Was I third-wheeling?
That thought never got off the ground before Blue was knocking on the door.
“Ashy, let us in,” Blue said as he continued to knock, only stopping when the deadbolt disengaged and the door swung open.
Blue barged in, blowing past Asher, who looked like he’d gone ten rounds in the ring and lost. His face was puffy from crying, not that I’d tell him I noticed that.
“Lukas said you were going to message us.” I held Asher’s gaze until he stepped aside and invited me into the apartment. Unlike Blue, who already had his shoes off and was unpacking his snacks onto the coffee table, I had manners.
“What’s this?” Asher asked, seeing the spread.
“This is a watch party,” Blue said. “Lukas sent us the rough cut of the footage. River’s been working on it, and he said it’s really good. I thought it would be nice to watch it together.”
The nonchalance in Blue’s voice was almost convincing, but I detected a slight bit of uncertainty underneath. His brightness seemed almost forced, like he wanted to be more excited than he was. Or he was more excited than he was letting on. As much as I wanted to be, I wasn’t a mind reader.
“Aren’t you going to ask why Lukas said I was going to call you?” Asher tucked his hands into his pockets and rolled his shoulders forward, hunching down, trying to make himself look smaller.
“I assumed it was because the footage was ready,” Blue replied, perfectly clueless.
“He might have hinted at a tough day, but he didn’t go into specifics.” My bit of honesty made Asher sigh and visibly deflate.
An uncomfortable silence followed, and then Blue rescued us all by slinging an arm around Asher and towing him toward the couch.
“You know,” Blue said. “The cure for a bad day is definitely watching yourself get railed on camera for the first time.”
Asher laughed and let Blue steer him to the couch. Blue sat him in the center, then looked at me and flicked his gaze to the empty space on the other side of Asher. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be there, but I was positive I was third-wheeling. Like I could leave and Asher and Blue would have a good time without me there.
But when I dropped down next to Asher, he let out a sigh and relaxed into the back of the couch.
“Aren’t you going to ask what I did?” he asked, closing his eyes like it would hide him from his embarrassment.
“Do you want to tell us?” Blue countered, his tone gentle. I watched him reach over and put a hand on Asher’s knee. “You can if you want, but you don’t have to.”
After taking a deep breath, Asher exhaled. “I think I’d rather watch our scene.”
He opened his eyes, and it was me he looked at first, which felt like a win. “I bet we were hot as fuck. It felt like we were.”
“I may or may not have added memories of our time together to my shower routine.” My confession made Asher’s cheeks turn a violent shade of pink, and he cleared his throat.
Blue cracked open the bottle of wine with a corkscrew he’d brought with him. “Do you have wine glasses?” he asked, then shook his head before Ash could answer. “Doesn’t matter.”
He took a drink directly from the bottle, then passed it over to Asher. When Asher hesitated, Blue smirked. “We’ve shared body fluids before.”
Asher shrugged, then took the bottle from Blue. After a small sip, he pulled it away from his mouth with a grimace. “Is it supposed to taste like that?”
He tried to hand it back to Blue, but Blue pushed his hand away. “Pass it on down to Jax.”
I took the bottle and glanced at the label. “Not a merlot fan?” I asked Asher, who glared at the wine like it had personally offended him.
“I’m not sure what merlot even is, but no.”
Blue tore open a bag of chips and shoved it at Asher. “Here, chomp on these. I’ll get the screen cast going so we can watch.”
Blue turned Asher’s television on and then a minute later, Lukas’s studio logo popped up on the screen. I appreciated the fact that Lukas never layered lame porn music in over top of the footage.
The shot opened with Blue relaxed on the couch, reading a book, looking far too fucking sexy for my own good. Already my dick was a steel rod leaking in my fucking shorts. Before long I was going to have a damp spot.
“God, the two of you are fucking hot,” Ash said. The bag rustled as he dug in for a chip. “I mean, look at you. The jock. The nerd. And then the innocent, kind of dumb, stepbrother. Ilook like a dweeb next to you.” Asher popped the chip into his mouth and crunched it.
