Glancing back at my sister, she nodded, giving me a tiny, supportive smile. “Go get ‘em, tiger.” At that, she fully grinned, chuckling at herself.
Even though it was the scariest thing I’d ever done, I took Mason’s hand, let his fingers curl around mine, and allowed him to lead me into the building as Michelle drove off in my car. Well, now I was stuck with him. Not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
As we walked up to his floor, to his apartment, I tried opening my mouth and speaking, tried to ask him just what the hell was going on here, but I found I could not say anything. I had no idea what was going on, if he and Michelle had somehow planned this. Maybe I was dreaming, and this was my mind’s pathetic attempt at making everything right.
His apartment was unlocked, and he released my hand after he’d opened the door, allowing me to step inside, first. I did, and what I saw was the last thing I expected.
Or, should I say, who I saw.
Calum was there, too. He’d been sitting on the couch, but the moment I walked in, he leaped to his feet, staring at me with an expression I could not read. Behind me, Mason came in, shutting the door and locking me in here with the both of them.
What was going on? Why was Calum here? And Mason…none of this made sense.
Calum wore a nice button-down shirt, its black color in sharp contrast to the lightness of his hair. His blue eyes radiated a warmth that made me squirm, and I found myself taking a step back, backing myself up into Mason’s chest. That only caused me to jerk away, to put distance between me and Mason, to move to a place in the apartment where I could stand and stare at them both.
“What is this?” I asked, my voice shaking, trembling with each and every word.
“This,” Calum spoke, moving to stand beside Mason, “is us not giving up on you, Bree.” He gestured between them, as if they were now friends, or something equally as ridiculous.
My heart hammered, and I wanted to turn around, to run out of this apartment. My nerves made me want to rush to the bathroom and get sick. My body didn’t know how to react.
It was Mason’s turn to talk. He glanced at Calum before saying, “Basically, this is us telling you that we don’t accept what you said last night. We’re not done. Neither of us are going to let you push us away—and neither is your sister.” He looked at Calum again, adding, “Remind me to thank your brother for that.”
So Calum talked to his brother, who then asked Michelle to help? What the heck…did everyone go behind my back to set this up? Why? I really wasn’t worth it.
My emotions warred inside me, threatening to burst. “Why?” It was all I could say, the only word that would come out.
The two men met eyes, something unspoken between them, and I stood there, dumbstruck, wondering how the hell this was happening. Surely this had to be a dream. Surely. This couldn’t be real. No frigging way.
“We’ve discussed that, actually,” Calum spoke, bringing that blue gaze to me, drowning me with the seriousness there.
“Short version is, we’re both falling in love with you,” Mason said, though his words earned him a scowl from Calum.
“Dude, I wanted to be the one to tell her—”
Mason shrugged. “Too late now, isn’t it?”
They went back and forth for a little while, and I could not believe it. Literally, I couldn’t. Was this some kind of weird joke? Mason didn’t really mean they were both actually falling in love with me, did he?
If he did…what then? I couldn’t handle this.
Could I?
Michelle had told me to face my fears, but this—this might be asking too much of me.
“Anyway,” Mason went on, waving Calum off, much to his chagrin, “after last night, we came back here and talked. Neither of us want to give you up, Bree, so as long as you’ll have us, you’ll…have us?” Mostly to himself, he added, “That last part I should’ve rehearsed better.”
“Or let me say it,” Calum muttered. “You talk so much you’re bound to sound stupid eventually.”
Mason thought on it. “I don’t think that’s how talking works, but maybe I’m wrong—”
Neither one of them wanted to give me up? What exactly did that mean? I swallowed down my trepidation, gathered my courage, and asked, “What do you mean?” Surely they couldn’t mean what I thought they did.
This wasn’t a movie, or a TV show. This was my life, and my life never turned out good. Good things didn’t happen to me.
It was Calum who spoke as he took a step closer to me, “I want you. We both do. We’ve both agreed that we wouldn’t force you to pick between us. We’ll work on any jealousy that arises, but we’ll do it together.” He was so close now, he could reach out and grab one of my hands—and that’s exactly what he did.
I couldn’t speak, mostly because Mason had started to: “It’s not going to be easy, but the good things in life never are—or so I hear.” He grinned, moving to stand on my other side, gently reaching for my second hand and holding onto it like I was the most fragile, precious thing he’d ever encountered.
They were falling in love with me. They both wanted me. They wanted to date me at the same time.
“You look beautiful, by the way,” Calum whispered, reaching up to touch my newly-dyed hair, the ombre of pink. “But you always do, and I know you don’t believe that, so I’ll keep telling you until you do.”
“And if I never do?” My voice came out in a bare whisper; I felt like my body was shaking. This couldn’t be happening. This…this was a dream; it had to be.
“Then I guess we’ll have to be extra persistent,” Mason spoke with a grin.
“You’re not joking?” I asked, afraid that they were. That this strange, beautiful dream would shatter any moment now as I woke up. Could I be happy? Could I date both these men and actually get what I wanted for once?
Mason gave me a funny look, his dimples softening as he whispered, “Why would we joke about this?”
“Well, I know why she’d think you were joking,” Calum deadpanned, “but I’m one hundred percent serious.”
“So am I,” the other said.
Both men squeezed the hand they were holding, and I stood there, lost in my thoughts, wondering what the hell I should do. What could I do? I’d tried to put up walls, tried to push both of these men away for their own good and mine, and yet here we were, as if fate itself had bound us together.
Dating two men would be hard. I’d feel like giving up a lot. Hell, I hadn’t even dated one before. Two…two seemed like an awful lot, and yet, besides being confused as I stood there, beside being frightened beyond all belief, I wasn’t uncomfortable with them. I liked them.
I…I was falling for them, too.
Love. I never thought I’d ever love anyone. I’d always assumed it wasn’t in the cards for me, not with my lack of a social life. Could I do this? Could we do this?
“So,” Mason started, causing me to glance at him. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, don’t keep us in suspense,” Calum said, giving me a small smile when I turned my eyes upon him.
What did I think? What the hell could I say? I was scared, terrified that I’d get hurt, that these two would eventually grow to hate me and become tired of constantly reassuring me about us, but…