A warm sense of satisfaction filled me, puffing up my chest. “Me, either,” I said.
“But then you came along…” Marco teased.
Grayson nodded, then tightened his brow again. “We’ll all be equal, though? I know you two have been together for over a decade, and you live together and own the business together. I realize your relationship won’t change, and I wouldn’t want it to, either.” He paused, then pushed his mug forward on the table. “But I don’t want to be just a third wheel, you know?”
“Of course not, sweetheart,” Marco said. “We’ve both talked about this a lot, and we’d never want you to feel left out, or extra.”
“It’s something you helped us realize,” I added. “When we both had the chance to enjoy a date with just you, it helped us see the potential of the relationship.”
Grayson pushed his hand through his damp hair. “I guess I just want to keep growing relationships with both of you as individuals, same as our relationship together is growing,” he agreed.
“That sounds perfect,” Marco purred.
I caught the time on my watch and realized my first appointment was coming up. It was a horrible time to leave, and I wished I could just pull those two back into bed and spend the day celebrating. With coffee stains on the front of my shirt and a stack of financial documents to review, however, I knew I didn’t have a choice.
After all, a whole new business plan was beginning to itch at the corners of my mind, an idea that I wasn’t even quite ready to admit to myself yet. But with every step our relationship took forward, the plan became a bit clearer, and the truth even more difficult to ignore.
MARCO
Demir and I sat across from Alex at the bar while he fiddled with his phone. He had his hair up in a messy bun, and he kept glancing between us and the phone.
“Boyfriends, huh? You know, the Philly gossip circles are going to eat this up. The mysterious and unknown guy who landed Demir and Marco? I could probably sell a picture of him to the highest bidder.”
“Damn,” Demir said. “Just don’t mention that to Grayson, if you can help it. I think he hates the attention as much as Marco does sometimes.”
“Well,” I said, batting my eyelashes at Demir, “I did kind of like it at first. All of our friends, jealous that hunky Demir had fallen for me? Can’t say that was the worst feeling in the world.”
Demir chuckled. “I probably would have taken out a billboard to announce it, if we had the money back then. You know me.”
“You love well-placed marketing?” Alex asked dryly.
Demir laughed, always able to take a ribbing from Alex. “That, too. But I just meant I can be a bit idealistic, when it comes to my guys.”
For a minute, all the years I spent with Demir came flooding back. It was like I was running around Philadelphia dance parties with him all over again, or meeting with the realtor who showed us the loft, or sneaking off to O’Sullivan’s for the first time to avoid the popular crowd and just relax.
That was the life I had made for myself, and just briefly, I felt a pang of sadness that the chapter might be ending. Bringing an additional person into our relationship was thrilling, but if we hadn’t met someone as lovable as Grayson, I doubt we would have ever done it.
But then I remembered how clear Grayson had been when we asked him to be our boyfriend. He didn’t want the life that Demir and I shared to come to an end. In fact, he insisted we’d always have that, just like he knew for certain that he wanted a relationship with each of us as individuals, too.
A chapter hadn’t ended, I realized, so much as a new one had begun.
We indulged in a little more chat before Demir and I forced ourselves back to work. He kissed both me and Alex on the cheek, then took off for a late meeting with our accountant. Sighing, I wandered back to the office, ready to finish up a few tasks before heading home.
I noticed that Demir had left his desktop computer unlocked, so I went to close it down for the night. When I bent over the desk, I saw a scrap of paper with some numbers jotted down. Pausing to read it, I saw yet another financial meeting, as well as a meeting with a business adviser, neither of which I recalled hearing about.
I opened up our shared work calendar and saw that neither of the meetings were listed there, either. My mind searched for a possibility, something Demir might have mentioned to me that day, but I came up short.
Shutting down the computer, I did my best to wrestle away the strange suspicions that were coming to mind. There was no way Demir would be selfish enough to pursue whole new business plans without informing me, not after he had already made a similar mistake. He was too respectful of our partnership to do that, and it would be absurd for him to add more to his plate right when we were in the middle of committing ourselves to Grayson.
I puffed out an irritated breath. I’d been patient for weeks, waiting for Demir to make some kind of move on hiring a personal assistant. I’d trusted him, because I always trusted him, but I couldn’t help but feel a little sick to my stomach, too.
My fingers tightened, crumbling the paper. I almost threw it away but realized that wouldn’t solve a damn thing.
It wasn’t just my heart that was on the line now. We’d made some pretty serious promises to Grayson, too, and I wouldn’t know how to live with myself if we couldn’t deliver on them in the end.
Come on, Demir, I thought, finally returning to my desk.This isn’t like when your parents died. You don’t need to save us anymore.
Our dreams are already coming true.
