Actually, I’m not surprised by the question. I’ve thought about it before, wondered if we’re weird for not being interested in each other that way.
“That’s … an interesting question.”
“We don’t have to talk about it—” Mara starts.
“No, it’s fair. You should be able to ask.” I set down my beer, trying to organize my thoughts. “Short answer? No. We haven’t explored, and we’re not going to.”
“Oh.” She sounds almost disappointed. “Okay.”
“But not because it’s wrong or anything. Just because…” I look at Dredyn and Jasper. “Help me out here.”
Dredyn clears his throat. “I’m straight. Like, aggressively straight. No offense to anyone who isn’t, but I am extremely not interested in men. At all. Ever.”
“Same. Mara is literally the only person in this universe I want to fuck. Gender aside, you two are like my brothers. It would be weird,” Jasper says.
“Exactly, we’re brothers. Not by blood, but in every way that matters. And you don’t… you don’t do that with brothers,” I say.
“But you share me,” Mara points out. “Isn’t that also… complicated?”
“Different kind of complicated,” Dredyn says. “Sharing you isn’t about us being together, it’s about us all being withyou. Separately but connected.”
“Like—” I search for the right metaphor. “Like we’re all spokes on a wheel. You’re the center. We’re connected through you, but we’re not connected to each other in that way.”
“We’re a unit, a family, but the romantic and sexual component only runs between each of us and Mara. Not between us.”
“So you’ve thought about it,” Mara says.
“Of course we’ve thought about it. We’re three guys in an unconventional relationship. It would be weirder if we hadn’t considered all the angles,” I say.
Dredyn leans forward. “Look, I love these assholes. Genuinely. I’d die for them, I’d kill for them—Ihavekilled for them—but I don’t want to kiss them, don’t want to sleep with them. The thought doesn’t even register as a possibility in my brain.”
“It’s not about being straight or gay or bi or whatever. It’s about what works for us. What feels right. And this”—I gesture to the four of us—“this feels right. Adding a sexual component between us would just … complicate something that doesn’t need complicating.”
“So you’re all comfortable with the dynamic as it is? No one feels left out or weird about it?”
“Are you kidding? This setup is perfect. We all get time with you. We all get privacy. We all get to maintain our own identities while also being part of something bigger.”
“Plus, someone has to be in the kitchen making dinner while the other two are … occupied. Division of labor,” Dredyn adds.
“That happened once?—”
“Three times.” Dredyn corrects.
“Okay, three times. But my point stands.”
Mara’s laughing now. “So, just to be absolutely clear, you three have zero interest in each other sexually or romantically?”
“Zero,” Dredyn confirms.
“Negative interest,” I add.
“You’re not keeping us from anything, you’re giving us everything. This life, this freedom, this… this whole weirdperfect thing we have going. That’s enough—more than enough,” Jasper says.
“Besides,” Dredyn says, “I’ve seen Talon naked. It’s not enticing.”
“Excuse me?—”
“And Jasper’s too quiet. Would be weird.”
