Damon trudged up the stairs behind me, closing the door to my apartment as soon as we were inside. He brushed past me and went to the couch, collapsed onto it and bent forward, resting his head in his hands. I joined him, rubbing my hand up and down the length of his spine.
“What’s going on?” I asked, patting the space between his shoulders. “Is this about Athena?”
“No,” he said quickly, “Well, not directly.”
It was as I’d feared, his night with Athena—and her two boyfriends—had been too much for him to handle. Damon was my best friend and I loved him, but he had the habit of getting in over his head, especially when it came to his sexual interests. Damon wasn’t the kind of man to say no to anything. He was more the try anything three times kind of guy. But he’dhistorically kept most of those times to the opposite gender. I knew getting involved with a woman who had two established male partners would be a shock for him, but I’d underestimated the impact.
“Wes and Grant?” I asked.
Damon flung himself against the back of the couch and covered his eyes with his forearm. “I liked it,” he muttered.
I chuckled, shaking my head even though he couldn’t see. “I’m sure you did.”
“No… not just them. I…the three of them.”
“I mean…what’s not to like, buddy?”
He dropped his arm into his lap and glared at me.
“I didn’t…it wasn’t. It wasn’t like being with a woman and two men,” he said, which cleared up absolutely nothing for me. “They’retogether.”
“I know. They have been for years.”
Athena had already been with those two before I’d met her, and that was right before Ev died. The three of them frequented a handful of popular LA clubs, Rapture being one, the Cathouse being another, though they were there less and less these days. Athena had also recently purchased a BDSM club in New York called The Black Door, a venture made possible by her younger brother’s bank account and his relationship with an exceedingly popular artist whose name I could never remember. She had done all of that with Wes and Grant by her side—at her feet—and I would have expected the sun to burn out before I’d believe the three of them were anything other thantogether.
“I’ve messed around with men before,” Damon said, which was news to me.
Instead of calling him out on it, I raised a brow and waited for him to continue.
“This wasn’t like that.”
“Oh,” I said, trying not to laugh at him. “You like the fact they’re together. You like how the three of them are…with you.”
He nodded and covered his face with his hands.
“Why is that so bad?” I asked, pulling his fingers away from his face so he didn’t claw his eyes out.
“I can’t be with them.” He blinked at me, eyes bloodshot.
“Why not? Because they’re not looking for a fourth or something else?”
“Yes,” he said. “Both. I don’t know.”
Damon was a fucking disaster. I patted his back and used him as leverage to stand. He grunted and jerked his shoulder trying to make me fall, which failed. I went into the kitchen and got him a beer, handing it off to him before sitting down on the coffee table between his knees. I gave him a wiggle until he turned his attention from his beer to me.
“This weekend I took Smith on a date,” I told him. “We had pasta and then we took a ride up Mulholland, and we watched the stars. Afterward, I dropped him home and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since.”
“Good for you.” Damon gave me a weak smile. “I know it doesn’t sound like I mean that, but I do. You deserve that.”
“Deserve what?” I asked.
“To be happy.”
“So do you,” I said.
He frowned. “Being happy with a man is different from being happy with two menanda woman.”
“Why?”
