One More

by Daisy May

  “Well, I guess we’re happy for you.” I pecked his cheek.

  Selfishly, I was a little disappointed I wouldn’t be able to drop into Cup of Joy and see him whenever I wanted to. But that was okay. He was still going to be over here all the time. If I’d known having a secondary would be like this, I would’ve suggested it to Jasper a long time ago.

  Then again, I doubted whether any other guy would’ve done the trick. Reuben was different from the guys we’d hooked up with together in the past. And he was different from guys I’d dated before meeting Jasper. He was different from anyone I’d met, full stop. No one else would’ve made us as happy as he did.

  “What’s fancy enough for a night like this?” Jasper asked. “Does champagne come by delivery?”

  “Maybe we could go out and pick some up,” Reuben said.

  “I could go get some,” I offered. “They have a decent brand at Publix.”

  Reuben frowned. “I meant that we could all go.”

  “It’ll only take a few minutes,” I said.

  “It wouldn’t be fun for us to come along,” Jasper added. “We’d just be sitting in the car. Better for us to stay here. I’m sure we can occupy ourselves somehow while Charlie’s out.”

  “Oh.” Ignoring the arm Jasper slid around him, Reuben stared at the floor. “It would be nice if we didn’t have to sit in the car. If we could just, you know, go in with you.” He peeked up at me. “Or if one day we could just go out to a restaurant together and have the champagne there.”

  “We could do that anytime,” I told him. “But how do you expect us to keep our hands off you?” I shook my head. “Maybe if we were out for five minutes, but spending an entire dinner without touching you? Not going to happen.”

  “No chance,” Jasper said, squeezing Reuben close.

  Reuben still looked a bit off. Disappointed, maybe, or… hurt.

  “You two decide what to order,” I said. “I’ll go out and grab that champagne.”

  Jasper

  Celebrating Reuben’s job offer was a bit of a failure. We did our usual thing, but he wasn’t his usual self. I guessed he’d had his heart set on going out rather than staying in. That wasn’t possible, and he knew it… but maybe the special occasion had made him think things would be different. I didn’t know.

  I’d thought about it a bit in the weeks since, and it seemed like going out in public together was important to Reuben. It might be hard to keep from being affectionate with him, but if he wanted it that badly, I’d manage for his sake.

  So, the night before he was supposed to start his new job, I thought we could try a do-over.

  Once I explained my plan to Charlie, he agreed to try it out. “This might be a good idea,” he said. “If we liquor him up and tease him while we’re out, he’ll really go wild when we bring him home.”

  “The point of going out is to celebrate his new job.” Rolling my eyes, I slipped on my shoes. “Now come on. If we hurry, we can pick him up from his last shift at Cup of Joy.”

  We drove over quickly, and Reuben was just hanging up his apron when we got to the coffee shop. The door was locked, but he saw us through the glass and waved. Charlie banged on the door, but Reuben was already coming over to let us in.

  “Hey, you two,” he said seductively. I missed the kiss he would’ve usually given each of us… but we were in public.

  The other barista gave Charlie a playful smile. “We’re just closing up right now. Maybe you can get your Americano somewhere else.”

  Charlie seemed to think this was funny. Inside joke, I assumed. Grabbing his hand, I gestured at our boyfriend. “We’re only here to pick up Reuben, assuming you can spare him.”

  “I’m going to have to spare him forever,” the barista said with exaggerated sorrow. She turned to Reuben and threw both arms around him. A spark of unexpected—and ridiculous—jealousy flared within me as she started babbling about how he was moving on to bigger and better things and how the coffee shop would never be the same without him.

  “I’ll still be around,” Reuben said. “You can always text me.”

  “Please tell me you’re sleeping with both of these guys,” the barista stage-whispered loud enough for both Charlie and I to hear. “I know you always say this stuff isn’t my business, but I really need to know.”

  “I’m not telling you that,” Reuben said at a normal volume.

  “Ple-e-ease.” She folded her hands like she was begging him. “You pretty much already confirmed you’re banging Angrypants, and I can clearly see that’s his husband. Just say ‘yes’ and I won’t ask you anything more. Just that one word, and it would make me so, so happy.”

  “It’s not actually your business at all.”

  She pouted. “Reuben!”

  “Fine.” He shot a glance at us, and I hoped the heat in my cheeks wasn’t visible. “Yes.”

  “Fuck yeah!” His friend punched him on the shoulder, her whisper rising to a yell. “Good for you, man! I should be so lucky. If you two ever feel like switching teams and double-dicking a woman instead…”

  Charlie broke into a coughing fit. Sure, save yourself. Forget about me. I was dead certain that my face was flushed now, and he wasn’t helping at all. “I think we’re pretty happy with the team we’re on, but thank you.” I gestured at Reuben. “Now, are we ready to go?”

  We headed to the parking lot, where Reuben tried to get in the back seat. “Nope,” I told him, watching Charlie open the front seat for him. “You’re the man of the hour, my dear. You sit up front.”

  Shyly, Reuben took his spot. Was it that unusual for him to sit up here with me? I thought we’d kept the seating fairly even when the three of us drove together. Charlie and I tended to take the wheel since we had nicer cars, but surely we hadn’t forced Reuben into the back like a kid being shuttled around by his parents.

  We drove a few minutes to a sports bar near our house. The speakers were blaring rock music, which a scantily-clad hostess had to yell over as she brought us to a table—luckily in a quieter area. We ordered our beers, and then we sat back and waited for them.

  “That’s quite the coworker you have,” I told Reuben.

  Charlie laughed. “You should’ve seen how she’d run away from me every time I used to go in.”

  Reuben gave a little smile. “As much as Hannah always got on my nerves, I hope she’ll actually keep in touch. Sometimes people are just saying that. You never know who you can trust.”

  It almost hurt to keep myself from leaning over and putting a comforting hand on his arm. But as I considered whether a brief touch would be so bad, I imagined one of my clients walking through the bar door. A gay lawyer was already hard for many people to accept. A gay lawyer with a husband and a boyfriend would be impossible.

  “You might not even have time to keep in touch once you’re an up-and-coming employment attorney,” I told Reuben. “Seriously, get ready for some insane hours.”

  The waitress brought our drinks, and we clinked our glasses. “To Reuben and his new job.” We all took a sip.

  Even after drinking, Reuben still looked worried. “The job description said fifty hours a week.”

  “That’s fifty before they start piling on the overtime,” Charlie said. “I won’t be surprised if we never see you at all anymore.”

  Reuben’s face twisted, and I realized Charlie had sounded harsher than he’d intended to. “Not that we don’t want to see you,” I quickly said. “We’re not going to enjoy spending less time with you, but we know it’s necessary for your career.”

  “Right.” He chugged about half of his beer. Too much, considering how small he was.

  “You do know this won’t change anything, right?” I asked.

  Even Charlie looked guilty. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like we don’t want you around,” he murmured.

  “Sure.” Reuben fidgeted adorably in his seat. “Do you two even hear yourselves, though? We this, we that. It’s like you’re one person in two bodi
es.”

  Charlie and I exchanged a glance. “We’ve been together for a long time,” I said.

  “It’s not about the length of time.” He pursed his lips. “I just realized something. You’re twin flames.”

  “What?” we both said at once.

  “Twin flames,” he sighed. “You’re made of a single soul that’s been divided into two bodies for this human incarnation.”

  Another exchanged glance, this one with more frowning involved. “Sounds romantic,” I finally said.

  “It is,” Reuben said. “About as romantic as it gets. I should’ve suspected this from the first time I met you two. I can’t believe I only just put it into words when it’s been so obvious all along.” He looked from Charlie to me. “Your connection is karmic.”

  Charlie drained his beer. “Sounds good to me.”

  “Yeah,” Reuben said. “You’re Jasper’s partner of ultimate destiny. How could that not be good?” He looked into his glass and sighed.

  My stomach churned. I could see what he was thinking. If Charlie and I were partners of ultimate destiny, where did he fit in?

  I couldn’t answer that, either. But he did fit in, and I wanted him to keep fitting in. Now that we’d added him to our relationship, I couldn’t see us going back to being on our own anytime soon.

  One day, maybe he’d go off and find a boyfriend who could be with him and him alone. He deserved to find someone who could treat him right, love him without restrictions… and eventually put a ring on his finger and let the whole world know they were together.

  That would be better for him. Yet, selfishly, I wanted him to stay with us as long as possible. I couldn’t stand the thought of some other man swooping in and taking him away. The idea of him being with anyone else made me blindly jealous—even though of course I had no problem sharing him with Charlie.

  “Another beer?” I asked, signaling the waitress.

  I made a mental note to look into this “twin flame” concept of Reuben’s. There had to be some kind of amendment to the rule—some way that a soul could’ve been split into three parts and then reunited again.

  Because my life, my relationship, and my happiness had never felt so complete before Reuben came into our lives.

  Reuben

  I clutched my new briefcase as my new boss led me through the halls of the office. My new suit was a little itchy, and I resisted the urge to scratch myself. First impressions were everything, which meant waiting until I was alone in my office.

  Because I had an office! And a laptop, and a stack of reading I was supposed to do. Soon I’d have a plaque with my name and the words “Junior Associate” on my desk. And once the paperwork I’d filled out this morning went through, I’d be getting a paycheck too.

  As overwhelmingly nervous as I was about every other aspect of today, I couldn’t forget that I was finally in the place I’d been working toward for as long as I could remember. I had the kind of job people only fantasized about—one that let me help people while also paying pretty darn nicely.

  I also had two gorgeous boyfriends waiting to crack open a bottle of champagne with me at the end of my first day at said job.

  “This is where you can make photocopies,” Gina said, gesturing at a cramped room. “Those are some of our interns. They’re still in law school.”

  A few young faces smiled out at me, and I waved back cheerfully. I’d been one of them only a couple of years ago. Now I was an honest-to-goodness lawyer, and people like them could actually look up to me. How crazy was that?

  We walked onward, and Gina showed me the lunch room. Several people—my new colleagues—were already eating. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “We usually take the new hires out for lunch.”

  I wasn’t going to say no to that. A minute later, she’d gathered a few other people and we were walking over to the Cuban restaurant they all swore by. It was only five minutes away, so according to them, I was going to be eating here all the time.

  At any other job, I would’ve saved my money and packed a lunch, but this firm paid enough for me to eat out every day without thinking twice about it. And going out for food could be an important opportunity to network with my colleagues. That was the way to get ahead.

  As I caught a whiff of the aromatic Caribbean scents, my stomach rumbled. Maybe there was another reason to eat out with my coworkers. They clearly knew the best restaurants in this area!

  One of the paralegals from another department sat across the table from me. I’d met everyone that morning, so I knew his name was Aaron. He was cute in a clean-cut kind of way, around my age, and dressed in an off-the-rack suit that had clearly been tailored for his narrow shoulders.

  “I’m so curious to hear more about you,” Aaron said. “Only Gina got the pleasure of interviewing you. You’re a complete mystery to the rest of us.”

  Now that I was looking at him more closely, I picked up a gay vibe from him. In other days, I might’ve wondered if I could get a date with him. Since I had Charlie and Jasper in my life, I wondered if I’d found a new best friend instead.

  They expect you to leave one day. They’ve told you as much. If you click with Aaron, you might as well date him. Better to have one guy fully than half each of two guys… no matter how amazing those two guys might be.

  I gave him the Cole’s Notes version of my life story, noticing the way he watched my mouth move instead of looking at my eyes. Definitely gay, and I was pretty sure he was into me.

  My other new coworkers had questions for me, too. I told them about my journey to law school and how I’d been working at the Cup of Joy. By the time my frijoles negros arrived, I was happy to see the conversation shift to other topics.

  There was some talk about clients and cases, and even some gossip about the senior partners. Savoring my food, I was content to just listen. I didn’t feel completely able to contribute even as the conversation turned to more personal topics.

  Gina talked about her kids’ football season, which everyone else seemed to be keeping score on. Aaron slipped in a reference to how his ex-boyfriend had played football—I didn’t miss the way his eyes glided over to me right after he said that.

  For my part, I glanced around the table. No one else blinked an eye at the reference. At least I’d learned it was okay to be gay at this office. Not that that meant my new coworkers would accept the three-way gay relationship I was currently involved in.

  We paid the bill and got up. To my complete lack of surprise, Aaron made an effort to walk at my side as we headed back. “You went pretty quiet in there,” he said. “Kind of shy, are you?”

  “Not really.”

  He failed to take the hint and go away. “I still want to hear more about you,” he said, walking quickly to keep up with me. “Not just the job stuff. Tell me, are you seeing anyone?”

  I sighed. What would Charlie and Jasper want me to say? Our relationship was supposed to be discreet, but I was seeing someone—two people—and I wanted to be able to actually say that. Aaron still seemed like he could be a good friend if I could let him know I wasn’t available. But saying I had a boyfriend would lead to more questions, and I couldn’t stand the thought of pretending either of my partners didn’t exist.

  “I prefer not to talk about my personal life at work,” I said stiffly.

  Aaron peered at me, his lips turning halfway up as if he wasn’t sure whether or not he should smile. “Then I think we should talk outside of work sometime.”

  Charlie

  What with working full time and having a husband and a boyfriend to pamper, Sunday afternoons were generally the only time I had to spend on my own projects.

  Not to say I’d ever have chosen the Camaro over my two men, but sometimes we were all fucked out, and the gleaming chrome and low-slung wheels were sexy in their own particular way.

  Reuben’s voice came from behind me. “What’cha doing?”

  Even though I’d gotten my fill of him a few minutes ago, I instantly swiveled aro
und to drink in the sight of his handsome face again. “Fixing up the bodywork,” I said, and pointed at the wheel arch under the front door. “See this? It was completely corroded until I took the rust off.”

  “How’d you do that?” he asked.

  I loved it when he took an interest in my mechanical stuff. I knew he had no actual interest in it and that he was just asking for my sake, which made it even more adorable. In exchange, I’d been trying to ask him lots of questions about the new job he’d started this week.

  “Sometimes I can fix rust with an acidic treatment,” I said. “In this case, it was too far gone. I had to take the area off completely and weld in a metal plate to replace it.”

  “Oh.” He held out a mug. “I brought you an Americano.”

  “You made it the way I like it?” I asked teasingly.

  He waited to reply until I’d taken a sip. “You asking if I dipped my balls in it? Because the answer is yes.”

  I nearly spat out the mouthful. “You little brat. I’d spank you if my hands weren’t so greasy.”

  “You love it.” He turned heel and pranced back into the house.

  I wondered what he’d been doing in there all afternoon—whether he’d been spending time with Jasper or entertaining himself on his own. He was definitely the most extroverted of the three of us, and he used to find it weird that Jasper and I weren’t constantly together and constantly touching.

  He seemed to understand our relationship better now than he had a few months ago. After the way he’d described us as “twin flames,” I wondered if he ever felt jealous or like he didn’t fit with us. I sure hoped that wasn’t the case.

  I wasn’t one to talk about feelings—mine or anybody else’s. Hell, back in the day I’d proposed to Jasper with a series of grunts and nudges while we were watching a news report about same-sex marriage. But Reuben was different from us, and I felt like we might need to have another talk about his role in our lives.

  Jasper may have been my husband, but these days, Reuben felt like an essential part of my life too. I wanted both of them.