“Did you have a good time?” she asked me. I smiled.
“Well, yes,” I said. “I did. It was really good.”
“That’s what matters,” she said. “Now, when do you think you’ll sleep with the next one?”
“I don’t?” I said. “That’s not me.”
“Really, Jenny?” she asked. “You don’t want to sleep with the other two extremely attractive brothers?”
I blushed.
“Well, I mean...”
“Look, just take it as it comes,” she said. “If you sleep with them, you do it. If you don’t, you don’t.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I also don’t want to...you know, cause issues between them.”
“You mean jealousy?” she said. “Those three are very good with jealousy between them. They share everything.”
“Well, that’s good,” I said. “But maybe it’s different if...I don’t know. I don’t know what I am doing with my life lately.”
“And that’s totally fine,” she said. “None of this is a problem. Just relax”
“Thanks,” I said. “I needed someone in my corner.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’m sure that I could come up with actual cheerleading poses if you want.”
“No,” I giggled. “I’m fine, really.”
“OK,” she said. “Just text me if you need anything else.”
“Sure,” I said. “Thanks. Hopefully, next time I call you, it won’t be with a similar issue.”
“I don’t mind,” she said. “I like hearing about your adventures.”
“But…” I said. “You and Nick...everything is OK?”
“Everything is OK,” she assured me. “But there’s just one Nick. You’ve got three of them.”
“I don’t have three of them,” I cried.
“You will,” she said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”
Despite the fact that there hadn’t been much substance to that conversation, I felt so much better. I eventually got up and grabbed another awesome dress. I was really starting to enjoy the dresses that Jacob had got me. I felt like I was a new woman, and the dresses were helping.
Frances was in the hallway, and he was texting, in just his pajama bottoms. I didn’t know what to say, but I smiled as I brushed past him.
“Excuse me,” I said, and he looked up.
“Sorry,” he said. “Got caught with an early morning email.”
“No problem,” I replied. “I’ll just, uh...I just want to grab a shower.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said and then paused. “What are you doing today?”
“Me?” I asked. “I’m uh...not doing much. Same as every day, staying here.”
“Do you want to take a drive with me?” he asked.
“What?” I asked. “I would love to.”
Frances had not asked me to do anything, and I was pretty excited at the opportunity to get outside the house. They hadn’t explicitly told me that I couldn’t leave the house, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t safe, given that the wolves were still around.
“Don’t you have to work?” I asked. “I don’t want you to bother you. You guys are really busy.”
“There’s nothing that I have to do that’s more important,” he said. “Let me just send this email and then I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“That’d be great,” I said. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said with a smile. “It's a surprise.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so trusting, but so far, none of these brothers had led me astray. They were all lovely people, and I was positive I had stumbled upon a group of angels. Therefore, it wasn’t hard for me to hurry my way through my shower, and then brush my hair. I had a little bit of red lipstick that had been in my purse from when Jacob had rescued me, and I put in on and fluffed my hair a bit.
The woman in the mirror, I felt, looked nothing like the woman that had gone to dinner with Matthew. I was standing up straighter; I held my head a bit higher; I felt like I was an actual person rather than a slave.
When I got downstairs, though, I felt tension in the air. The three of them were standing in the kitchen, and it felt like I had walked in during an important conversation.
“Did I interrupt something?” I asked and all three of them looked up at me as if they didn’t know where I came from.
“No, no, not at all,” Jacob said.
“Well, she did,” Frances said. “Because the two of you were screaming at me for taking a day off when I have so many days off banked that I could take the rest of the year.”
“It’s not the day off that is a problem,” Jacob said. “It’s the short notice.”