Page 54 of Sexting My Best Friend's Brothers
“Tessa?” the driver asks, glancing at his mounted phone.
“Yes,” I say, buckling my seatbelt. “The destination is correct.”
I look out the window as the city scrolls by.
I slept with one brother, the second one knows, and the third one—who called me a liability—just broke his silence to ask if I’m okay.
I didn’t just cross the line.
I erased it.
Now, I have to figure out how to live in the chaos I created.
11
TESSA
The silence in my apartment is a threat.
Usually, I love Sunday mornings. I love drinking cheap coffee in my pajamas and reading a romance novel while my cat, Barnaby, judges me from the top of the bookshelf.
But today, the silence is suffocating. It presses against my eardrums like deep water.
I’m sitting on my couch, staring at my phone. It’s lying on the coffee table, face up, like an unexploded bomb.
Asher: The probability of you sleeping with him is 98%.
I haven’t replied. I haven’t replied to Owen, either, who texted me at midnight—Missing you already, trouble—and again at 8:00 AM asking for coffee.
I’m paralyzed.
“I ruined it,” I whisper to the empty room. “I absolutely, completely ruined it.”
Barnaby jumps down from the shelf, landing with a soft thud. He trots over and butts his head against my shin, demanding attention. I scratch him behind the ears automatically. My mind is racing.
I slept with my boss, Owen Branson, and Asher knows.
The Watcher. The one who sees variables and outcomes. He warned me. Owen breaks things.
Does that mean Owen’s going to break me? Or does it mean I’m the one breaking them?
The image of the three of them—standing in the office, united, unbreakable—flashes in my mind. They survive because they’re a unit. Ethan commands, Asher calculates, Owen charms. They’re a closed circuit.
And I just stuck a fork in the outlet.
I stand up, my legs shaky. I need to see it in black and white.
I walk to the small desk in the corner of my living room where I keep my important papers—mostly takeout menus and expired coupons. I dig through the stack until I find the blue folder.
The lease on my life. My contract.
I open it. The pages are heavy bond paper. The edge is sharp enough to cut skin.
I flip through them, my heart beating fast. Pay. Dental. How they own my soul and every thought I have between nine and five.
I find it on page twelve.
Section 8.4: Fraternization and Conflicts of Interest. Employees are expected to maintain professional boundaries at all times.Relationships between supervisors and subordinates that may compromise the integrity of the company or create a conflict of interest are strictly prohibited.
