Probably. “Why is all of us dating crazy? We’ve basically been doing just that for over a month.”
“We have not been dating. We’ve just been hanging out…as friends,” Wild argued.
“Is that really how you both view me? As just your friend?” Jaz looked at them both seriously. This was the make-or-break moment. Because while she knew she was insanely attracted to them, she wasn’t positive they felt the same.
“Isn’t that what you are?” Mad asked.
“Yeah, I guess. But is that all you want me to be?”
Mad held her gaze but didn’t answer. He looked over at Wild, and the two men stared at one another as if they were having a silent conversation before they both looked at her again.
Mad’s shoulders slumped, as if he were resigned in whatever he was about to say. “I’d like it to be more,” he said, though he sounded like admitting it out loud had been tough for him.
Wild rubbed a hand over the back of his head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say the truth,” she encouraged.
Sparing another look at Mad, who nodded at him, Wild dropped his hands and said, “I’m definitely attracted to you. But it’s weird for me to say I would want to pursue more now that I know Mad wants to.”
“Why is it weird?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t want to…I mean…I don’t want to, like, steal you from him.”
Mad snorted. “Think pretty highly of yourself, huh, buddy?”
“Fuck,” Wild groaned as he ran his hands over his face. “I knew this was going to come out all fucked up. I just mean I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to choose.”
“I don’t want that either,” Jaz was quick to interject. “That’s why I suggested we all date. The three of us.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Wild turned to Mad. “I love ya, man, but there’s no fucking way I’m dating you.”
“Back at ya,” Mad said.
“You guys hang out more than any couple I’ve ever known. Why is this such an off-putting concept?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because neither of us is gay.” Mad banged his water bottle down on the counter and stalked toward the coffee machine. The anger was radiating off him in waves, and Jaz began feeling all of the confidence she’d infused into herself this morning begin to wane.
“I didn’t say you were,” she replied, her voice quiet.
Maddox grabbed his coffee mug and took a large sip. “Sure sounded like it.”
Jaz took a deep breath. “I don’t think you guys are sexually attracted to one another. But I do think you’re emotionally connected enough to be able to handle something like I’m suggesting.”
Wild laughed, but there was no humor in it. “What does that even mean?”
Letting her arms rise and fall back at her sides in frustration, Jaz tried to think of the best way to phrase it herself. “You two know one another inside and out. You’re best friends, but you’re more than that too.”
Maddox opened his mouth to reply, but she held up a hand to stop him.
“I’m not saying you’re into one another romantically or anything like that. But you understand each other on a level most people who are in a relationship never experience. And I think that could make us all perfectly suited to get what we all want.”
“And what is it,” Wild began, “that you think we want?”
Jaz couldn’t help the tears that began to prickle her eyes, though she wasn’t sure why. “Me,” she replied. “And I want you, both of you, if that wasn’t clear.” She looked at them, saw them shutting down, and became desperate, frantic, to stop it. “This can work. If anyone can figure it out, we can. Nothing much would even change between us, except we’d get more nights like last night. It could be great.”
She moved her eyes between them, knowing what they were going to say before either of them opened their mouth. “It can work,” she said again, her voice small.
Both men looked at her, but it was Maddox who spoke. “No,” he said. “It can’t.”
Maddox couldn’t believe how fucked up this morning had gotten. He’d known it was probably going be awkward as hell and would take a few days for them to decide the best course of action was to pretend it never happened and pick up with their friendship. Clearly, Wild had been on board with that plan, but then Jaz had burst in and messed everything up.
Watching her struggle not to crumble as his words hit home was hard. Really fucking hard, and Mad almost wanted to take them back, but he knew he couldn’t. He wasn’t even sure what her proposition would entail, but he knew enough to be sure it wouldn’t work for him. He couldn’t date Wild. And he couldn’t date a woman who was also dating his best friend. It was…weird.
“I could never date this guy,” Wild said, the joke in his voice clear.
Mad appreciated that he was trying to get them back to a better place, even if Maddox thought it was useless.
“Totally not my type.” Wild winked at Jaz, but the gesture fell flat.
“I’m not… I’m not…” Jaz cleared her throat. “I’m not saying you should date each other. I’m saying you could both date me, and we could just spend time all together. As a unit. Just like we’ve been doing since we met.”
“And we’d…what? Share you?” Mad asked, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. “Draw straws on who gets to sleep with you at night? What you’re asking…it could never work.”
“But it does work. People do make it—”
“Not me,” Mad interrupted. “I’m sorry, Jaz. But I’m just not that guy.”
Wild remained silent, and Mad would’ve given anything to know what he was thinking. He had to agree. Didn’t he? But then why the hell wasn’t he backing Mad up? Why was he letting Maddox look like the bad guy?
Jaz quickly swiped at her cheek before squaring her shoulders. “Okay. It was worth a shot, right?” she said with a smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.
It made Mad’s chest constrict.
“I’ll, um… I’ll see you guys at work.”
“Wait, Jaz, you don’t have to—” Wild started.
“No, I do.” She flashed them both another small smile for their benefit, not hers, before making her way out of the kitchen. They heard the front door close a few seconds later.
Wild let out a deep breath and bent over the counter. “That…could have gone better.”
Could it have? Maddox wasn’t sure. Short of her never bringing any of it up to begin with, Mad wasn’t sure how that discussion could’ve gone any differently. Maddox took a sip of his coffee and mirrored Wild’s stance. “Would’ve been nice if you’d had my back in all that…”
Wild’s head shot up. “What the hell do you mean? I had your back.” His tone was steeled with defensiveness, which made the hair on the back of Mad’s neck stand up.
Mad wasn’t a fan of conflict—not anymore—and he especially hated it with Wild. It had his gut clenching and his heart pounding. But he couldn’t back down from it either. His frustration over the whole ordeal was beginning to feel like a runaway train, and the only way to stop it was to crash into something else or let himself derail completely. “Bullshit,” Mad bit out. “You let me do all the heavy lifting in that conversation.”
“I said I wasn’t interested. What more was I supposed to say?”
“You said you weren’t interested in dating me, but you weren’t so quick to say no to what she was suggesting.”
“Isn’t that what she was suggesting?” Wild was standing straight up now, his hands on his hips.
“Stop playing dumb, Wilder. I’m not in the fucking mood.”
Wild barked out a laugh, but it was incredulous and hard instead of the usual mirth it typically had. “Are you fucking serious right now? Who is in the fucking mood for this shit? Not me, that much I can tell you.” Wild was breathing hard and glaring daggers at Mad. “You know, you can blame me for the clusterfuck this turned into all you want, but that
doesn’t erase your part in things.”
“No shit it doesn’t erase my part in it. I’m the one who made her run out of here.”
Wild shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about. Being a dickhead today won’t erase that you made out with Jaz last night. And it doesn’t erase the fact that you got off on watching me make out with her too.”
“I was drunk,” Mad said, the words sounding unconvincing even to his own ears.
Wild’s eyes flashed with something that looked damned close to disappointment. “You may be able to lie to a lot of people and get away with it, Mad. Even yourself.” He moved to the threshold of the kitchen. “But not me. And you damn well know it.” With that, Wild left Maddox standing alone, wondering how everything went to hell so fast.
Chapter Twelve
The next few days were predictable in their awkwardness, but Wild couldn’t blame only Maddox for it. He was just as much at fault as Mad was. Wild had always prided himself on being a fun-loving guy, the dude who was up for whatever, whenever. But that openness seemed to end with sharing a girl with his best friend. He could definitely see how someone could be attracted to multiple people at once, but the idea of exploring that option openly had never crossed his mind before Jasmine had brought it up. And there was no way he could make a move without Mad being comfortable with the idea.
Plus, Wilder felt uncomfortable too, but that was mainly because he didn’t know how he should feel. He hadn’t given it much thought—hadn’t had time to—before Maddox made his disgust with the situation clear. And if Wild had tried to convince him otherwise, it would’ve seemed like he was siding with Jaz. That was definitely not the way to get things back to normal.
So the past few days had consisted of the three of them keeping their relationship professional for the most part. They stayed in their respective lanes, with Maddox and Wilder managing the gym and training clients and Jasmine teaching some of the new classes, which meant that for much of the day, Jaz wasn’t even in the main part of the building.
Wild popped over a few times a day to see how things were going, talking to some of the new members, who all seemed pleased with the class offerings and instructors.
He’d talked to Jaz too, but their interactions had been short and businesslike for the most part. By the third day, Wild couldn’t take it.
“You wanna grab something to eat at that new place down the street?” he asked, hopeful that she’d been waiting for an olive branch and would eagerly grab it.
“I have some things to get done around here, but thanks for the offer.”
“Of course,” he said. “What things, though? Your next class isn’t until three thirty.”
“Just some social media posts and pictures and stuff. Trying to get the word out about the yoga classes since they haven’t been as filled as I’d hoped by now. I’m not sure people see this place as a yoga studio, so I’m working on ways to expand the gym’s branding so it fits with the new classes.” Jasmine looked up from the laptop she’d been working on, and he could sense her frustration, though he wasn’t sure if it was due to the entire situation or the fact that he’d put her on the spot by asking her to lunch. He felt a pang of guilt at the thought that he might have added to what was already an awkward work environment for her.
Wild nodded as if he understood, but he didn’t. Not really. This was Jasmine’s chance to move things toward how they’d been before, and she wasn’t taking it. “You sure you can’t take a forty-five-minute break?” He plopped himself down across from her at the small table where she was working and raised an eyebrow at her. “I’ll eat carbs if you go with me,” he whined playfully.
“I really can’t.”
“Fine. I’ll add in dessert, but that’s my final offer.”
“Wilder, please.”
“Please what, Jaz?” He threw his arms out to the side. “It’s not a fucking date or anything. It’s just lunch. We’re friends, remember?” He hadn’t expected the rejection to cause such a visceral reaction in him, but he probably should have. Wild felt more than he thought; he always had. And much of the time, his responses were a direct result of that with little time spent filtering his words or emotions.
“I can’t be friends with you after what happened.”
“Why the hell not? This shit is stupid. We had so much fun together.”
Jasmine let out a sigh, and for a moment, he thought he’d won. Not that this was an argument he wanted to win necessarily. Because for him to win, Jasmine had to lose. And the thought of her losing something else made his heart ache. He just wanted the end result to be that they could start hanging out again, and whatever means it took to get to that end would have to be worth it.
“I know we had fun together. But do you really think you and I could go somewhere together and not feel something more? That attraction won’t go away, Wild. At least it won’t for me. It’ll just be too awkward.”
Wild knew that was true for him too. Even after what happened last weekend, he still fantasized about her, imagined what it would be like to take things further than they had on the dance floor. There was little chance he could suppress that curiosity permanently. He’d always wonder what it would be like to have her. “Yeah,” he said, his voice surprisingly sad. “Me either.”
“So why do that to ourselves, then?” she asked. “Why torture ourselves just to have a friendship when we obviously want more than that?”
It was a valid question. And one that Wild didn’t have the slightest idea how to answer.
Closing his eyes, Maddox adjusted his headphones and leaned back on the chair. Not a cloud in the sky, it was one of the most beautiful days of the entire summer. And there was no better place to spend it than alone at the pool. He’d only been there a little over an hour, and he already felt more relaxed. Nothing felt like summer more than Zac Brown Band and the heat of the sun’s rays on his already tan skin. There was no doubt he could use the time away from the gym. The stress of trying to gain new members and paying for the renovation had him up almost nightly.
He told himself it would take time to get clients interested in the new class offerings, but once they did, he hoped word of mouth would take care of the rest. Wild had assured him that the addition would be an investment that would pay off in the long run. He just wished he knew how long that run was. They weren’t even bringing in enough additional money to justify hiring the two new trainers.
And with that thought came one he’d been desperately trying to force out of his mind: Jasmine. He’d tried to be friendly—maybe overly so now that he thought about it—but none of his kind gestures seemed to do anything to dissolve the tension between them. He’d stopped on the way to work to get her a coffee the other day, and since he thought it would look strange to only bring one for her, he’d gotten one for Wild too. Then when he remembered that there were two other trainers who had early PT clients, he’d grabbed coffees for them as well.
“What’s the occasion?” Wild asked when he saw Mad struggling with the door while bringing in six coffees.
“Thanks for the help, asshole,” Maddox joked once he finally made it inside without any third-degree burns.
“It was fun watching you. Sorry,” Wild said with a laugh. “Seriously, though. Why are you bringing everyone coffee?”
“I’m just in a good mood,” Mad lied.
Wild looked skeptical, causing Maddox to remember Wild’s words about knowing when Mad was lying, which made him feel like shit. “Okay, so I’m trying to get into a good mood, and I thought cheering other people up might be a good first step.”
Not that Maddox knew how to get into a good mood, since he was a stressed, uptight asshole on a good day—something Wild had always had difficulty relating to even though he understood why Mad was the way he was. He doubted things that Wild had complete faith in—like the gym gaining revenue after the renovation or the rugby team they played for winning the championship—and Mad was the one who was correct more times t
han not. But what he wanted more than being right was for things not to be so weird between him and his best friend, so he gave Wild a smile that was genuine in its affection for the man who meant the world to him. Though he knew chances were better that both Jasmine and Wild recognized his random acts of kindness for what they really were.
“Well, thanks,” Wild said, returning the smile.
It seemed neither of them had any more words to keep the moment going, which depressed Mad more than he’d ever let show. It frustrated him that he couldn’t fix things between them. Between all of them.
Frustrated that he’d allowed the drama to invade his pool day, he pulled his headphones out and stood to put them under his towel with his phone. A swim would definitely help take his mind off things.
Jasmine had noticed Maddox almost as soon as she’d arrived at the pool. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see him there, since he’d been the one to tell her about it in the first place, but she kind of was. From what she could tell, he hadn’t seen her yet. Of course, she didn’t think he would’ve been in any hurry to say hello even if he had. He’d been acting crazy ever since their little talk in the guys’ apartment last weekend. And by crazy she meant ignoring her and then becoming overly nice. He smiled at people for the hell of it, and he’d even offered to help one of the other trainers clean up the equipment he’d used with one of his personal training clients. It was freakin’ weird, and she didn’t know how much more she could take of it.
Which was why as soon as Maddox finished swimming the million laps he was doing, she planned to talk to him. She needed to make this right, needed to have things as close to back to normal as they could get. They could be attracted to each other and still be friends. Sure, she’d told Wild the opposite, but it wasn’t the truth. After she’d had a couple days to think about it, she realized that even though it would certainly be tough to hang out with the two sexy men, it wasn’t impossible. People did that all the time. And having a platonic relationship with Mad and Wild definitely beat not having a relationship with them at all.
Misadventures in a Threesome Page 8
