It still didn’t thrill Atticus to have to move furniture—that wasn’t in the job description, thank you very much—but it helped.It would’ve been nice if they could’ve scheduled this when Slade and Evan were in the office.Or Brantley and Reese, even.Then again, he got the feeling those four were purposely keeping their distance simply so they didn’t have to do this part of it.
An hour later, Atticus was sitting at his desk, his feet up, sipping water while Holly, Elana, and Jay attempted to come up with some sort of seating arrangement that would make sense.At one point, the barn had felt enormous, but as they continued to crowd it up with desks and fancy electronic equipment, it was losing some of its bulk.If it weren’t for the height of the ceiling, it would’ve been claustrophobic.The walls felt like they were closing in as less and less square footage was available.
Good thing he spent most of his time in the field.Or he would once they had the partner situation taken care of.Maybe that would happen once JJ returned.Without her there, no one seemed to know what was going on.A bunch of ants running around aimlessly after someone kicked the anthill and dislodged their queen.
“Hey!”
Atticus shot up out of his chair, dropping the water bottle.
A giggle sounded from over his left shoulder, and he turned to see JJ’s head filling one of the large screen televisions.
A string of curses wove through his brain, but thankfully for all involved, Atticus managed to keep them from tumbling out of his mouth.
“Did I scare you?”she asked, watching him from her computer screen.
Atticus skimmed the edge of the television to see where the camera was, but he didn’t see one.
“It’s built-in,” JJ told him, clearly figuring out his objective.
“And you can just pop in whenever you want?”he shot back.
“Whenever.I.Want,” she drawled, making it sound like a threat.
“Do I hear—JJ!”Holly squealed as she raced over to stand in front of the television.“You’re here.”
JJ smiled.
Atticus scooped up his water bottle and took a step back so the girls could do their girl thing.He made a mental note to shift his desk so that his back wasn’t to that damn television.
Since no one was paying any attention to him, he slipped out the door, pulling his phone from his pocket as he did.He brought up the text group he had going with Slade Elliott and Carson Briggs, the two men he was in a pseudo-relationship with.Was that a thing?Pseudo-relationship?Or were they just fucking?He honestly didn’t know.Regardless, they frequently used the text thread to chat about nothing of importance.
Atticus walked over to the picnic table that had shown up sometime last week.He wasn’t sure who brought it, but he knew it wasn’t Brantley or Reese because they’d been as surprised to see it as everyone else.
He took a seat on the tabletop, putting his feet on the bench as he skimmed through the last of the messages.They had to do with getting together for dinner.Which they’d done on Saturday.Kinda.The togetherness had happened.As had the dinner.Just not exactly at the same time.Atticus had eaten while Slade excused himself to work out in his home gym, and Carson sat on the couch and watched Atticus eat.
But they’d been under the same roof, so he figured it was progress.
Since Atticus was currently renting Slade’s guest room and Carson lived across the street, they saw each other often.More so now that Carson and Slade had made up.Well, technically, he wasn’t suremade upwas the right way to describe it, but they were no longer avoiding one another.Atticus hadn’t gotten them to sit down (together) for a meal as of yet, but that was next on his to-do list.Granted, he was stalling a little on that because he was still trying to wrap his head around dating two men at the same time while those two men were dating each other.
Okay, fine.The three of them were in a relationship.There.He acknowledged it.
But wasrelationshipthe right word?
They were having sex.
The three of them.
Together.
Sometimes.
Sometimes separately.
Not nearly as often as Atticus would like, but that was partially his fault.Trying to get Carson and Slade in the same room without snipping at each other wasn’t an easy feat.Sure, all seemed right as rain when they were naked because no one had time to snip at anyone then.But Atticus wanted more than that.If he was going to give this a chance to work, he wanted to do it the right way.There were just too many ways for it to go wrong otherwise.
Which begged the question:what was the right way to date two people while those two people dated each other?
“Whatcha doin’?”
