Broken Butterfly: MMF Bisexual Romance (Mundane Magic Book 1)

by Maxene Novak

  That didn’t seem to be the case with Drew and Gabby. They’d pulled him aside and talked to him about the important details in their relationship. They wanted him to be on the same page as them. It was such a small act, but it had a huge impact on Max. He’d never known someone to approach him that way.

  That night, Max fell asleep on the sofa. He’d intended to go back upstairs and get into his own bed, but with all the activity he’d done today, not to mention his mind working nonstop even as he lie still, he ended up passing out underneath the thin blanket on the couch.

  He woke the following morning to a quiet house. That was strange. Max sat up and stretched, a powerful yawn rocking his body and making his bones shudder. He stood and wandered into the kitchen, looking for someone. He found Gabby and drew at the dining table, a plate of pancakes in front of each of them.

  “Morning, Maxie!” Izzy exclaimed when she saw him. He smiled.

  “Morning Izzybear. Whatcha guys doing?”

  “Mommy made breakfast, and she we get to go to the park, too!” Izzy’s eyes lit up like she’d just won the jackpot. Max chuckled and took a seat at the table.

  “You’re more than welcome to come with us if you’d like,” Gabby offered. She tilted her head and looked across the table at him.

  “That sounds like fun, actually. I need to have a chill day,” he said. Gabby nodded and rose from the table to prepare a plate of pancakes for him. Max thanked her and began scarfing them down. He’d been unaware just how hungry he was until food had been placed in front of his face. When they were done eating, Max headed up to shower and change into a pair of shorts and a tank top. The weather outside was beautiful and warm, and he couldn’t wait to soak up the sun and let the stress of daily life fade away.

  When they arrived at Cambridge Park, Izzy made a beeline for the sandbox. Max tried to keep up, but the girl was too fast. She jumped into the sandbox and quickly made do with some of the shovels and buckets left over from other children. Gabby eventually caught up with the two of them and smiled at her daughter.

  “She’s kind of a wild child, isn’t she?” she said, looking up at Max.

  He nodded, “That’s for sure.” Max watched as she and another girl started working on a sandcastle together. He was impressed when the other girl told Izzy to use water to help keep the structure together. Growing up, he’d had to figure that one out on his own.

  While the girls played, Gabby made her way over to one of the empty swings to sit down. Max followed her over, taking up the seat beside her. They were quiet for a moment, the noise of the children’s laughter and the squeaking of the chains connecting the swings to the frame filling the void. Max turned to Gabby and asked,

  “So, how did you and Drew meet?” He realized he hadn’t asked such a simple question when he met with the Nobles two months ago over Skype.

  “Drew and I met way back in college,” she said, a fond smile forming on her face. “It started off as an accident, really. My partner in sociology class was sick that day, and he’d just transferred in, so we got paired up. At first, I couldn’t stand him.”

  Max chuckled. “How come?”

  “God, he was the most sarcastic kid I’d ever met! Every little thing that came out of his mouth had a hint of sarcasm in it that made me want to strangle the life out of him. But as time went on, I kind of just… loved it. Sometimes it still annoys the hell out of me, but it’s part of who he is. He’s calmed down in the more recent years, but it’s still there.” Gabby smiled to herself and dragged her feet around in the sand.

  “I think it’s cool that you met your husband in university. When I was in school, I thought people who did that were like, mythological creatures. College was all about getting drunk and having fun while you’re young. It takes a lot of selflessness to meet someone and not give into the selfishness everyone else lives for.”

  Gabby looked at Max with curiosity. “You sound like you’ve had some bad experiences with dating in school. You know, I only graduated five years ago, I can still relate if you want to talk about things.”

  Max considered letting her in on some of the drama involving his past relationships, but he decided against it. All of those situations were dead and gone, and there was very little use in bring back bad feelings. Rather than answering her immediately, he hopped up from the seat and moved behind Gabby.

  “I’m fine,” he said, putting a bit of pressure on her back to help her swing. “It’ll just make me upset and that’s a total mood killer. Today’s about having fun, y’know?”

  “That’s a good point,” Gabby said, giggling as she went higher and higher on the swing. Max continued pushing her rhythmically, almost having as much fun as she was. While he helped propel her forward, he receded into his own head.

  What Gabby and Drew had was the kind of love story that Max wanted for himself. He didn’t like comparing himself to other people, but it was very clear that they were quite happy with their setup. They could sleep with other people as long as they didn’t keep it a secret, and they trusted each other implicitly. Not only that, but they’d had so much time and history together that he was sure they weren’t going anywhere any time soon. In a way, he felt almost inadequate.

  That wasn’t their goal in telling him this information – he knew that – but it still made him feel like he was playing catch up with people who had their lives together. They had everything. They had a beautiful home, successful jobs, and an adorable, witty daughter, all before they’d even hit the age of thirty. And here he was, a few years younger, working as a glorified babysitter. It bummed him out and gave him something to work to all at once. It wasn’t a feeling he was familiar with, but he knew that maybe, just maybe, he could work with it and utilize it and turn his life around.

  Ten minutes later, Gabby needed to get down from the swing to go play with Izzy, so Max took hold of the chains and brought them close to his body, refusing to let them move anymore. Gabby’s back pressed flush against his chest, and Max felt a shiver run through her body. Had he imagined that?

  Gabby looked back at him, her chin brushing his collar bone, and said, “Thank you.” She was breathless, and her mouth pulled into the slightest of smiles. Gabby sat up straight and brushed her hair over her shoulder, quickly crossing the park to have a seat with Izzy in the sandbox. Max shook his head. Thinking of Drew in that way was bad enough, there was no way in hell he could possibly be interested in Gabby at the same time.

  He took a seat at the nearest picnic table to clear his head, his hands running through his hair. He thought about slapping himself to get back to normal, but that might not have looked all that great, some random guy at the park hitting himself. When he looked up, he caught Gabby staring at him. She held his gaze for a moment, smiled, and looked away.

  “Damn it,” Max scolded himself. It was already too late to pretend he wasn’t affected by her.

  Eight

  That following Monday, Max decided it was time for him to break in the pool in the backyard of the Noble house. He’d looked out of his window plenty of times to see the beautiful sight, and with the weather being as hot as it was today, he was going to jump in there and cool off. Once he’d dropped off Izzy, he stopped Louisa to invite her as well.

  “You sure it’s not going to be a problem with Gabby and Drew?” she asked. She didn’t want to get on their bad sides the first time she met them.

  “It’ll totally be fine,” Max said, shrugging with one shoulder. “They’re both really cool about that stuff. Plus, I wanted to tell you more about what happened with us and the talk we had.”

  Her eyes widened. “You guys had a talk?”

  “Yeah, it was actually really cool of them to sit me down and bring up the topic I think all of us were kind of nervous to address. But, I’ll only tell you about it if you come over and get in the pool with me.”

  Louisa looked like she wanted to argue, but she decided against it. She smiled and let her shoulders fall. “I guess I’ll join
you in the pool. Just know I’m not going to be happy about it,” she grinned.

  “Yeah, yeah…” Max gave her a quick hug goodbye and headed home. He parked before opening his text messages to read what she’d sent him. Louisa was going to look for her favorite swimsuit, and it might take her a minute to find it. He didn’t have to wait up for her.

  Having her permission to go right ahead, Max hurried to his room and changed into his swimming trunks. They were a bit too small and hugged his body tightly, but when he looked himself over in the mirror, he didn’t hate what he saw. He grabbed a towel and sunscreen then headed out to the backyard.

  It was clear that Nobles had spent a fortune on their backyard. Expensive recliners surrounded the pool in a semicircle, and the pool itself looked built into the collection of rocks and stones. There was even a waterfall that drizzled water over the rocks. Max felt like he was on an old episode of MTV Cribs. He laid out his blanket on one of the recliners and sat down to put on his sunscreen. He fried like bacon without it.

  Once he was glazed like an SPF donut, he stood up and stretched. The last thing he wanted was a cramp popping up and ruining all his fun. Max stood upright, took a deep breath, and dove into the pool. Despite it only being nine in the morning, the sun was out and in full blast, and this pool cooled him off completely. He surfaced and slicked his dark hair back. While he waited for Louisa, he did a few laps. The swimming portion of P.E. had always been his favorite, and for good reason. Max had the perfect swimmer’s body. His coach always chastised him for not joining the team, but competitive swimming just wasn’t for him. He preferred the relaxing nature of water rather than the frantic paddling required to beat out the competition.

  Louisa arrived ten minutes later, already dressed in her bikini. She’d wrapped the towel around her arms and gave a little wave as she entered through the back gate. Max waved back and swam over to the edge of the pool.

  “Toss me my phone?” he asked. She handed him the device and he set up the speaker system to play some of his favorite music. Louisa tossed her towel to the ground and dove into the water quickly. She flipped her hair back when she surfaced, splashing Max in the face. He laughed and wiped the water from his eyes.

  “Okay, so you better tell me what went down with you guys!” Louisa said. She paddled over to the corner of the pool and leaned against the rocks.

  “Well, Gabby was the one that sat us down. At first I thought she was going to be pissed. I mean, even if they did have an open relationship, you’d think she’d want to know who Drew was messing around with, right? But no, she was really cool about the whole thing. It was kind of like an episode of The Twilight Zone or something.”

  Louisa smiled. “At least she didn’t go psycho on you and kill you both?”

  “Touche. I think it’s really cool that they can just be open like that with each other. All of my exes and I ended up breaking things off because they didn’t know how to talk to me.” Just the thought of the dramatic arguments he’d been in put a damper on his mood. “I’ve been meaning to ask, too, what’s the situation with your boyfriend?”

  She made a face and picked at her nails. “He’s really getting on my nerves, but what else is new?”

  “What’s going on?” Max swam closer and leaned up against the rocks as well. For a moment, Louisa didn’t say anything. She avoided eye contact, a noticeable silence in the air. Just as she started to answer him, she saw a movement in the far window on the second floor.

  “Did you see that?” she asked him. She pointed up to the window and Max followed her gaze. He looked up, waiting to see some kind of movement. Nothing happened.

  “What’d you see?”

  “I don’t know. I thought I saw something up there.”

  Max looked again. That window was in Drew and Gabby’s room. He leaned forward and squinted. He thought he could just barely make out the silhouette of someone else up there. He shrugged. “Maybe you thought you saw something?”

  “Yeah, probably,” she said skeptically. “Back to your situation, though. Have you and Drew messed around at all since that night?”

  “In real life? No. But in my dreams? Way too many.” Max couldn’t believe that he was actually admitting to someone that he had erotic dreams about one of his employers, but here he was. Louisa’s eyes widened when he confessed his secret.

  “Oh my god, shut up! You should make those dreams a reality. I mean, if everyone’s cool with what you guys are doing, I say go for it. Lord knows if I worked for two hot, rich people, I’d probably try and flirt with them,” she snickered. “Do you think you’d ever do anything with Gabby?”

  Max turned and climbed up the rock waterfall. He took a seat on the highest one and looked down at Louisa. “I’ve thought about it, yeah.” He was already in the spirit of admitting things, why not go ahead and let it all out in the open.

  Max had fantasized about Gabby ever since the park last week. He’d imagined the kind of lover she was and how her job might have some kind of influence over her in bed. Would she be the kind of woman who wanted to give up control after being in charge during the day? Or did her authoritative nature carry over into the bedroom? These thoughts swirled around in his mind as he lie in bed at night. In a way, both of those options would be fun to experiment with.

  “Crazy idea,” Louisa said, floating on her back. “Why don’t you ask her out or something?”

  “You actually think I could land time with both Drew and Gabby? I’m not that lucky.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Louisa laughed, “You’re adorable. I mean it, you’ve got that like, French schoolboy look going on. Don’t pretend like you don’t know you’re cute. Hell, if I wasn’t already seeing somebody, I’d ask you out right here, right now.”

  Max bit back a bashful smile and rolled his eyes. He didn’t think that he was ugly or anything, but Louisa was exaggerating immensely. Gabby clearly went for guys like Drew, beefy, big, and in charge. Max didn’t fit in any of those categories. He opened his mouth to say something when the sliding glass door opened and Gabby poked her head out.

  The two in the pool jumped at the sudden movement, only to laugh at themselves a second later. “You scared the crap out of us, I didn’t think anyone else was home,” Max said, catching his breath and getting his heartbeat back to normal.

  “Guess that solves the mystery of the window,” Louisa said in embarrassment.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you guys. I took the day off. Work is really getting me anxious and I’m no use to anyone when I can’t even focus on not snapping at every little thing,” Gabby explained.

  “Everything okay?” Max asked. He swam across the pool and folded his arms on the edge, looking up at her.

  “It’s nothing, just typical work stress. I just wanted to see if either of you wanted brunch? I was about to make sandwiches. Eggs, turkey bacon, avocado, all that stuff. What do you guys say?” She looked back at Louisa to get her answer.

  “Sure, that sounds great,” she smiled at the woman.

  “Count me in. Here, I’ll help you out.” Max climbed out of the pool and grabbed his towel. He wiped himself down as best he could, all too aware that both women were staring at him. He winked at Louisa before following Gabby back inside. He padded across the kitchen and helped get the ingredients.

  “Did you sleep well?” she asked him. She brushed a loose hair from her ponytail back. Max nodded.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t half bad.”

  “That’s good,” she smiled coyly. Max caught her smile and felt a wave of embarrassment take him over. If she’d been home the whole time, there was no doubt she’d heard what he and Louisa were talking about. Rather than wondering about it, he simply said,

  “So, how much of that did you hear?”

  “Honestly? I heard a majority of the stuff you said about me. I’m flattered, really.”

  Max tilted his head. “But?”

  “No buts,” she said, shrugging. She slapped a few pieces of bac
on onto the griddle on the stove and cranked up the heat. After she washed and dried her hands, she turned to him. “No buts at all. I think if you want to go out on a date with me, you should ask me and see just how lucky you are.”

  Max was silent for a moment. He should have expected for her to take the lead, but it still caught him off guard – and not in a bad way. In most of his relationships with women, he’d had to be the one who always suggested things. He had to take control of things. It was nice to see that Gabby wasn’t afraid to, in a roundabout way, ask him out on a date. Sure, he’d have to do the actual asking, but she’d practically given him permission.

  “Well, if you think that’d be something you’d be into, would you want to go out with me sometime? It doesn’t have to be like a date or anything, we can just go out and have fun. See a movie, get dinner, something like that. And if you’d feel more comfortable, Drew can come along?”

  Gabby scoffed at the idea. “No way, Drew already had his fun for the time being. It’s my turn. I would love to go out with you, Max. I’m not sure what my schedule looks like this weekend, but I’m going to make sure that we at least have one day together. Drew can look after Izzy since this’ll cut into your work hours.”

  “Perfect,” Max smiled. He popped four pieces of bread into the toaster and pulled down the lever. While he waited for the bread to brown, he thought over all the things they could do. Gabby was still a mystery, but he knew eventually he’d figure out what she liked to do. And if he couldn’t come up with an idea in time, he was sure Drew might be able to suggest something.

  “I think the sandwiches are about ready,” Gabby said, looking over her shoulder at Max. She tapped the spatula against the pan, shaking off any scrambled eggs that had stuck to the plastic. He nodded and headed out to call her in to eat. Louisa nodded and waited for him to return inside the house before she climbed out. She snatched the towel from the recliner and wrapped it around her shoulders.