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“I don’t suppose you have a favorite, Tink?” Ruby grins.

“Rubes.” Sapphire puts a hand on her knee. “Please.”

“C’mon, like you wouldn’t? I mean, she lives with them, for crying out loud. She has prime-time access to gorgeous specimens of⁠—”

I lift my chin, even as I feel a flush creeping up my neck. “It’s not like that.”

“No one’s saying it is,” Treasure says mildly. “Just that⁠—”

“Just that obviously you have dibs,” Emerald says. “On any or all of them.”

“All?”

My voice sounds far-away, distant. Maybe because I can barely hear myself over the thudding of my heart.

“Sure,” Ruby says. “Why not?”

My pulse rushes. The dress is too tight, too hot.

“I’d say any given boy out of that crew is only 25% deserving of you at best,” Sapphire observes. “So it adds up.”

“Girl math,” Emerald singsongs.

“You’ve never…” Ruby blinks. “You’ve never even thought about it?”

My heart pounds under the corset. Because…

Because of course I have. I’ve done more than just think about it, with some of them.

And…

My legs go loose, and I find myself sinking into the nearest chair.

“Oh, Tink.” Someone rubs my shoulders—Sapphire. She circles around to crouch by my side and look me right in the eyes. “Sorry. That was too far.”

“Yeah,” Ruby agrees. “Our bad.”

“We only meant that, you know, if that becomes a thing, then…” Emerald shrugs. “Then it’s a thing.”

A thing. A thing. A thing?

Is that a thing?

I need to say something, I realize.

“I guess.” I twist my fingertips together. “It’s just kinda…unconventional, I guess.”

“Unconventional?” Sapphire lifts an eyebrow. “From the girl who smashed down her titties and cut off all her hair to act like a boy for a year?”

My face full-on flames. “It wasn’t a whole year,” I mutter. But point taken, I guess.

Still…

“Okay, no to the corset,” Treasure says, all business. “We still gotta find an outfit here, ladies.” She nods at me and points at the fitting room. “You want help undoing those? Nothing I haven’t seen before, I promise.”

I nod back. “Thanks.”

It’s tight quarters in the stall with Treasure, even tiny as she is.