“Sounds good to me,” Noah adds.
“Looking forward to it,” Evan says.
“Good,” Hale murmurs. “It’s a date.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lila
When Friday night arrives, there’s an Uber Black waiting for me outside my building, courtesy of Hale.
“Hargrove?” asks the driver when I open the back door.
“Yes. Thank you.”
I’m relieved to discover that he’s not a chatty chauffeur. It leaves me to fidget nervously in peace as I’m charioted about twenty blocks south toward Hale’s apartment.
Where three men are waiting for me.
“You’re about to have the best night of your life,” Lou had cackled earlier.
“It’s just dinner,” I’d tried to insist. “And a mature discussion between adults about the future of their relationship.”
Lou had quirked an eyebrow at me. I’d blushed. Gina had done her best to repress a giggle.
Regardless, I took an everything shower. I’m also wearing my prettiest lingerie and my most expensive perfume.
When I’d expressed to Lou that the mechanics of sleeping with two men at once was complicated enough—she had gasped and giggled in equal measure when I described the Eiffel Tower situation—and that I was completely out of my wits when it came tothreemen, she’d suggested I watch someeducationalvideos online.
Rather scandalously, she had even sent me a few suggestions.
I won’t lie and say I didn’t watch them.
I don’t think I’m quite ready to attempt the impressive feats that I witnessed those professionals engaging in, though. Not tonight. But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to explore every possibility further down the road.
When the driver pulls up in front of a classic brick building, pre-war just like mine, I step out onto the sidewalk on shaky legs. I’m wearing patent heels and a flouncy dress, and a vintage velvet coat with a cropped hem to ward off the autumnal bite in the air.
I nearly trip up the steps of Hale’s stoop, and I’m so off-kilter that I almost press the button for his neighbor’s apartment instead of his.
The door makes a dull buzzing sound, signaling that he’s let me in from upstairs. Part of me wishes he’d met me at the door, or perhaps even drove me here himself.
It’s not that I’m a flight risk, or that my anxiety is anything close to actual panic. But I am definitely debating whether I’m out to pee or puke from fluttery nervousness as I climb to the third floor.
Which is incredibly charming of me, of course.
I approach the door at the end of the hall. I’ve never been here before. I’ve only been to Evan’s place, and that was purely by happenstance.
Pausing before the door, I find myself having a last-minute concern.
If they’reallgoing to be my boyfriend, and things progress into more serious territory, what’s going to happen when it comes time for the conversation about living together? Will I choose one to move in with? Will we all hunt for an apartment together? What about little Leo? And of course the men will all have their separate bedrooms, but what about me?
Shaking my head, I take a deep breath and remind myself that these are the kinds of questions we’ll answer in time. It’s in mynature to strategize everything half to death, but this might be one of those times in my life where I have to learn how to go with the flow.
Lifting my trembling hand, I knock twice on Hale’s door.
Footsteps shuffle nearby, as if he’d been waiting by the door.
It swings open, revealing Hale dressed in nice black jeans and a gray collared shirt.
