“Elyssa.” His smile, his eyes…they looked genuine. There was no discernable pain. There was something a bit like mischief…it didn’t make sense. He took her stray hand and kissed her fingertips, tenderly. Then he stood and started taking off his clothes.
“Budge up,” he said. “There’s more than enough room for one more in that bed.”
Elyssa looked wildly at Patrick, who was shaking his head, but smiling, too.
“This is, um, can someone tell me how I should feel about this?” she stammered.
“Flattered?” suggested Jay, now stripped down to his underwear and inserted between the sheets, passing a cup of coffee to Patrick, then to Elyssa before settling himself down for some three-in-a-bed caffeine ingestion. “The lengths we go to just for you.” He peered at her over the rim of his cup and winked through the thick lenses of his spectacles.
“I knew Jay would get there first,” said Patrick. “I knew you’d never resist him. So I rang him the day after the reunion and suggested an extra clause for the contest. If he managed to get his dirty mitts on you, I’d still get my chance. And if you…if we…well, we’re adults, aren’t we? Broadminded, intelligent adults.”
“What Patrick is trying to say, in that charmingly gauche way of his,” Jay took up the conversational reins. “Is that we’re big boys now, and we’ve learnt how to share.”
Elyssa’s hand shook so that the coffee threatened to spill over onto the pristine white duvet. “Share?” she said weakly.
“We both love you,” clarified Patrick. “And you love us both. Shall I draw you a diagram? I’m awfully good at those.”
“Not as good as me,” mock-snarled Jay. “I draw the best diagrams in the western hemisphere. But yeah. I know it’s all a bit Sixties, man, but I never understood why free love went out of fashion. I always thought it was a splendid idea. I had to sell it to Patrick a bit, but I think you’re cool with it now, aren’t you, Paddy, my old mucker?”
“If it means I get to see more of you, Lyss,” he murmured, putting an arm around the academic.
“So…you’re talking about…some kind of ménage?”
“Yes. Some kind of ménage. The best kind. The kind that has you and me and Pat in it,” said Jay enthusiastically.
“I won’t lie,” said Patrick, sighing. “If I could have stolen you from Jay, I would have done it. But it was pretty clear last night that you weren’t going to forget about him. And, well, y’know. If seeing more of Jay is the price I have to pay for seeing more of you…”
“You cheeky bugger!” exclaimed Jay, pretending outrage. “I know you were only using Elyssa to get to me, big boy. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
Patrick put up two fingers at his old friend and they laughed in embarrassment. All the same, Elyssa hoped they were prepared to forgive each other everything for the sake of this new era in their love lives.
“So. What do you think?” Patrick sounded anxious again.
Elyssa looked at him, then turned her head to look at Jay. This mattered to them. They cared what she thought. They were serious about this.
“It’s the maddest thing I ever heard,” she said slowly. “But…I think you can count me in.”
The two men pressed their lips to her face, kissing her cheeks and throwing their arms around her.
“I don’t know how it’s going to work,” confessed Patrick.
“You’ll have to loosen up a bit for a start,” Jay told him. “Since we’re sealing the deal, I think you should give me a kiss.”
“Give you a kiss?” Patrick winced.
“Oh, come on. You’ve never…? I don’t believe you. You’re in a rugby club. I know what goes on in the shower block.”
“Fuck off, Jay! Just because I’m not some poncey metrosexual like you.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you? You’ve never kissed another man. Aww, Patrick, that’s so sweet. Come on, pucker up. Just a peck. Just for starters.”
Elyssa didn’t dare laugh. “If Patrick doesn’t want to…” she demurred.
“Of course he does,” said Jay. “Because I dare him to.”
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nbsp; Patrick’s eyes flashed with purpose, he sat straight, pushed back his shoulders and put down his coffee. “Right then. You asked for it,” he said, and his hand darted out to grab Jay by the scruff of the neck and haul him across to his strong, firm lips, taking the taller man’s mouth as if he had been kissing men all his life.