Daye, Rainey - An Unconventional Love (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (15 page)

“That goes without saying, though it’s such a cliché that I don’t know if we should even include it.”

“Yeah, we should,” Alex interjected. “It’ll be great as an individual date with her since it’s the perfect opportunity to have some quiet conversation and make out with her for a couple of hours in a darkened theater.”

“You’ve got a point,” Jess admitted. “I’ll keep it on the list.” Jess then shifted his attention back to Maggie. “So what we are trying to do is plan activities that would be fun as either a group date or individual dates with each other. We want all our individual interests to match up so none of our dates totally blow for the other person. Nor do we want one of us to feel like they have to pretend to enjoy the activity that one of the others enjoys.”

“For instance,” Alex tried to clarify, “a group date among the three of us would be going to a game together, whereas an individual date between me and Jess would be going to a car show together.”

“Have you been secretly watching
The Bachelor
?” Maggie couldn’t resist asking and was rewarded with Jess’s snort.

“So, do you like the zoo, Maggie?” Alex asked, ignoring her question.

“The zoo?” she asked.

“Yeah, my Aunt Ida used to work there when I was a kid, and she took me and my cousins there all the time. But Jess doesn’t really care for the zoo, and with my cousins living out of town now, I haven’t had anyone to go there with and feel too silly going there by myself. So I thought it might make a good date for the two of us,” he finished a bit wistfully.

“I love going to the zoo,” she answered, seeming sincere. “I’ve always wanted to check out the one here but have never found the time.”

“Then we’ll find the time together and put in on our list.” He smiled at her as he reached over and squeezed her hand.

“Okay, what else do you guys have written down on that list of yours?” she asked, apparently starting to get a good feeling for this unconventional idea of theirs.

“We haven’t really made up individual lists, yet,” Alex said. “We’ve just been kicking around a few ideas so far.”

“You know,” Jess suddenly interjected. “I just thought of a great idea.”

“Then put it on the list,” Alex remarked.

“No, it’s not a list item. It’s a way for us to compile the list that should be both thought provoking and entertaining.”

“Thought provoking? You? Really?” Alex couldn’t resist his dig.

“Hey, I have layers!” Jess exclaimed.

Maggie laughed at their teasing and mock outrage before asking, “What’s your idea, Jess?”

“Okay, we each put together our own wish list of places to go or activities to share during a date, and then we pass our lists around and everyone marks off the items that interest them. That way we find out who’s interested in doing what and whether that person’s item will be a one-on-one date, if only two of us chose it, or a group date with all three of us doing it together.”

“I like it.” Maggie grinned after she thought about it for a moment.

“You know,” Alex said thoughtfully. “We all probably have a secret desire to do something or go somewhere or see something but are too afraid to voice it. So why don’t we keep our lists secret?”

“But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the lists in the first place?” Jess asked. “Not necessarily. And I should have said ‘anonymous,’ not ‘secret,’ sorry about that. We can each make copies of our lists for the other two, and that way no one needs to know who wrote what down.”

“But then how do we tally the results?” Jess wanted to know, and the three of them fell silent as they tried to work out the details in their minds and finally decided to take some time to think about it.

* * * *

When they reconvened that evening, Maggie had most of it worked out in her head and wanted the guys’ input to flesh it out further.

“Okay, here’s what I’ve come up with,” she said as she joined them in the living room that night and showed them a sample list that she had printed out on the computer in the office. “We each take a couple of days to really think about what we want to put on our individual list, and we type them up on the computer so that our handwriting doesn’t give it away. We print out a copy of our list for each of us, and we place our initial next to those items that interest us. We then compare the lists to find out who is doing what together.”

“It’s still not anonymous, Mags,” Alex pointed out, “because you will still have to whip out your master list to compare results.”

“Not if we cut up our lists after we are done marking them and mix them all up in a bowl or something,” Maggie said, having already thought of that.

“Then we each need to print out three copies of our lists,” Alex remarked thoughtfully.

“Why’s that?” Jess wanted to know.

“So that we can compile the results without anyone needing to know what was whose suggestion.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, I get it,” Maggie breathed. “When we start putting the lists back together into matching piles, then the initials, or lack thereof, will indicate how many people will be going on that date, since all of us will naturally place our initials next to our own items. So we are each filling out three forms and then cutting them up, mixing them together, and rearranging them like a jigsaw puzzle.”

“But if no one else chooses one of your items, then only your initial will be there, and the other two will still find out that you were the one to choose it, so it’s still not anonymous,” Jess logically pointed out.

“If that item truly means that much to you but you are afraid that no one else will choose it, then
you
don’t choose it,” Maggie said.

“Huh?” they both asked this time.

“We’ll have saved our master lists in our own files on the computer. If one other person chooses it, then the person who wrote it down can approach that person in private and show them their master list as proof that it was their idea, and the two of them can go on that date and not even have to tell the other of us what the date was that you went on together. And if both of the others choose it while you left it blank, then again, you have your master list as proof, and there’s no longer any need to feel embarrassed about it since now you have proof the rest of us like that idea, too,” she pointed out.

“That could actually work. There is no need to announce to the person staying home just exactly where you are going or what you are planning to do. Dates can remain private between whichever couple goes on one, dignity is preserved, and no one is left embarrassed if no one chooses one of their picks,” Alex mused thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Maggie agreed. “Now, we’ve already mentioned sporting events, car shows, and the zoo. All of us know that I’m willing to try the sporting events but not the car show and that it will be Alex and I going to the zoo together for an individual date, so that’s two individual dates and one group date that have already been decided on. So now what we need to do is take some time to think about what other types of dates we want to go on. And by that I mean what we each would prefer and not what we think the others would like. Since our lists will remain anonymous when we first read them and make our selections, there should be no reason to feel embarrassed, and whatever dates occur as a result should turn out to be really great. So we have free rein to safely reveal what we would really like to do if we had the opportunity to do so,” she concluded.

“Then the reverse should apply also,” Alex stated.

“The reverse?” Jess asked with a creased brow.

“Yeah. If writing out our lists gives us free rein to reveal what we would really like to do with another person in a date setting, then we should also embrace that ideal while we are choosing items from our lists. Don’t put your initial by anything that you really don’t have an interest in just because you think someone might be left with hurt feelings. We really don’t know at this point if someone else might not be intrigued by a suggestion that leaves you cold. So be honest with your picks.”

“But what if there’s not many selections on someone’s list that interest you?” Jess asked doubtfully. “We’re each going to have three lists in front of us, and one of them will be our own. So if one of the other lists has great selections in your opinion while the other doesn’t have many that you like, then you won’t be able to help but feel sorry for whoever wrote that list, and you’ll go ahead and put your initial by some of them even if you don’t really want to.”

“Oh,” Maggie breathed, not having considered that, having assumed that she would just automatically mark just about every box on the other two lists anyway so that she could really get to know her boyfriends better. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she admitted. “Since you two have known each other forever, you’re bound to recognize each other’s lists anyway. So mine won’t be anonymous after all, and I might wind up on some pity dates with you instead.”

“Okay,” Alex said slowly after they had sat there in silence for several minutes while they mulled over this unfortunate speed bump that none of them had previously foreseen. “I see two choices here. We can either agree on some items that all of us will mark down on our lists to try to disguise who wrote what, or we can cut our lists into strips after we print them out but before we hand them to the others.”

“How does that help?” Jess asked, not following his thought process.

“Since we are printing out three copies of our list, then when we cut them up, we’ll have three strips with the same suggestion on it. We’ll also have three bags, and we put one strip in each bag. That way our suggestions are mixed in with everyone else’s so that no one feels forced to give any selection a pity vote.”

“Ohh, I like that idea,” Maggie breathed as Jess nodded his head enthusiastically.

* * * *

Several days later they convened in the dining room for the great reveal after dinner, each carrying a small brown paper lunch bag that contained their marked strips of date suggestions. In the middle of the table was a large brown paper grocery bag where the folded strips could be thoroughly mixed together before they started piecing them together.

Taking turns, they stuck their own bags into the larger one and then emptied them inside, further reassuring that no one prematurely saw one of their picks. Alex then closed the bigger bag and shook it vigorously while the other two sat down in hushed expectation.

Maggie’s stomach was filled with butterflies. Very soon they were going to embark on their very first dates together. Her ribs seemed to be constricting her lungs, and she was having a hard time breathing due to her nervous excitement.

Ever since that erotic massage almost a week earlier, both men had seemed to take a step back where she was concerned. Although she had indulged in make-out sessions with both of them whenever she was alone in the house with one of them, both had refused to do any more than heavy petting with her, and they kept their hands strictly above her clothes. Nor would they allow her to try to slip her hands under their shirts. They would give her a chaste kiss at bedtime and firmly close their door on her so she couldn’t follow, leaving her to crawl dejectedly into her own lonely bed because neither man would acknowledge her hints that she sleep in bed with them. And to make matters worse, one night she had discovered that they weren’t abstaining, when she had once gone to their room several hours after they had bid her good night. She had been determined to silently crawl into bed with them so that maybe she would have better luck enticing them in the morning into at least a little fooling around with her while they were still drowsy. But as she reached out to the doorknob with every intention of breaking their cardinal rule, she froze as the distinct sounds of sex had reached her ears.

She had finally been forced to dig her vibrator back out of her closet so that she could relieve some of her built-up tension and frustration on her own. By this point, she was fully ready to put out on their first official date!

“So, who gets to go on the first date?” Jess asked, breaking into her smutty thoughts and leaving her to crazily wonder if he had read her mind. Or worse still, did she actually speak that thought aloud?