“Then, why would she want to move an hour away from me when I’m offering her the chance to live together? Your argument doesn’t check out there, Aggie.”

  Larissa crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Oh, hell. You are infuriating. Why would she want to live with you when she loves you and, for whatever reason, can’t tell you? She’s afraid, Larissa. She probably doesn’t want to be there when you go on that fifth first date, because it’ll mean you’re dating someone else and probably even getting naked with that someone else. God, I remember the three of us having lunch one time: you, me, and Harlow. You’d just started dating Romy, and I asked you if you two had sex yet. You said yes, and I looked over at Harlow. You were eating a burger or something and not paying attention, but Harlow turned to the window, looking like you had just told her the worst possible news, Larissa.”

  “That was years ago.”

  “I’m aware. She’s loved you for longer than that.”

  “I don’t think so, Aggie. We’re just close,” she replied. “You don’t really have any close female friends. And you’re also straight, so you–”

  “You don’t want to see it? Admit it to yourself? Fine. I’m only trying to tell you what the rest of the world already knows, Larissa. Even Mom and Dad know.”

  “You told them you think she’s in love with me?”

  “No, they told me that they were waiting for you two to tell them that you were a couple. They worried you didn’t feel comfortable bringing a woman home all those years ago, even though you were out and they were fine with it. I told them that you were just friends, but that I was pretty sure Harlow was in love with you. They agreed that it was obvious, and we laughed about it because we all thought you two would get there soon. It’s been years now.”

  “You’re laughing at me with Mom and Dad?”

  “Both of you, technically, but yes.”

  “That’s messed up, Aggie.”

  “So is whatever you two are doing.”

  “We’re not doing anything.”

  “Exactly! She can’t live with you. I think that’s a good thing.”

  “Why?”

  “It might just mean that she’s finally ready.”

  “For what, exactly?”

  “To either tell you or move on. Not sure which. Could go either way.”

  “Either way? Come on, Aggie…”

  “What? Larissa, if you were me, or better yet, if you were a psychologist talking to a patient right now, and that patient told you everything I know about your history with Harlow, what would you think?”

  “That we’re two gay women who happen to be good friends.”

  “That’s all? Really? I guess I thought you were smarter than you are, then.”

  “Hey!” Larissa laughed.

  “She’s going to find someone, Larissa. You know she will. It might not be tomorrow, but one day, she’ll meet some woman, and she’s going to move on because, even though she loves you, she can’t have you for whatever reason she’s got locked in her head. Maybe she thinks that she’s not good enough for you or that you don’t feel the same way, so she doesn’t want to take a chance, but someday, she will meet a woman and she’ll decide that she likes her enough to try to move on from her feelings for you.” Aggie then looked over her head and added, “Looks like I have a student who wants to talk to me, after all.”

  Larissa turned her head to see a young female standing there, clutching her bag and looking a little worse for wear. It made sense. She’d seen her sister’s tests. They were hard.

  “I should go,” she said and stood.

  “You should talk to her. I mean it, Larissa. Come in,” Aggie added to the student, motioning with her hand. “That’s just my sister, so I can kick her out.”

  Larissa laughed and said, “Good luck on the test. And don’t skip the review session before it. She basically gives the answers away there.”

  “Hey, don’t reveal my secrets,” Aggie said with a laugh.

  Larissa walked out of her sister’s office, leaving her to do her work, but she didn’t get far. Her legs decided to fail on her, and she collapsed onto a chair by the elevators. Students were in other chairs and on the small sofa, all talking about classes, parties, and other things undergraduates discussed with one another. She could no longer relate, but as she looked around, she remembered that she was technically still a student at this university. Yes, she was in a Ph.D. program, but still a student all the same. She needed to finally not be a student. She needed to focus on and defend her dissertation, get the damn degree she’d been working toward for a decade, and have the career in academia she’d wanted since switching her focus from clinical work to that required of a future professor.

  But that wasn’t why her legs had stopped working and had forced her to sit in this wobbly chair that looked about forty years old. Her legs had stopped her from even getting into the elevator because that elevator would only take her down to the first floor, outside to the campus, where she’d walk to the green parking lot, where she had parked her car. Her car would take her to the highway that would then take her home. At home, her best friend would be waiting for her because they had an interview with another couple that night. She would be sitting in a small conference room with Harlow and a couple who would tell them their love story. She would take notes. Harlow would ask questions. Larissa had no idea what would happen after that, though. Maybe they’d have dinner at home. They might choose to go out for dinner. Or, maybe Harlow wouldn’t want dinner with her at all.

  Harlow could want to go out with Alicia or just out on her own. She had done that a few times lately. Maybe Aggie was right; maybe Harlow was moving on. Not from her, of course, but from Alicia. She’d told Larissa that they’d talked about some stuff, and she had gotten more closure than she had initially. It was possible Harlow only needed that closure to decide that she was ready to be with someone else. It was also possible that Larissa was being ridiculous right now, so she shook her head, remembering that Harlow had always been honest with her about everything. Harlow was also obviously the braver of the two of them and would have told Larissa how she felt had she been in love with her. After all, if Harlow had been into her in any way since the beginning, why wouldn’t she have said something from the start?

  Aggie’s argument about Harlow thinking that she might not deserve her or that she didn’t want to risk their friendship might have applied to today or even a few years ago, but not when they’d first met. On top of that, Larissa knew it was the reverse. She didn’t deserve Harlow, not the other way around. Harlow was the best, and she deserved the best, not a thirty-five-year-old student who worked part-time at a bookstore and let her parents pay for most of the stuff she had because it was easier. Harlow deserved a better best friend than that. Hell, Larissa couldn’t even make them pasta or tighten her own glasses. Harlow had to do that.

  “God, what is wrong with me?”

  Four students sitting in the space nearby turned to her at the same time.

  “Sorry,” she said when she realized that she must have said that out loud. “Sorry,” she repeated and stood, praying her legs would support her this time.

  She went to the elevator, pressed the call button, and waited for it to arrive so she could start her journey home.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Hi. It’s nice to meet you all,” Harlow said and shook Brynn’s hand. “I’m Harlow, Larissa’s assistant.”

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Neve replied when she shook Harlow’s hand next.

  “Yeah,” Sydney echoed and was the last to shake her hand.

  The throuple had arrived early, and Larissa had been a little frantic to get the room set up. She’d whispered to Harlow that she’d forgotten that they were talking to the three women tonight and had planned her questions for a couple they’d meet with next. Harlow still wasn’t sure what had been going on with her, but she had let Larissa run into the room first, and while Larissa had done that, Harlow had gotten the women water and coffee and headed back after.

  “You ready for us?” she asked Larissa as she pushed open the door to the room they used every time.

  “Um… Come on in. Yes,” Larissa said with an unsure nod before she stood up fully from setting her bag on the floor and forced a smile. “Hi. I’m Larissa Hanson.”

  “Brynn. That’s Neve. And that’s Sydney,” the blonde introduced them and pointed to a brunette and then a redhead who looked younger than both of the other women.

  “Please, have a seat. And thank you for coming,” Larissa replied.

  Harlow moved to the chair she normally took, but she realized there were only two chairs opposite her and Larissa.

  “I’ll be right back. Sorry,” she said.

  “It’s okay. We’re used to it,” Sydney said. “Everything comes in twos. You realize it even more when you’re one of three.” She laughed a little.

  Harlow left their room, found a spare chair in an empty room next to them, and brought it in with her, offering it to Brynn, who was still standing while the other two were sitting already.

  “Thanks,” Brynn said.

  “Sure,” she replied before she sat down and turned to Larissa.

  “Right. Well, thank you again for coming in. Just to set the stage here: I’m not a doctor yet. This is an interview for a book I’m working on about love, and I’d like to record the conversation to make my life easier later, if that’s okay. You can also decline to answer anything you want at any time.”

  “No problem,” Neve, the younger of the three, said and placed her hands on the thighs of each of the other women.

  They each took Neve’s hand into their own like a well-practiced maneuver, and they sat there all joined together.

  “So, can we start with how you met?” Larissa asked and tapped to record on her phone.

  “We met about five years ago,” Sydney began. “Brynn and me. We dated briefly before we got engaged.”

  “How briefly?” Harlow asked.

  “Three months,” Brynn answered and smiled over at Sydney. “We just knew.”

  “And we got married six months after that.”

  “They met me about a year ago,” Neve added.

  “Can we go back to the part where you met and just knew for a minute? Then, we can get to the part where you all met,” Larissa said. “Can you describe what you meant by you knew?”

  “We met at a concert,” Sydney shared. “We were both there with our friends and had seats next to one another. We kept bumping elbows while we were dancing, and we laughed about it.”

  “Then, we were talking instead of dancing and listening to the music. We grabbed a drink after the show and went back to my place,” Brynn added. “One thing led to another.”

  “You had sex?” Larissa asked matter-of-factly.

  “Yes,” Sydney said with a small laugh. “It was amazing, and we’ve been together ever since.”

  “And when did you just know that you were going to be together? Get married?” Larissa asked. “What was it about the other person that made you realize they were the one for you?”

  “Um… two for you,” Neve corrected.

  “My apologies,” Larissa said. “I haven’t interviewed a throuple before.”

  “No problem. We’re used to it,” Sydney replied. “And I knew during the first drink that I wanted to know more about Brynn, at least. There was this kind of, I don’t know, magic in the room or something, and I’d never felt it before. When I say we had sex, we did, and it was hot and perfect, but we made love after that, and it was perfect in a different way. I can’t say I knew for sure that we’d be together forever, but I knew I wanted more.”

  “Me too,” Brynn confirmed with a smile at Sydney.

  “Okay. We’ll come back to the beginning of your relationship, but I’d like to know more about how Neve joined your couple. Is that the right way to ask that?” Larissa checked.

  Neve laughed and replied, “It’s fine. Do you two want to answer that, though? It starts with you, not me.”

  “Sure,” Brynn said. “Well, we had been together about three years when things started to…”

  “Dry up,” Sydney added. “In bed.”

  “Yeah. It was so weird because our sex life had been amazing, and we’d only been together for a few years, so we didn’t get why. We weren’t sure what to do, but one night, I was scrolling social media, and I saw a short video about this throuple. It was two women and a guy, and they were just telling their story. I didn’t say anything to Syd right away, but it got me thinking. A few weeks later, she was acting weird, so I asked her what was going on. We got cookied, it turned out, and she’d seen the same video. We sat down and talked about it, thinking it was a way for us to improve our sex life, but that it would be a one-and-done situation. We could find someone, have a threesome, and it might ignite the passion in us again; something we both thought could help.”

  “I’d been really busy with work and stressed a lot, and Brynn was having some family issues. We were both just so tired all the time, and we’d lost our spark.”

  “That’s where I come in,” Neve said proudly. “I got a notification on a dating app from Syd, asking if I’d be interested in a threesome with a married couple. I’d never done anything like that before, but my app profile said I was open to pretty much anything, so that caught their eye.”

  “Well, she caught our eye first. Look at her,” Brynn said and nodded toward Neve.

  “Thanks, babe,” Neve said with a little laugh. “I decided to give it a try. We met up at a bar first, and damn, there was some intense chemistry between all of us.”

  “Off the charts,” Sydney agreed.

  “We went to their place after a few drinks, and I had the best sex of my life up until that point.”

  “If that was supposed to be it, how are you all together now?” Harlow asked.

  “I stayed the night, which was not part of the original plan. They were upfront when we talked about what would happen, and I was supposed to leave after sex, but they both asked me to stay, so I did, and we had breakfast together the next morning.”

  “It just felt so right,” Brynn said and turned to look at both women. “Like, having both of them there at the table was right for me.”

  “And after she left, it was weird for us to be alone, even though we were married and loved each other very much,” Sydney said. “So, we called her and asked her to come over again.”

  “For sex or–”

  “We told ourselves that it was just for sex, but it wasn’t,” Brynn interrupted Harlow. “We went for another drink and stayed at the bar for hours, just talking and laughing. Then, when Neve leaned over and kissed Sydney at some point, I wasn’t jealous. I didn’t get it at first, why I wasn’t jealous of another woman kissing my wife, but I somehow understood that it was part of their relationship together.”

  “I kissed you, too, babe,” Neve said.

  “I remember,” Brynn replied. “And after that, we went back to our place again, where, yeah, we had sex, but we all knew it was more than that.”

  “So, what did you do after that?” Larissa asked.

  “Brynn and Neve went on a date, and then, Neve and I went on a date. We set rules,” Sydney explained.

  “What kind of rules?” Harlow asked.

  “Well, at first, we wouldn’t have sex as couples. It would only be the three of us or not at all.”

  “Even for you two?” Larissa asked, motioning with her pen to Brynn and Sydney.

  “Yes. It was the only way to be fair to all three of us. We wanted to know if our relationships as couples would work as well as the one we have all together. It was complicated and confusing at first, so we took sex out of the equation.”

  “For how long?”

  “Two months.” Neve laughed. “God, that was hard.”

  “Syd and I only shared our bed on our date nights, and we didn’t have sex,” Brynn added. “On her date nights with Neve, she stayed at Neve’s place, and I did the same when Neve and I went out. On the nights when Syd and I weren’t on a date, I slept in the guest room. It was strange and didn’t always make sense, but after a couple of months, Syd and I talked, and we knew we wanted Neve to be with us. So, we talked to Neve, and she wanted the same thing.”

  “I just moved in officially a few weeks ago,” Neve said.

  “And we know we all can’t get married legally, but we’re hoping to ask Neve someday to have a ceremony with us to celebrate our love in front of our friends and family.”

  “Can we go back to the beginning of your relationship, Brynn and Sydney?” Larissa asked.

  “Sure,” Sydney said.

  “When you met and had that night, you said it was magical. Can you elaborate on that?”

  “Can I take this one?” Brynn asked Sydney.

  “Sure, love.”

  “So, I know I had a few drinks, and you might think that that had something to do with it, but I don’t think so. I’ve been tipsy around women I was into, and it never felt the way it did with Syd.”

  “How did it feel?” Harlow asked and looked over at Larissa.

  “Like she was the only one in the room, even though we were in a bar jam-packed with people. The after-concert crowd had all gone to the same damn bar, so we had to wait for over an hour to even get a tall table to lean against; it was that packed. And I’m not one for crowds normally, but I did not care that night. She was there, and we were laughing and getting to know each other. I forgot to drink my drink at one point, and it got all watered down because it was like everything around her was blurry; she was the only one there.”