.
“I guess I just didn’t realize that my dad would react so strongly. I knew it would be a lot for him to process, but I thought that after all these months he would have processed it more. And at least been able to play nice at the dinner table. But I guess I was wrong.”
“Your poor mom. There’s no way she would have invited you guys if she thought that would happen. She must feel awful.”
“She was so upset. And so were Will and Sullivan before they stormed out. I’ve never seen them angry like that before. Part of me was flattered. They were ready to fight tooth and nail to defend what we have. But the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe I was wrong about this whole thing.”
Dani frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Three people in one relationship? What the hell was I thinking? There’s a reason more people don’t do it. It’s messy and complicated. There’s no way it can work.”
“But what about all their great qualities? All you’ve ever told me about them is how amazing each man is on his own—and how even more amazing they are together. Are you really willing to let that go?”
I sighed, tucking my still damp hair behind one ear. “These past couple months have been amazing, sure. But the more I think about it, the more I can’t help but wonder if it was all a fantasy, a dream.”
I paused and sucked in a deep breath. It broke my heart to say the next words, but I knew I had to get them out.
“And after how today went with my parents, I’m starting to think it might be time for me to wake up.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Sullivan
“Too Much,” Will grunted, shaking his head at the brightly colored balloon and flower arrangement I’d pulled up online.
I nodded and kept scrolling. “You’re right. I just want to make sure that whatever we do, it’s enough.”
It had been a couple days since the Thanksgiving disaster. Adrienne had texted to say she was staying at Dani’s, and Will and I had spent every second since leaving her parents’ house trying to figure out how to get her back.
“Maybe not flowers,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Too cliché. Plus, we’ve already done that.”
“It needs to be meaningful, something she can’t resist. She’s the one. I’ve known it since the moment we first met her, and I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything in my power to win back our girl.”
Will nodded. I knew he thought I was being overemotional when we first met Adrienne, but I could tell that after everything we’d been through with her, he felt the same way I did. Even if he wouldn’t say it out loud.
Finishing off the last swallow of his morning coffee, Will put his mug in the sink. He began pacing around the kitchen, something he did when he really needed to think.
I kept scrolling online, trying to find the perfect gift to show Adrienne just how much we care. It had to be something more than the usual chocolates or flowers. This wasn’t any grand gesture for any girl. This was our one chance to make sure Adrienne knew just how goddamn serious we were about her.
Suddenly, it hit me. I knew exactly what to do.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I started dialing, waving Will over to join me at the table.
He raised an eyebrow at me and shook his head. “What are you doing?”
I cocked my head to the side, sucking in air with a low hiss.
“Hope you’re ready to be diplomatic as fuck.”
***
That night Will and I prepared the house for our grand gesture to win Adrienne over for good. She’d agreed to come over and talk with us, but she made it clear that our relationship was still up in the air. It stung to hear the words come out of her mouth, but hearing her hesitancy just made me want to fight even harder.
Will and I both showered and changed into suitable date-night attire. For me, that meant dark jeans and a gray Henley. For Will, it meant jeans and his nice black t-shirt.
Even though we’d initially decided against it, we still went ahead and bought a flower arrangement for the hallway table near the front door. Twenty-four long-stem red roses, one dozen from each of the men who loved her. The roses were only part of the gesture. What we had planned would really blow her away. At least, that was our intention.
The doorbell rang a few minutes after seven, and Will and I walked together to answer it. We opened the door to find Adrienne standing there with a hesitant look on her face, her curves perfectly wrapped up in a pair of skinny jeans and a pale yellow silk top.
“You look beautiful,” I said as Will and I leaned down to kiss each of her cheeks at the same time.
“Gorgeous, as always,” Will added.
Adrienne smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. It was hard for her to be with us when she was still so torn about our relationship.
“Thanks, guys.” Her eyes widened when she saw the roses in the hall. “Are those for me?”
“The first of many surprises,” I said, ushering her through the door and shutting it behind her.
We followed her into the kitchen, where her favorite bottle of white was waiting in an ice bucket on the counter. She smiled weakly when she saw the wine, taking a glass from Will as he poured it for her.
“Guys…” she started, the look of hesitation only growing.
“There’s more,” Will cut her off and led her into the dining room.
We’d set the dining table with our best flatware, and on it, we’d tracked down all the food from our first dates. Chicken tacos from McGilley’s pub where we first met her, dumplings and spring rolls from the food truck on our first solo date, and containers of the homemade pasta from the Italian place Will took her to on their solo date. It was a lot of food—too much, probably—but hey, they didn’t call it a grand gesture for no reason. But this wasn’t the main surprise, and I couldn’t wait to tell her what it was.
Adrienne stifled a gasp when she saw the table, staring with her hand clasped over her mouth at the spread.
“Are those…?” she said, pointing at the tacos.
Will and I nodded.
“And the food truck?”
I nodded again.
“The Italian place?”
Will smiled.
“You guys…this is…way too much food.”
The three of us laughed, and I handed Adrienne a plate.
“We wanted to surprise you,” I said.
“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” Will murmured, voice hopeful.
She raised one shoulder, still appraising the table. “I could eat.”
As she began to serve herself, Will and I exchanged a look. So far, things were going well. But there was no telling if our gesture would actually work.
We all sat down and dug in, the memories of our first dates almost as delicious as the food. We chatted lightly while we ate, asking Adrienne about Dani and the baby, each of us antici
pating the verdict that was still yet to come.
Adrienne picked at her food, trying a little bit of everything, but really not giving any indication on what she was thinking.
When we finished eating, Will and I cleared the plates while Adrienne watched us from the kitchen counter. Her smile from dinner had faded, and it was clear the reality of our situation was hitting her all over again.
“This was very sweet and thoughtful of you both,” Adrienne said. “Thank you for that.”
“But?” Will stared at her, his eyes dark and concerned.
“But my parents. Thanksgiving was a disaster, and I can’t just sweep that under the rug. If being with you two means losing them, I don’t know if I can stay in this relationship.”
“You’re an adult now, sweetheart. Your parents don’t rule your decisions. And it’s clear they love you. If this is really what you want, they’ll get over it.”
Adrienne frowned. “Easy for you to say … you don’t have parents.”
Fuck. Low blow, babe.
Will and I stood silent, our faces stone. Immediately, Adrienne’s face crumpled, shock and horror washing over her face.
“I’m so sorry, that was cruel of me. I’m just so confused, I don’t know what to do. Losing you…losing my father…I feel like no matter what I choose, I lose.”
I nodded. It was time to bring out the big guns. “We called your dad.”
“You what?” she asked, voice high with surprise.
“We were able to smooth things over,” Will said.
Adrienne’s eyes widened, her whole face lighting up. “Really? What did he say? What did you say to him?”
“He’s willing to see our side,” I said, moving closer to Adrienne. “Now that he knows how much we mean to you. And what you mean to us.”
She jumped up and threw her arms around us, kissing both of our faces and hopping around excitedly. Adrienne squealed again, squeezing her arms tighter around us. “You two are amazing. I can’t believe you did that. I talked to my mom this afternoon, she didn’t say anything.”
“We asked her to let us be the ones to surprise you,” I admitted.
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