He unfurled his wings and soared over my head and up the stairs, disappearing into the shadows.
“Croak,” he called down, his voice tinged with sadness.
“That wasn’t what I meant.” Tears pricked my eyes. I turned away and gathered my things, my heart racing. As I flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED and shut the bookshop door behind me, my stomach squirmed. Morrie’s challenge might entertain him; it might be exactly what the guys wanted, but I wasn’t sure I had the emotional fortitude to deal with all three of them and their issues.
Chapter Seven
“I’m surprised you’ve even out with me now that Morrie’s at the flat all the time,” Jo mused.
I sipped my drink. A week ago, I’d broken down and told Jo about Morrie and I sleeping together. I had no choice – Morrie and Jo were friends and he’d already spilled the beans, so she’d been making low-level suggestive comments about it for weeks.
When I told her, Jo squealed and bought me another G&T and made me tell her all the gory details. My heart soared because my only girlfriend in the world had been brutally murdered after we had a falling out, and now I had another who seemed to get exactly what I needed.
Ever since Jo knew about Morrie, a weight had lifted from my shoulders. Only a small weight, because I’d barely scratched the surface of the secrets I was keeping. I hadn’t told Jo about the boys being fictional characters come to life, about the room in the shop that jumped through time, or about the various characters they’d help set up in stable jobs all over the world. I hadn’t told her about my eyesight, but I guessed she knew from the way she’d steered us toward the table under the brightest light and started reading items on the menu out loud. And I definitely neglected to mention the kiss I’d shared with Heathcliff a few weeks back, the way Quoth had said some weird things, about how they all liked me, or how they all would happily…share me.
I mean, that’s crazy, right? Who even does that?
Lots of people aren’t in monogamous relationships,that niggling punk rock voice in my head taunted me. I knew. I Googled it. It was called polyamory or polyandry, and there were whole communities of people who believed that you could have more than one partner and it worked.
But was I one of them?
Punk rock Mina screamed that I should stop being a pussy and have them all. Book nerd Mina wanted to be cautious, because three times the cock meant three times the heartache, especially when your boyfriends were fictional characters with troubled backstories of their own.
I toyed with my napkin, but the urge to talk overpowered me. “Has Morrie ever said anything to you about polyamory?”
Jo leaned forward, sensing the whiff of good gossip. “Not really. He’s made a few comments about being grateful to be free of repressive Victorian puritanical constraints. Why, are he and you…”
“I’ve got a date with Heathcliff on Friday night,” I said.
Jo’s eyebrow went up. “Morrie okay with that?”
“It was his idea.”
“Ah. Intrigue.” Jo leaned forward, her eyes glinting. “Morrie wants you to date his closest friend?”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“I know. Weird, right?” Jo sipped her wine. “I’ve known Morrie for long enough to realize he’s kinky as fuck. He goes down to London for sex parties at an exclusive club. He keeps inviting me with him, but honestly, naked men are kind of gross to me now.”
After I’d spilled my secret about Morrie last week, Jo revealed a secret of her own – she preferred to date women. Now that I knew her better, this wasn’t a shock at all, and I promised to keep an eye out for any hot and slightly morbid females who came into the shop.
“Sex parties?” I gulped.
Jo grinned, toying with her straw. “Has he used any of his bondage gear on you yet?”
My cheeks flushed. “No.”
“But you want him to?”
“…maybe?”
We laughed. My whole face flared with heat. I tipped my head back and downed my drink in one gulp. Gin was the only sane way to deal with a conversation like this.
Jo agreed as she slung back her own drink. “Do you want my advice?”
“Yes, please.”
“I say go for it. Sure, close off your heart a little bit if you need to protect yourself, but don’t look two gift horses in the mouth. You only live once. Most of us dream of having two hot and interesting people meeting our every whim.”
