“Are you hitting on me? Of all the possible moments to do that, you choose now?” Claire voiced her astonishment.

“Dunno. Did it work? If yes, then of course I did,” I smiled back.

Just as another stare-down between me and Claire was about to begin, Olivia’s well-timed cough caught our attention.

“Should I continue, or would you rather keep on flirting?” my girlfriend intervened. Huh, so some of Bella’s attitude rubbed off on her already. Though, it was like seeing a small kitten imitating a tigress, so I found her jealous act cute instead.

“Of course you should continue. We can resume our flirting later,” I answered her question, while Claire was nodding along with my words.

“Actually, as I said before, the first answer leads to the second answer,” Olivia said, ignoring my words. “We have already established that I am realistic in my expectations. Which means that I am naturally fine with honey adding even more women.”

Her words didn’t make sense to me, but I decided against interrupting.

“That’s what was my first conclusion I came to. And what I even said to him,” my mistress carried on. “And that was a total lie. Of course, I wasn’t fine. Of course, I wanted him all to myself. And I wholeheartedly believed that I would be able to just say one thing, but do another. All I needed to do, I thought, would’ve been making him like me the most, and gradually push away other bitches.”

I weighed her words in my mind. That made a lot of sense to me, actually. This reaction is what I expected to come out of her idea, right from the get go.

“But something changed?” Claire caught on.

“Yeah, I met his second woman. Oh, she isn’t second to me, but more about that later,” Olivia responded. “It was a true eye-opener. And a very humbling experience. For the first time in my life, I met a woman who was that much above my level in every way, whether in her looks, demeanor, or status. Just her presence alone cowed me instantly. And she is a competitor. With a humongous head start at that.”

My girlfriend let out a sigh and took another sip of her cocktail. Both Claire and I were waiting for what would come next.

“And yet, even a woman like that can’t get him all to herself…” Olivia lamented. “You know what is the worst part? She is his special woman, yet she is still the second one in his rankings. Which means that, somewhere out there, there is a number one. I dread ever meeting her. I feel my insecurities creeping up just thinking about that.”

I didn’t know what to say here, not going to lie. So, instead, I opted to give her thigh another encouraging squeeze, which resulted in a quick smile, as well as her leaning even more into my side.

“But I digress. Sorry,” the girl by my side apologized. “So, the biggest hurdle of ‘accepting the fact I wouldn’t be the only one for him’ had already passed, and now I have three options. The first one is to just leave, which isn’t an option I’m willing to take, at least not right now. The second one is to start a fight, which, hopefully, would end up with me as the ultimate winner. Um, this one is a lot more complicated, and I’m pretty sure honey will just walk away by himself, saying something like ‘Screw this boring drama’.”

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“It’s what I would’ve done exactly, indeed,” I interjected.

“Yeah, which means that option number two is a no-go. It’s a lose-lose situation. And this leads to the third one. I can put in effort and try to get as much happiness from this arrangement as possible.” Olivia said this with a small hopeful smile on her face, and I lost myself in how absolutely stunning she was looking at this moment. “Um, the actual answer is this. I don’t want to leave. I don’t believe in my chances to win the fight, either. So, I choose to coexist. Simple as that.”

“Co-exist?” the counter girl questioned.

“Yep. At the very minimum, it should be about tolerating each other’s existence. Ideally, some kind of friendship or companionship. Who knows, really, how it would work,” my girlfriend replied.

I tried to picture something like that in my head and… failed. That was too good to be true, came a whisper from the dark depths of my existence. Ways and ways too good. But… if I learned something from my life, it was that chance is always there. Yeah, bad things had a much higher probability, in my experience that is… but my predictions failed many times this last week.

I cut off the existential thoughts, since they were causing the pleasant buzz in my head to wear off much quicker. Should I get a few extra shots? I checked my watch, it was one-thirty a.m. Not yet the time for me to get wasted.

“Honey?” I heard Olivia calling me.

“Mm?” I acknowledged hearing it.

“Do you have anything to add, or should I proceed to the last question?” my girlfriend asked me.

“Nah. Nothing really,” I replied. “Unless you want me to pat your head and praise you for making the right choice?”

That clearly caught Olivia off guard, if only for a moment. In her enchanting eyes, wide open in surprise and staring right into mine, I was able to see how a wave of joy, mixed with a lot of mischief, overtook every other emotion inside. Her supple lips parted into a brilliant smile as she inclined her head, so it would be easier to reach with my hand. Since my mistress decided to respond positively to my joke, I couldn’t just disappoint her, no? In the end, she really did everything right. So far.

“You are doing great, Olivia.” I said while lightly stroking her hair, trying not to mess it too much. She squinted her eyes like a pleased cat and leaned into my hand, still smiling brightly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Claire, once again, had that strange expression on her face. It felt familiar for some reason, and yet, for the life of me, I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it was. A part of me wanted to simply ask her, but that would derail our conversation again, and I was curious to hear what Olivia had to say.

“And now I definitely feel like a third-wheel,” groaned the counter girl after about a minute or so.

“I’m sorry to make you feel left out,” I apologized with a smile and a cheesy wink. “Would you like to get some head pats as well?”

“I think I’m good, thanks,” Claire responded. “That would mess up my hair.”

And, once more, this wasn't a no. With that thought, I found myself staring right into the eyes of the girl across the table. Only to meet with her own gaze.

“And they are at it again,” I heard a defeated sigh from my side. “Hey, maybe it’s time to hit the dance floor? Personally, I think the third question is kind of moot at this point.”