Page 104 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
“We need data,” Asher repeats. “We need to acknowledge the reality of the situation out loud.”
He looks at me. Then at Ethan.
“We have all slept with her,” Asher states flatly.
“We know, Asher,” Ethan snaps, staring out the window. “You made that perfectly clear in the group chat last night.”
“I am merely establishing the timeline of failure,” Asher says calmly. “Owen breached protocol at his loft at the end of her second week. You crossed the line on your desk after the betalaunch. I crossed it last night. The ‘strictly professional’ mandate is dead, Ethan. We killed it.”
“I tried to stop,” Ethan says, his voice rough, refusing to turn around. “I tried to send her away.”
“But you didn’t,” Asher says. “You engaged. You marked her. I saw the bruise on her hip.”
“And I heard you two through the door,” I add, stepping into the fray. “Don’t act like you’re the only one tortured by this, Ethan. You looked at her all week like you owned her. It drove me crazy. It drove all of us crazy.”
The three of us stand there in a triangle of silence.
The truth is finally out in the open air, stripped of all the corporate bullshit and unspoken tension. We’re exposed.
“We’re hypocrites,” I say, breaking the tension with a harsh laugh. “All of us. We made a pact to protect the company from exactly this kind of mess, and instead, we all slept with her.”
“The Trifecta,” Asher murmurs.
“She completed the set,” I add.
“She didn’t play us,” Ethan says, rubbing a hand over his face. The anger drains out of him, replaced by a heavy, crushing exhaustion. “We played ourselves. We pushed her into a corner.”
“So what now?” I ask. “She resigned. She’s running. She’s going to Nebula.”
“I will bury Vance in litigation before I let him have her,” Ethan says instantly, his voice vibrating with violence.
“A lawsuit won’t keep her in your bed,” Asher points out. “It will only ensure she hates you. And we can’t keep her under the current parameters. Operating as separate entities competing for the same resource is causing system failure.”
“It’s causing me to want to punch you,” Ethan corrects him. He turns away from the window to glare at Asher. “Knowing she was in your bed last night… it takes everything I have not to put my fist through your jaw right now.”
“I felt the same way when you had her on your desk,” I admit quietly. “We’re tearing each other apart.”
“We can’t share her,” Ethan says, shaking his head. “It’s not… we don’t do that. Not with someone like her. Not with family.”
“Why not?” I ask.
I look at my brothers. We’ve shared everything else. Trauma. Poverty. Success. We survived the desert together. We survived the startup trenches together.
“She needs all of us,” I say, the idea taking root, wild and desperate. “She needs your stability,” I point to Ethan. “She needs Asher’s focus. And she needs my…”
“Chaos,” Asher supplies.
“Charm,” I correct. “She didn’t choose one of us, Ethan. She said yes to all of us.”
“Because she was confused!” Ethan roars.
He swipes a stack of files off his desk. They scatter across the floor in a chaotic wave. It’s the first time I’ve seen him lose control in years.
“She was confused, and we took advantage of her,” Ethan breathes heavily, leaning his hands on the desk. “If we try to do this… if we try to ‘share’ her… we are just confusing her more. It’s selfish, Owen.”
“Is it?” I ask quietly. “Or is it selfish to let her walk away because you’re too proud to share?”
Ethan flinches. “I’m not proud,” he whispers. “I’m terrified. I’m terrified that if I see her with you, I’ll hate you. And I can’t lose my brothers. I can’t lose you.”
