The Ties that Bind Ch. 04

September 2020

Mike sat in the middle of the couch, browsing through Jenny's list of bookmarks on YouTube. She was lying with her feet dangling off again and her head resting on his lap. "Click on V's account," she said, idly kicking her feet. "She's probably posted something new by now."

Mike clicked over to V's page, noting the growing number of videos that were being posted there. "Woah, she's really ramped up since last month. A lot more multiplayer stuff here now."

"Yeah, she said that she's been streaming with a broader group. The let's play videos weren't generating the views. She still has them sometimes though, but this keeps her busier now. I don't think we've played anything for a while, she always scheduled for something or another."

She put Mike's left hand on her head again, silently chastising him for not stroking her hair. Mike had been stopping by more often when Andy couldn't, mostly to check up on her and keep her company. Evy or Tal would often tag along to see her and make sure Anna was doing alright. Evy was currently in Anna's room, keeping her pre-occupied. It had been four weeks since the news, and she was slowly getting back to her usual self but would have moments of grief. Whenever those hit, Evy, Tal or Jenny would wrap her up and just hold her until she stopped crying. It was becoming less often now.

Mike clicked on a newer video where he could hear V talking to a dozen or so other streamers in an Among Us lobby. Rather, it was a mod that they were playing that allowed them to proxy chat, which led to all sorts of weird interactions. V also had a little avatar in the lower corner that synced up her real-life motions that was pretty funny.

They sat there, watching the increasingly hectic play throughs, laughing as players jokingly lost here shit, and cracking up when someone started singing in the Kermit voice. When Mike stopped stroking Jenny's hair, she would clutch his arm under her chin. She had definitely become a lot clingier, but Mike didn't mind one bit, he was just happy that she was largely back to her normal self.

In Anna's room Evy was lying on her bed, hanging her head off it to look at Anna upside down. Anna was sitting on a big cushion, reading out one of her works. Evy had encouraged her to write more to help her deal with everything she was feeling, and it had been helping. Some of her stories were about loss, naturally, but she had started writing more poetry that was lighter and more hopeful. She was reading one of those to Evy now.

"I really love the way you write," Evy said, rolling over and placing her hands under her own chin. "It's so evocative, like I can see the flowers and even smell them."

"Thanks," Anna smiled at her. "I like this style for poems as you can really paint a picture for the reader. It helps convey what I'm feeling." She smiled a bit shyly, "I actually kind of adopted it from one of your scenes."

"Huh?" Evy thought through her stories, but couldn't come up with one in this style, since she tended to write less atmospheric scenes and focus on conversations and interactions. "Which one was that?"

Anna's smile tightened a bit into a mischievous grin, "It's actually inspired from your scene with the baroness."

"No," she gasped in disbelief. "How did you get this from that?"

Anna giggled and began, "You had such an amazing back and forth with the characters that just made me feel like I was there. I could feel every time she drew nearer to him, hear the uncertainty in his voice, feel her touching him so tenderly. You barely put in any descriptions, but I could feel it all, and that's what I wanted here. There isn't any dialogue, but I wanted to be able to really paint the scene, with all the details I could imagine."

"Wow." Evy crawled halfway off the bed and looked and Anna closely. "You are so horned up right now, oh my god!"

Anna squealed and pushed Evy's face, causing her to collapse in a giggling pile on the floor. "I am, oh my god. I go back and read that all the time. She's just so, aggressive and vulnerable at the same time. It's so forbidden." A little shudder played down her spine at the thought.

"Well, it looks like you've learned something about yourself," Evy grinned at her and plopped herself down next to her. "Now, we just need to you act on it."

"No, no no no. I couldn't. Oh my god, I would die." She shrank at the thought.

"Yes, you can. You've been playing around it far too long now." She was holding Anna's shoulder, lightly shaking her. "Next time you're alone with him, just keep eye contact, that's the whole thing." Anna was giggling and desperately trying to escape. Evy shook her again. "You just stare into his eyes and make him yours." Anna squealed again and broke free, grabbing a pillow and smothering her own face.

Evy didn't relent, trying to pry the pillow away. "You're so close! Just. Be. The. Baroness!" Anna was shaking from laughing so hard that Evy flipped over the bed with pillow in hand.

"Alright, alright, I get it." She gasped between bursts of laughter. "I'll be the baroness. I'm strong and confident. Now stop before I burst a blood vessel, my face is so hot." A frazzle haired Evy poked her head up over the bed and grinned victoriously.

On the couch Mike and Jenny were looking at each other wondering what the hell the commotion was in the other room. "Those two are up to something. I swear, they're like teenagers whenever they get together."

"I don't know where I went wrong with that girl," Mike sighed. "It's hard being a single dad."

Jenny giggled, "What about your domestic partner? Is he an absent father?"

"Oh, he brings home the bacon, but is it so much to ask for some TLC sometimes? A woman has needs."

Jenny laughed hard and turned to snuggle into him, "What a terrible partner, I'd never do that. I'd love you forever and never let you go. I'd spend the rest of my days with you." She froze, suddenly realizing what she had said aloud. A long moment passed in silence, with only the steady sound of his breathing in her ears. She slowly peaked up at him to gauge his reaction and caught him nibbling his lower lip, appearing to be deep in thought. The moments continued to pass, with neither saying anything. Jenny was agonizing over what she had just blurted out, completely in her head playing out a million scenarios. What is he thinking now? What if he rejects her? What if he accepts? What about Andy? Would she tear apart the group? Would she lose her best friends?

Some laughter in Anna's room jolted her out of her state and brought her back to the present. She slowly disengaged, "Would you like something to drink? I'm suddenly very thirsty." She rushed to the kitchen without looking at him.

"Actually, I'm supposed to meet up with Andy in a bit, so I should probably head out here pretty soon." Jenny started to hyperventilate, imagining what they would talk about.

"Calm down, maybe it's nothing, "she told herself. "Maybe he didn't hear. Stop making it weird. If he says anything, play it off as a joke."

She smiled at him, "Well I'm so glad that you came, I really love you when you come and see me."

"Why did you say that? Why would you say that?"

Mike got up and hugged her tightly. "I worry about you, love. When you hurt, I hurt. Don't hesitate to call or come over, anytime. Even if it's nothing."

"What the hell does that mean? And did he just call me love?"

The door to Anna's room popped open and Evy poked her head out. "Are you heading back Mike?"

"Yeah, want me to drop you off? I need to stop by Andy's place."

"Oh god, he knows! He's going to tell him! I've fucked it all up."

"Yeah, let me grab my stuff." She grabbed her bag, gave Anna a hug and a significant look before heading out with Mike.

Anna had keyed into Jenny's barely contained apoplexy and had ushered Evy and Max out the door. She rushed over to her, noting the thousand-yard stare, and hugged her. "Hey hey, it's okay. What happened?"

"I fucked it up!", Jenny cried into Anna's shoulder. "I blurted something out to Mike, and now he knows I love him!"

Anna tried calming her down a bit, a bit confused by this reaction. "But that's good. You two are perfect for each other."

"But I also love Andy! And now I've fucked up everything. I didn't want to say anything, but it just came out. And now he's going to tell him." Now it made more sense to Anna, but she was still pretty lost on this runaway train of thought. Jenny was clutching her in a blind panic, but Anna managed to talk her down long enough for her to relay everything that happened.

"Okay, so you aren't sure that he heard you, and he didn't react?" Jenny nodded her head.

"But he's usually chattier and he didn't say anything at all. Did I freak him out? Is he trying to distance himself?" The train was starting to grind off the rails again.

"Okay, slow down. We don't know any of that. The facts are: Mike comes over every other day and spends his time with you, right?" Jenny nodded again.

"You two cuddle, he cooks for you, and makes you laugh, yes?" Jenny nodded again.

"Mike has again and again shown up for you and held you, promising to always be there for you, yes?" Jenny nodded once more.

"I think it's pretty clear that he cares deeply for you and will continue to be here for you." Before Jenny could start going again on her train Anna interrupted. "Wait, we haven't done Andy yet. Andy plays with you almost every night, makes you laugh, and brings you thoughtful gifts, yes?" Jenny sat back again and nodded.

"Andy dropped everything in a blind panic and rushed to be with you when your sorority sisters passed, right?" She nodded again.

"Andy is here just as much as Mike, comforting you, giving you hugs, and doing everything you could possibly want, yes?" Jenny was about to get started again but stopped and nodded again.

"So, we have two men, who put your needs above theirs, who would do anything to keep you happy, and who clearly love you, right?" She was tearing up and continued nodding.

"Okay, that's our baseline. Now, do you love Mike?" She nodded. "Do you love Andy?" She nodded again.

"Alright. Now, you think that Mike may be heading to Andy's place to talk. That gives us a very limited window in which to get ahead of this." Jenny was nodding, looking for Anna to give her a solution.

"Then I think it's clear what we have to do, yes?" Jenny hesitated, looking at Anna, trying to voice her thoughts. She didn't know what to say, or how to fix this. She couldn't run from this; she couldn't pretend it didn't happen. She would know, she would know that Mike might know, she would know that Andy might know, and it would kill her trying to hide it now that it could be out in the open. There was no way out. It was over.

"I have to talk to them both." Anna nodded.

Mike was back at Jenny's place not even 30 minutes after having left. He had met up with Andy and they were talking when they both got a message from her asking them to come to her place as soon as possible. They both hopped into Mike's car and hurried to her place, worried that something was wrong.

At the knock, Jenny hesitated. She had already come this far, but she was scared of what came next.

"Jenny, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Andy was knocking again.

She slowly answered the door, almost unable to look them in the eye, afraid of what she might see.

"Are you okay? We rushed over right away. Are you hurt?" Mike was rubbing her arm; he could tell she was distressed.

She shook her head. "Please, sit down."

Andy and Mike glanced at each other worriedly but moved into the living room. Mike sat on the short couch against the wall, Andy on the longer couch perpendicular to it, and Jenny sat on a couch cushion, the third point of their triangle. Anna had gone out on Jenny's insistence, but she now wished that she was here to support her. But she knew that she had to do this herself.

Jenny was panicking now but trying to keep herself together. Andy and Mike could tell she was nervous but waited for her to speak. She darted glances between them, seeing concern on both of their faces, which just ate at her more.

"I had something in mind, on how I wanted this to go." She suddenly blurted out. She looked at them, both encouraging her to continue. "I wanted to let you know everything, but I don't think I can get through it all." She paused, tearing up. She took another deep breath, glancing between the two of them.

"I love you!" She blurted out again, unable to contain it anymore. "I'm in love with you both, and I don't deserve you! I've hurt you both, and fucked it all up, but you are the best men I've ever met, and I can't imagine my life without you." She was in tears but kept going. "You're always there for me, you always care for me, you never ask anything in return, but I love you two so much. I'm so selfish, and I've hurt you both. I'm sorry! If you hate me, and never want to see me again, I'll understand." She was sobbing, having finally said the things that she needed to say. She was dreading what would come next, but she needed to hear it.

She was surprised when she felt two pairs of arms wrap her up and hug her tight. "We love you to Jenny", Andy said, Mike nodding next to him.

"We had talked about this but didn't want to say anything until you made up your mind on what you wanted." Mike told her. They released her and were holding her hands. "In truth, we're both crazy about you."

"I don't think either of us could imagine being without you."

Jenny was looking at the two, trying to process this turn of events. Never in her wildest fantasies was this even an option. "So, you don't hate me for this?" she sniffled. They both shook their heads. "How, how would this work? How could this work?"

Mike and Andy looked a bit sheepishly at one another, "We kinda figured like, alternating days maybe? We're cool with each-other, but not like, that cool if you catch my drift." Mike rolled his eyes and jumped in, "We're not into each other is what he's saying, but we both love you. So, we won't get jealous on the other partner's day. I think we maybe keep the PDA to where it's at now in front of others, yeah?" Mike looked askance to Andy who agreed. "Yeah, hugging, cuddling, tickling, I think all the light stuff is fine. Maybe we can see how we feel with kissing down the road, but maybe let's keep it there for now."

Jenny's head was already having a hard time grasping all this. "And maybe we do a weekly group date?" Andy offered. "I think that'll require a lot of communication, but that would be a good way for us to gel more." Mike was nodding, "Yeah, communication will be key. I think we all need to be able to be open and honest with each other, and if someone is starting to feel a little hurt, they need to come out right away and say it so that we can all work through it."

Jenny covered her face with her hands, trying to reset her brain. "You two are cool with this? With each other?" She still couldn't quite believe it, but they both nodded to her. "And you already thought of all of these scenarios in the 2 minutes we've been here?"

Andy looked at Mike who rubbed his neck and admitted, "Well, Me and Andy had actually already had a talk like this a couple of months ago." "February, I believe. I recall there still being snow."

Mike continued, "We both knew how we felt and had a pretty good idea what the other was feeling, so we just had a drink night and talked it out. No judgements, no solutioning, just an honest conversation."

"Brought us really close but it did take a bit of booze to get us to open up about it." Andy laughed, recalling the bourbon they were sipping that night. "But we didn't want this to affect you or any decision you would or wouldn't make. If you wanted to be friends forever, we would be more than happy to do that. If you wanted more with one over the other, we could do that too."

Jenny was rubbing her hands together nervously. "I'll be honest, I was expecting one or both of you to be so furious with me that I was leading you on and was prepared to just take your hate and live with it, knowing that I had fucked up the best thing to have ever happened to me. But this, I never would have imagined this." She was tearing up again. Andy moved to hug her, then Mike after.

"Wait," Jenny sniffled on Mike's shoulder. "Is that why you've been alternating coming here to keep me company?"

"No, that was more just the way our personal schedules happened to work out. But I think as a test run, that seemed to work pretty well." Mike and Andy agreed.

"Okay, this might take some getting used to." A genuine smile bloomed across her face, "But thank you both. You are both so perfect. I love you so much."

Mike and Andy left after another hour of talking it over. They were leaving it up to Jenny when she wanted to start, but figured today was pretty emotional, so they should all take a day to acclimate. They each gave Jenny a big hug before heading out, assuring her that they loved her and didn't want her to change in any way.

Anna came back an hour later with a tub of ice cream, just in case. She instead found a happily humming Jenny putting together a puzzle on the dining room table. She looked around for any signs of a disturbance. "Okay, either things went really well, or there are two dead bodies in the bathroom." Anna half-joked, storing the ice cream while keeping a wary eye on Jenny.

Jenny was practically giddy, "It went so well! We're all together! They love me and I love them. I have my own harem!" That raised an eyebrow from Anna and Jenny told her about everything that happened. At some point she wasn't sure if Jenny wasn't just telling her about a daytime drama.

"So, alternating days?" Jenny nodded. "And they came up with this themselves?" She nodded again. Anna paused, still working on processing this information. She then looked at Jenny, "Hold on, I need to try something."

Anna sat upright and looked up as far as she could without raising her head, then slowly moved her eyes clockwise, until she completed the circle. Jenny watched this with morbid curiosity and complete confusion.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Looking for the matrix code." Anna tried going counterclockwise now. "I feel like it's right at the edge of my vision." Jenny huffed and just got up to get more ice cream. "Wait, "Anna cried, racing after her, "teach me!"

Flashback - February 2020

"Hey Mike, want to come over? I finally found a bottle of Henry McKenna bourbon we had been looking for and I'm itching to pop it open. Plus, I think we have somethings we need to discuss anyway." Andy was on speakerphone while he was painting a miniature. He had set up a magnifying glass after having come to terms with his deteriorating eyesight and was adding some dry brushing onto his latest model.

"Oh nice, I kept checking the stores but couldn't find it." Mike was similarly on speakerphone, having just wrapped up his afternoon weight training. He was wiping the sweat from his brow and breathing hard. "Oh, is it that thing? Yeah, probably best to address that sooner rather than later." He got up and walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. "I can be there in 30 minutes; I'll pick up some lunch for us. Sandwiches good?"

"Yeah, you stopping by that place, "the name was escaping Andy. "Shit, what's it called. The one you grabbed last time. Flannigan's, Hoolahan's?"

"Murphy's. Yeah, I can do that, number 2 again?"

"Yeah, and I got plenty of sodas here."

"Cool, see you in a bit."

Mike carefully parked on the snowy streets by Andy's place. Even with the non-stop plows going, it wasn't the easiest of smoothest of places to drive. He stamped the snow off his feet before heading into the blissfully warm townhouse. Andy grabbed a bottle of Dr. Pepper, his main weakness, and poured two glasses for them as they chatted over the sandwiches.