Her question.

I spared a quick look at the time. It was 10:40 pm and we were still at the lookout, and to be honest, I didn’t want to leave yet. The tension and awkwardness between Alice and me was finally fading away. I wanted to keep talking.

“Alright. I answered your question with probably more information than you asked for. Now it’s your turn to answer something.”

“Sure. Hit me.”

“How’s it going between you and the girls? I know their side of the story, but I want to know yours.”

I take it back. I don’t want to talk anymore.

I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck. “W-What can I even say? What do you want to know?”

Alice’s smile widened. She comfortably leaned back on the railing, half-sitting on it with her feet still on the ground. “I don’t know. They keep telling me how amazing you are, so of course I’m curious. I’m the only one they can brag to about their cool boyfriend, so I’ve had to hear all sorts of things.”

The heat rushing to my face made me forget all about the cold breeze. “P-Please tell me they haven’t…!”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard sooo many things.” She giggled. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop the teasing.” {They were right. He’s even cuter when he’s embarrassed}. “What I really want to know is, how are you handling it? Is going out with the three of them not hard?”

“It’s…” I sighed. There was really no point in hiding things, was there? If I knew the girls, and I was confident I did to a decent extent, they had told Alice even the raunchiest details. “It’s hard, yes, but it’s also amazing.” I knew I had a goofy smile on my face, but I couldn’t stop it. “They’re amazing. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for them. I… Sorry, I just don’t know what to say.”

“Just gush a little, Oliver!” Alice laughed and gave me another playful push. “You let me bore you with car talk for almost 40 minutes and you think I’ll be upset to hear you talk about how great my friends are?”

I chuckled. “Mila’s just a ball of sunshine, isn’t she? She’s so kind and upbeat that most of the time it’s hard for me to match her energy. I love her for it, though. Makes me think there’s no point in dwelling on the negatives.

“Grace is smart, clever and fun-loving. I always feel like I grow a little smarter just talking to her. She’s eloquent and precise with her words, but she’s also the first to say yes to any idea if it sounds like a good time to her.

“Then there’s Sarah, who always challenges me to be better every day. She’s encouraging and super supportive, so when I think that I’m not doing as well as I could, I imagine her being disappointed in me and just take that extra step. It’s what’s pushed me to be able to do things I never thought I’d do, like being a waiter at a coffee shop. I would’ve never dared to even try before!” It was then that I noticed Alice was staring at me with wide eyes, blinking. “W-What?”

“I… It’s… Wow.” She chuckled. “Sorry, it’s just… You described them perfectly. You guys have been going out for… what, a couple months? Almost three? And you already know them this well. Though I suppose you four HAVE been spending a lot of time together since then.”

I smiled wryly. “Not as much as I’d like. The biggest issue for me is time. I want to be with them all the time, but there’s school, work… And even when I can be with them, we have to work out if we’ll all hang out together or if I go on a date with just one of them. I really worry that I’m being unfair in some ways. Like, I went on two dates in a row with Grace a couple of weeks ago, but I was busy this week and I owe Sarah a date now. And then sometimes I…” I swallowed nervously, trying to think my next words carefully, but they were coming out faster than I could consider if saying this at all was a good idea. “Sometimes I… pay attention to one of them a little more than the others without realizing it, and I worry I might upset them.”

“Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Alice assured me, grinning. “From what they say, you’re just too much for just one girl to handle.”

I hid my face in my hand, and touching it confirmed it was as hot as I thought. “Whyyy? Why do they have to say these things?”

“A part of it is that we’ve always shared everything,” Alice said. “The other is that they just want to brag and gush. They’re crazy about you, you know? It’s a little scary, even.”

“Scary?”

Alice smiled wryly. “When they told me they were dating you at the same time, my biggest worry was that they’d fight amongst themselves over you. That they’d grow jealous of each other and that this bond they have would shatter over a guy.” Before I could even begin to worry about it, though, Alice continued. “Turns out I was worried in vain. These girls aren’t jealous in the slightest.” She sighed and muttered, “Quite the opposite, actually.”

Do I ask? Should I? Is it a good idea? I repeated these questions at least five times in the span of five seconds before I decided to do it.

“S-Speaking of. Should we address the elephant in the room?”

Alice pursed her lips. She looked down at the ground and then towards the city. “I’d like to, but…” She side-glanced at me a couple of times. “This is so complicated. The girls want me to… They want us to date. I wasn’t even sure I wanted a relationship at all, but now… Oliver, If it was just up to me, I wouldn’t mind giving it a shot.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Seriously?”

Alice nodded. “How about you?”

“Before tonight, I wasn’t sure. But now? I…” I swallowed. “I’d like to try, too.”

Alice smiled wryly. “But what about Noelle?”

Oh.

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