Page 72 of Nothing to You
She shrugged.“It won’t happen.His focus is elsewhere.And we’re sort of… unspoken.”
“Do you want to get married?”
Simple question.“No.”
“How do you know that you’re… How do you know when to not…”
“Hit on other people?It doesn’t work like that.”Now all of them were confused.“Look…” She laid a flat hand on the counter.“We do what feels good.We do whatever we want whenever we want.It just so happens that right now, what we want to do is screw like rabbits.If I’m not in the mood, he accepts that or changes it.Same the other way around.We don’t have language or rules, we have…”
“Feelings,” Jane said.
Respect.Though that seemed like an ironic description given how much time they spent disrespecting each other for sport.
“We’re each other’s default.”Was that a better way to describe it?“We default to each other.Whether that’s talking something out, teasing each other, or getting each other off.We’re open for each other twenty-four, seven.”
“And if someone else got between you?”Lilya asked.
“Wouldn’t happen,” she said, shaking her head.“If we got involved with other people, that wouldn’t change our friendship.Yeah, maybe he’ll have to keep it in his pants around me, but so what?Soon as the lady’s out of his life, if he needs a rebound, I’ll be open for business, for whatever he needs.Just like he’d be for me.”
“I don’t get it,” Lilya said.
Jane was as perplexed though there was a curiosity there.
It wasn’t as potent as Roxie’s.“Are you kidding yourself?”She gestured at the trio.“We’ve all got into the fling mindset.We think it doesn’t mean anything until we lose our guy and then it becomes… clear.If someone took Rourke away from you—”
She laughed.“No one can do that.”
“If I was Rourke’s girlfriend, I would hate you,” Lilya said, lifting her glass.“Just saying.”
“Me too,” Roxie agreed and nudged Jane.“She won’t say it, but she would as well.I put up with Kesley, I like Kesley, and Trish, Zairn’s list goes on and on, but you’re… You two are too…”
“Symbiotic,” Lilya said.
“Thank you,” she said, frowning, unsure if that was a compliment.
“That’s it.That’s exactly what it is.You’re not co-dependent because you’re completely fine, healthy, rounded individuals, but it’s like… you exist together.”
Okay.Now confusion closed around her.Apparently, everyone had to take a shot on the “what the hell?”train.
“Do you think he feels the same way?”Jane asked.“If you were with a guy, would he get mad?”
“Providing he gets something out of the deal, he’s happy to pimp me out.”As his interaction with Franco revealed.“He’d never get jealous and wouldn’t need to be jealous.No third party changes our friendship.”
“Maybe he loves her,” Jane said, almost appealing to Roxie to make sense of it.“Maybe Roux thinks it’s not a big deal, she thinks it’s just sex and then…”
Roxie took Jane’s hand.“I love you.”
“That’s not the same,” Jane said, sagging into a slouch.
“Do you think he loves you?”Lilya asked.
“I know he does.”
“Does he say it?”
“Would he say it?”
Restraining a laugh wasn’t easy.If she wasn’t in it, she might not understand it either.
