“That doesn’t mean it’s time to tell her tonight.” She bites her lip. “In mixed company.”

  “Take her to the bathroom and break the news.”

  “This isn’t something I can do in five minutes; she’s going to have a lot of questions, J.” She purses her lips. “What if she thinks I’m disgusting and doesn’t want to be my friend anymore?” Her lips form a frown and her brows furrow forming a v shape between them.

  I sigh, knowing that she does value her friendship with Harper so I don’t want to say anything insensitive. “Eventually you’ll have to tell her. The longer you wait the harder it’ll be. And if Monica can handle it, Harper can.”

  “Is Monica handling it?” she asks and I wince. I hadn’t spoken to her in a month since the day she found out after walking in on us. She’s talked to Gabrielle but she told me she needed time which I suppose is fair, but it’s the longest Monica and I have ever gone without speaking and I’ll admit I miss her. We never talked every day like Gabrielle and I did, but we did usually catch up once a week with intermittent texts of funny memes or relevant TikToks.

  “She’ll come around.”

  She nods but I can see the sadness in her eyes. “She’s been weird with me.”

  “Give her some time. This is tough for her too, I’m sure.”

  She leans against the door jamb of the bathroom and nods her head. “If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll tell her.”

  She grabs the drink out of the bathroom that I made her while she got ready and takes a long sip. “Can I have one more before I go? Sounds like I’m going to need it.”

  I pull up to the bar that she’s meeting her friends at and I’m grateful that I don’t see a super long line because it’s freezing and I don’t want her waiting in the cold. “Gabby, are they here?”

  She nods. “Yep, Harp is already inside. She said she would come out and get me when I got here.”

  “Okay, have her come out now. I’m not leaving until I know you’re with her.” I’ll admit I’m a little apprehensive; Gabrielle doesn’t go out much and I don’t know that I trust Harper not to ditch her if a guy catches her attention. She is seeing someone though, maybe that won’t be an issue. I always worried about Gabrielle when she went out, even before we were in this new relationship. I worried about someone taking advantage of her innocence or her kindness. I worried about her getting separated from her friends and getting home safe on her own. It’s why I always kept my phone near me when I knew she was out. I knew if she was ever in trouble, she’d call me and I never wanted to let her down. I always wanted to be there for her when she needed me, and nothing about that has changed.

  A mass of blonde curls bangs on my window breaking me of my thoughts and I see Harper bouncing up and down and waving. “Hey, girl, hey!” She waves as Gabrielle gets out of the car. We’d already kissed goodbye three streets ago, and although I’m tempted to grab her by her neck and kiss her senseless, I settle for a smile and a squeeze of her thigh.

  “Call me if you need me,” I tell her as she opens her door.

  “Always,” she says before she gets out of the car. I watch as she heads inside with Harper behind her and after no less than a minute my phone beeps with a text message.

  Gabrielle: I love you.

  I smile at her words and rub my finger over the screen, wishing like hell that she were in front of me.

  Me: I love you too. Be safe.

  I’m at the bar a few doors down when a figure drops down next to me and slams his hand down on the bar. “Two shots of tequila por favor,” Isaac says as he takes the barstool next to me. “I was not trying to come out tonight; you’re lucky I live down the street.” He runs a hand through his hair and looks up at the television at the football game. “The Giants are losing now? Oh, what the fuck. They were winning when I left my apartment.” He pulls off his coat and sits down next to me. “So, what are you doing here by yourself anyway?”

  Isaac is my closest friend in New York so I’m mulling over the idea of telling him what’s going on with Gabrielle. I hold the shot in my hand and down it. “I had to drop Gabrielle off somewhere and just wanted to stop and get a drink before I headed back home. Figured you may be around.”

  “Oh shit, you should have just come over then. You waiting to pick her up? I swear you’re so much nicer to her than I am to my sister.” He chuckles and I cringe at his comment wondering how I’m going to explain how different my relationship with Gabrielle is compared to him and his sister.

  “Uh…maybe, but probably not,” I lie, knowing damn well I’m not leaving this street without her with me. “It just depends on how late she wants to stay out.” I scroll through my feed and notice that Harper already has a new story posted since the last time I looked at it four minutes ago. I tap it and see Harper and Gabrielle taking a shot followed by Gabrielle shaking her hips for the camera. I grit my teeth trying to temper the sting of the ache in my dick watching her when Isaac chuckles.

  “Your sister is a smoke show, I swear. Who’s blondie though? She’s hot as fuck.” I set my phone down and let out a sigh trying to ignore his comment about Gabrielle as I wonder if this could be a reason to go and see my girl.

  “Her roommate.” I shoot him a look with a grin. “She’s seeing someone but…I mean I don’t know how serious it is. If you want to meet her, we can go over there.”

  “I wouldn’t be opposed.” He laughs and downs the shot that was placed in front of him.

  I take the shot and then a deep breath. “So, if we go over there, there’s probably something you should know.”

  His eyes don’t leave the television. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “Isaac, this is serious,” I tell him and his eyes finally pull away from the television and land on me.

  He slaps the bar in front of him. “Oh, we need more shots?”

  “Maybe.”

  He waves over the bartender and orders another round before turning back to me. “Okay, what’s up?” he says and I let out a breath. If I was asking Gabrielle to tell Harper tonight, I should be able to tell Isaac.

  “It’s an awkward thing to say and I have no idea how to put it so I’ll just spit it out…” I let out a breath. “Gabrielle and I have been exploring a new type of relationship.” I rub a hand over my mouth. I sound like a fucking girl. “We’re sleeping together.”

  He narrows his eyes in confusion. “Like…your sister?”

  “Adopted sister.”

  “Didn’t your folks adopt her when she was like a baby?”

  “She was two,” I grunt out. Shame slithers through me as I think about how this must appear to someone on the outside. Especially given how it looked to someone on the inside like Monica. “I know how it looks and sounds and fuck…” I let out a breath as I’m talking to the first person I’ve had to talk to about this besides our sister.

  Isaac’s eyes widen before he waves down the bartender and points at the two shots in front of us. “So how did this start exactly?” It’s hard to gauge his reaction and I’m trying my best not to get defensive, knowing that this is a long road of uncomfortable conversations and I need to be able to keep my temper in check. People are going to have opinions and there’s a good chance that most of them will be negative.

  “Right before Christmas.”

  “And what, you guys just thought that was the way to get into the holiday spirit this year?” I hear the humor in his voice but I can also hear the accusation. You should know better.

  “Gabrielle and I have always been different. We had a different connection than I had with Monica. I never really saw her as a sister. I mean I did, but not in the same way I saw Monica. Maybe because she was adopted, I don’t know.” I ramble. “We only really lived together for about five years before I went away to school and we were always close but it was more as if she was this person I wanted to look after and not because she was my sister but because I cared about her more than I did anyone else.” I lean forward and look down at the shot glass in front of me as I prepare to share something about my family that I don’t tell most people.

  “My parents struggled to get pregnant again after Monica. My mom had a miscarriage…more than one, and things were tough for a while. My parents fought and went to counseling and for a while Monica and I weren’t sure what would happen to our family. We’d lie awake at night texting each other because we could hear them screaming in their bedroom.” I let out a breath. “And then Gabrielle came along and it’s like everything was better. She was what was missing. Somehow, she fixed everything. I know they say children rarely fix the problems, but she did. She was this tiny little angel that made us whole again.” I cringe at my own words, knowing that my vulnerability is brought on by the whiskey and the tequila coupled with the overwhelming feelings I have for Gabrielle. This also means now I’ll probably be leaving my car here for the night. I curse myself, knowing that I should have brought her here in an Uber. “Look I get it, alright. I know this isn’t exactly normal. But…this is real with her. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think she was it for me.”

  “When you say it, you mean like…marriage and shit?” He shrugs. “I mean I guess you don’t have to worry about your kids since you’re not blood related?”

  “Technically it’s not incest, it’s just frowned upon,” I tell him. I did some research on it, and since Gabrielle and I don’t share blood, we wouldn’t have any issues when it was time for us to take our relationship to the next level. My dick jerks in my slacks thinking about her left ring finger and what I plan to put on it.

  “You think? Look, if you didn’t know her well or your parents adopted her when you were already out of the house that’s one thing. But you’ve had this close relationship for years.” He leans forward and stares at his empty glass. “You’re going to have to sell it better than that.”

  I shrug, not caring about having to sell anything. “I have nothing to sell, man. This is just where we’re at. I love her.”

  “Do your parents know?”

  “No. Only Monica.”

  “How’d she take it?”

  I wince. “Not the best, but I think that’s more because of how she found out. We were sort of…in the middle of something.”

  A hearty laugh leaves him as he tosses his head back. “You’re shittin’ me. You guys were fucking at your parents’ house? Ballsy as fuck.”

  “No, well, wait, yes we did, but surprisingly that’s not where we got caught. Monica walked in on us here in New York.” I changed my locks after that, just in case my parents got the same idea that they were welcomed unannounced and without knocking.

  He nods. “Well, I think I’m a little drunk and I did some blow before I left that’s kicking in, so I’m going to wait to pass judgment for now.” He makes the hand gesture at the bartender to get the check. “Let’s go see your girl.”

  Well, that could have gone worse.

  “Why do you keep checking your phone?” Harper asks as she leans closer to stare down at my phone. She’s double fisting a Bud Light and what I believe to be a very strong vodka soda and I can already see the signs that she’s getting drunker. “Are you texting someone? A guy?” Her eyes widen before she takes a long sip of her beer. “Oh my God, are you seeing someone? You’re just never on your phone this much. That guy over there keeps looking at you,” she says all in one breath.

  “Take a breath,” I tell her with a laugh. Harper and I are by ourselves, having gone to get drinks at the bar but I still haven’t broached the subject about James and now she may be a little too intoxicated to have this conversation. “And I’m not interested in whoever’s looking at me.” I scan quickly through the crowd before turning back to Harper.

  “Gab, focus. Do you have a secret boyfriend? All those times you’re going to hang out with James,” she says using air quotes the best she can while holding a drink in each hand, “you’re really going to meet up with a guy, am I right?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “I’m with James,” I tell her and I wish telling her the truth was that easy. I half expect her to press it more when our two friends come over. Luna and Aubrey live in the room across from Harper and me and after a semester of being introverts, we all decided to be friends. Luna’s wild curly hair has gotten significantly bigger due to the temperature of the club and now she has it up in a ponytail that she’s fluffing as she walks over.

  “The guys here are so lame.” She pouts. “Are cheesy pick-up lines back in? Some guy literally just asked me if I fell from heaven; what is this, 1990?”

  “You weren’t even alive in 1990,” Aubrey replies, and I laugh at their constant back and forth. They’ve been best friends for years, moving here from their hometown in Texas after they made a pact when they were young teenagers to go to the same college one day. “It is fucking hot in here though. Should we go somewhere else?”

  “It’s ten degrees outside and we are in a crowded bar, anywhere fun is going to be just as hot. And the chances that all of our fakes will work a second time isn’t high as the night goes on.”

  “Oh, come on, we all look twenty-one.” Luna points at all of us and then back to herself in the skin tight red dress that turned more than a few guys’ and girls’ heads when she walked by. She has the tiniest waist and not so tiny tits paired with green eyes and olive skin making her one of the most gorgeous girls I’ve ever seen in real life.

  “You could get in anywhere on that dress alone, Luna,” I tell her and she shimmies and blows me a kiss.

  “As could you, I swear every time you walk by a group of guys, they all stop talking and stare. Imagine having an ass like that.” She looks behind me and gives it a smack.

  “I think every guy in a seven-foot radius just got hard watching you do that.” Harper laughs as she takes another sip of her vodka drink.

  “Speaking of hard, my nipples could cut glass right now. Gab, isn’t that your sex on a stick older brother?” Luna asks.

  God fucking dammit, James.

  I can’t even allow myself to be turned on at the thought of being in the same room as him because I’m so annoyed that I was right. I knew there was a chance he’d show up and I should have had the foresight to tell him not to show up because I knew this would happen. The way Luna is looking at him she is probably going to try and mount him here on the dance floor.

  I wince thinking about how the relationships with my friends will change. Even now, I’m annoyed with all of my friends for staring at my man like they are wondering what his mouth does.

  I’m so not into the idea of Luna and Aubrey and possibly Harper vying for his attention all night. I look behind him and see he brought, is that…Isaac?

  “Ladies,” his eyes look at everyone before landing on me. We are far enough away from the center of the room and the dance floor where the music is the loudest so James doesn’t have to shout for us to hear him.

  “What are you doing here?” I say cocking my head to the side and putting my hand on one hip.

  “Who cares?” Luna jokes and moves closer to him. I know she meant it innocently but I’m annoyed at her interjecting when I was not talking to her. See? This is exactly why I don’t want James around my friends. I’m not ready to tell them but how else can I get them to not… do any of that. “We should go dance!” Luna says and a wave of uneasiness washes over me.

  Aubrey downs the rest of her drink, tipping her head back dramatically as she finishes it. “I could use another drink first, you guys want?”

  “Another Tito’s soda,” Harper says pointing at her drink as a huge smile crosses her face. “Pleeeeease.”

  “Same,” I tell them, knowing that I need more alcohol to deal with this shitshow. Unfortunately, I’m also well aware that more alcohol is probably the worst idea as it’s more likely that I’ll do something reckless and there are too many players involved right now.

  I can’t afford to get reckless. I want to tell them on my own terms. Not because they sense something is going on between us.

  I’m grateful when Aubrey and Luna surprisingly leave together to get the drinks, leaving just Harper and myself with the guys. “Hey, Isaac right?” I’ve met him a few times when James has had small get togethers at his apartment and here and there when I’ve been out with James. He seems like a good guy and James seems to like him. I’ve always been protective of him and very opinionated over the company he keeps because I don’t ever want him around negative energy.

  Isaac’s attractive, objectively. He’s definitely lankier than James and a little shorter. Dark brown hair that connects to his very lush beard that I remember James once telling me he was slightly jealous of. Your beard is perfect, James, I think, willing him to hear me. “That’s me,” he says pointing to himself. “It’s good to see you, Gabrielle and you must be the roommate,” he says looking at Harper. “I recognize that gorgeous smile.” Albeit, he is a little douchey.

  She beams under his praise before turning to James. “James, I have to ask because Gab tells you everything. What can you tell me about her mystery man? She’s not giving anything up, but I know she’s seeing someone.”

  “Harp!” I shoot a glare in her direction before turning to James who has a smug expression on his face. “We aren’t doing this now.”

  “I’m just curious; you tell me everything and you’re definitely hiding something!” I can hear the intoxication in her voice making it a bit higher pitched than usual.

  “How about we go dance?” Isaac interjects as he grabs Harper’s hand and runs his lips over her knuckles.

  Harper visibly swoons and before I can blink, he’s pulling her towards the dance floor and I’m pulled around a corner and pressed up against a wall. I’ve barely said hi before James’ lips are on mine, his tongue swirling around my mouth. His hands reach around grabbing my ass and squeezing and I groan into his mouth as I grind my sex against his thigh. “I couldn’t stay away,” he whispers against my mouth as he presses gentle kisses along my lips and jaw.