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“Stop that. You’ll stay home and do whatever you want, you can meet everyone, whatever you prefer. They don’t need to know all the details about us. Our business is our own.”

“Sounds fun,” she said cheerfully.

“One other thing,” I said. I really didn’t want to bring it up, but I knew it would be worse if she found out later.

“What?” she asked. She was studying my face. She already knew how to read me well, l thought.

“Two of the friends are sort of exes of mine,” I told her.

She stared, her expression going stoic. I hated that. I liked to see what she was feeling and hated when she shut me out from reading her.

“Are all of your breakups friendly?” she eventually asked, tone neutral. Still hiding from me.

I tried to be straight with her. “If I have anything to say about it, yes. And they’re not really even exes, but I hooked up with both of them several times. It’s platonic now. I wanted to be upfront. I didn’t want you to find out later and think I was hiding it from you.”

“And they both know about each other?”

I flushed, a little embarrassed, I don’t even know why. “They’re with each other now. I set them up, actually.”

She stared.

“They’re both bi, and I thought they’d like each other. Turns out they hit it off and now they live together.”

“And you’re not jealous?”

The thought had never occurred to me. “Not at all.”

“Did the three of you ever,” she motioned vaguely with her hands, “like together?”

I was a bit perturbed and scandalized that she’d even thought of it.

“No,” I said after a pause.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why’d you hesitate? Tell me.”

I was outright blushing for the first time I could remember.

Only Nova did this to me. I couldn’t be smooth for one second with her.

I really didn’t want to talk about this with her anymore, but I thought if I walked away from the conversation now she’d take it worse than it actually was. “They offered a few times when they first started dating and weren’t exclusive with each other yet. I said no.”

She was studying my face like if she looked hard enough she’d see all my secrets. I wasn’t sure she was wrong.

“Why’d you say no?”

“It’s not my kind of thing. I like the intimacy of focusing on one person during sex. And I’m glad now that I didn’t. I think it would have been awkward for the three of us since they ended up having a serious relationship soon after that.”

“So you’ve never done a threesome at all?” she asked, and I saw then that she was teasing me.

“Now you’re pushing it,” I told her. “And I haven’t. Can you stop now?”

“Only if you teach me how to play poker. I’d like to join in when your friends come over.”

“Deal.”

I was strangely nervous about the whole thing.

The real problem I was having was actually easy to pinpoint.