50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter One Hundred Three

    He's suggesting what? Destiny stared at Aubrey for a long time without speaking. "Date...both of you? At the same time? That's your solution to working on us?"

    "That's my proposed solution to you determining what you really want," he responded.

    "This situation is complicated as it is," she protested. "Wouldn't that make things more complicated?" Wouldn't that make me even more confused than I already am? she wondered.

    "At first, probably."

    "But you expect that towards the end of this period where I'm dating both of you, that it would get easier?" she asked him incredulously. "Less complicated? You said that sending me off to live with him was a mistake, but allowing me to date both him and you doesn't feel like a mistake to you?"

    He leaned back on the couch and settled an arm on the backrest behind her. "For the past few weeks, I've watched you. Even when you didn't know I was looking, I watched you. And do you know what I saw?"

    She slowly shook her head.

    "I saw that something was eating at you. Something was troubling you." He paused and sighed. "I tried to give it time, tried to tell myself that the problem could just go away on it's own. I tried to tell myself that maybe in a few months, or maybe a year, maybe we could get back to where we were. But that was unrealistic of me. That was hopeful of me, but incredibly unrealistic. The problem didn't go away. It's still there, and no matter how close you and I get, it's right there, in between us, preventing us from getting as close to each other as we can be...as close to each other as we used to be."

    "It doesn't feel like dating both of you would be the answer," she told him. "I already feel bad enough, having slept with both of you. I already feel like I've led Brian on, even though...even though I didn't. Because..." She turned sad eyes to Brian.

    Aubrey's heart clenched in his chest. "Because you love him," he finished for her.

    Because I love him, she thought, her brows slanting upward as she stared at Brian. Because no matter how much I try to forget him, he's always there at the back of his mind. Because no matter how hard I try, I keep thinking about him, worrying about him. I hate to admit it, but I do miss him.

    Brian sat quietly, staring back at her. He looked especially debonair in his dark suit, but that was a fact she tried to ignore.

    "I've already hurt you so much," she told him. "Something like this would result in me hurting one of you again, and I couldn't live with that."

    "If we all agree to this, we would be agreeing that we are responsible for our own choices, our own actions," Aubrey said. "There would be no pointed fingers, no blame game. We would all go in knowing that you had to choose one of us."

    I thought I already did choose one of you, she thought frustratedly. And Brian was very clear about wanting to move on.

    "My feelings were the same as yours," Brian said, finally speaking up. "It felt like being a part of something like this would just be opening old wounds that were just starting to heal."

    "I thought you hated me," she told him. "Back at the hotel in D.C...it was like you didn't want anything to do with me. So why are you here? Why would you agree to something like this, knowing how it ended up last time?"

    "I could never hate you." His blue eyes flashed with emotion. "I was just...trying to protect myself. Also, I have to point out that I didn't agree to this at first. When Aubrey first came to me, I told him 'No.'"