Jiselle swallowed. She collapsed in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest.
“What the fuck do you and Stone do? Study me all day?”
“Pretty much,” I admitted. “That wasn’t an attack though, Jiselle. You don’t have to play defense constantly. It’s alright to let your guard down.”
“Is having two boyfriends always going to be this introspective?” she deadpanned.
“Do you have two boyfriends?”
“I mean, I refuse to say I have two fiancés when I don’t have even one ring on my finger, so yeah, I think I’ll go with two boyfriends for now.”
“I’ll take that.”
She smiled but didn’t respond. Instead she took a bite from her sandwich and shifted in her seat, drawing her foot onto it. She looked at my yard and exhaled.
“My parents like you,” I offered.
“Yeah?” She glanced at me.
“Yeah. They, uh, want to have you and Stone over soon.”
“So you told them about Stone?”
“That’s right.”
“You really don’t do anything half-ass, do you?”
“Nah. When I want something, I go for it, and when I commit, I do it fully. That goes for my professional and personal lives.”
“I can respect that actually.”
“Good.” I sat back in my seat and looked at the lit, heated pool.
I couldn’t wait to have Jiselle and Stone here consistently. I loved my house. I’d built it with the intent of spending the rest of my life here but it was big for me alone. I was excited about the thought of having two people I enjoyed spending time with around, to have my house feel lived in.
I didn’t say that though, partially because Jiselle wasn’t the best at navigating emotional conversations and partially because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to expose myself that way. I didn’t know how to tell this woman I was sure looked at me like I had it all because of my parents’ legacy, money, and connections that I was actually extremely lonely, that there were days where the only time I felt like someone was speaking to me outside of work was when I was home and logged into her website.
I became more obsessed with her every day. Fuck. I didn’t think I’d live if this shit didn’t work out with her and Stone, whose phone I’d also hacked when I’d hacked Jiselle’s. Outside of his brothers, me, and Jiselle he didn’t text a lot of people and took even less phone calls. I assumed it was because he didn’t have much time for conversation when he was bouncing between two jobs and partially raising his siblings. The more I found out about him, the more I respected him.
I was raised to respect anything that took hard work and Stone was one of the hardest workers I knew. Even if I wasn’t interested in sucking his dick for the rest of our natural lives, I still would have found the way he lived commendable.
As much as I liked it, I wanted Stone to actually enjoy his life without working two jobs just to keep his bills paid and his family fed. I planned on feeding them. Stone was probably too proud to take a handout, but the same way I had every intention of breaking Jiselle down to the point where she could talk about her feelings openly, I wanted to break Stone down enough for him to accept my help.
Fuck.
I would take such good care of them.
I tapped my fingers along the table while I watched Jiselle take another bite from her sandwich and lick jelly from her fingers.
“What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” I asked.
“What?” She giggled and looked up at me.
“What’s your dream job?”
“Oh sweetie, nothing,” she said simply. “I don’t dream about labor.”
“So if you could do anything you wanted for the rest of your life, what would you do?”