Page 14 of You're Ours

Tyler tried to really take their advice to heart the following week. He started off Monday morning with full intentions to go home early and sit on his couch, or even draw a bath, and figure out what sort of relationships he wanted in life.

His conviction lasted the time it took to get to Sky’s desk three floors down from his. Sky practically leapt at him, and their hug turned into a coffee run, which ended in Sky demanding they video call that night so he could hear all about Tyler’s trip.

Tuesday, Jackson took him out for lunch, and Wednesday, Sky showed up in his office, and they ended up going for a walk. He invited Tyler over on Saturday to finally have their talk, and Tyler agreed. He held Sky’s hand for the entire walk and told himself two days was plenty of time to think.

Thursday night, Sky pinged him to do an online Netflix watch party. He figured one movie couldn’t hurt, so he cuddled up in his usually lonely queen-sized bed and fell asleep with their laughs and commentary filling the room.

Friday night, he told Sky and Jackson he needed to do his own thing, and he pulled out an old notebook and settled into his couch. He made it halfway through a page of notes when his long-time best friend, Bobby, called.

Bobby was one of his friends who had sort of disappeared after he married his husband. They moved to the suburbs on the other side of the city, and they rarely got to see each other. Tyler cast a furtive glance at his notebook before agreeing to meet up for drinks.

“So, you’re off the market, huh? How long do you think this one’s gonna last?” Bobby asked, taking a long swig of his beer as he eyed Tyler skeptically.

“You say it like I’m the one ending my relationships. I’ve only ended two relationships I've been in, and that’s ‘cause they both demanded marriage before we hit the six-month mark,” Tyler said with a sigh.

Bobby laughed and set his beer down. “Yeah, that is a bit fast, but sometimes when you know, you know.”

Bobby had proposed to his husband after a year of being together, but he’d started looking at rings at month nine.

“I guess,” Tyler said somewhat doubtfully.

Bobby put a comforting hand on his forearm. “That’s how it was for Clara and Stephanie, and that’s how it was for me, but it takes some people longer than others to develop feelings. I can tell that you really like these guys. Lean into that! Enjoy it! Things will all work out in the end.”

Thankfully, they moved onto other topics, and when the game came on, they turned most of their attention to the big screen in front of them. The bar began to fill up until they were forced to scoot right up next to each other on their bar stools.

As Tyler’s fourth beer set in, he leaned into Bobby’s side. Bobby made his usual jokes about Tyler being a cuddle-slut, but threw his arm around Tyler’s back and held him against his side for the entire game.

They’d never slept together because Bobby wasn’t really Tyler’s type and vice versa, but they’d been roommates for a time. Tyler had always enjoyed leaning against him on their threadbare couch while they watched TV, and he’d appreciated Bobby’s strength when he put a supporting arm around him after a rough day.

If he had to name the place in his body where he felt his relationship with Bobby, it would probably be his shoulders. They always relaxed around Bobby. Even with how infrequently they saw each other, he still cared deeply for him.

Just like he’d cared deeply for a lot of his past relationships.

While he was filled with new relationship energy with Sky and Jackson, if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t really feel anything earth-shatteringly different than in his past relationships. He could admit that maybe he felt more potential with them—potential for something deeper, something that maybe didn’t have to taper off or end. Over the past few weeks, they’d both wormed their way into his life, and he now considered both men to be his best friends. At the very least, he knew he didn’t want that to ever stop.

He’d known since the moment he met them they were the forever kind of friends. Adding sex and intimacy to their relationships had only intensified those feelings. He would be ready to exchange best-friends-forever necklaces with themtoday, but the thought of true love and marriage still eluded him.

As he rode the last train home for the evening, he wondered if part of it was that he was always destined to be non-monogamous. Maybe the problem was that there wasn’t just one person for him, but multiple.

That still didn’t seem quite right, though.

He’d told a few of his exes that he loved them, and he had truly believed it at the time. Looking back, though, he found it a bit difficult to differentiate between how he felt about his significant others and how he felt about his best friends. For a while, he’d assumed the only difference everyone felt was that obviously you have sex with your partner, so that somehow swirled together in your heart to change “love” into “in love.”

Tyler had just never experienced it.

The fluttering he felt for Jackson and the warmth in his belly he had for Sky wasdefinitelysexual. It was also affectionate, and he’d go so far as to say it was something like love. They’d been work friends for a long time. Obviously, they were becoming much better friends now, but he’d always cared about them. He didn’t understand how he was supposed to know when that care turned into something deeper, something he could hang his metaphorical hat on. Or put a ring on.

That Saturday, while curled up with Sky in his arms and his back resting against Jackson, he tried to explain some of this.

“I’ve always thought of you as my friend,” Sky said, nuzzling his cheek against Tyler’s chest. “And you’re right, I totally think of you as one of my best friends now. That’s why we didn’t want to move too fast from friends to friends-with-benefits to dating.”

Tyler nodded along like he understood, and to a point, he did, but he still wasn’t entirely sure they were on the same page. He gently tried to broach the topic of marriage and how the whole thing confused him, but Sky and Jackson seemed to interpret his musing wrong.

“If us being married becomes an issue down the line, and you think you would want to be on more equal footing with us, we are very willing to get a divorce. There’s a lot of legal hoops to jump through, but there are ways for polyam couples to gain power of attorney for each other, put house ownership under a shared LLC, and be in each other’s wills.”

That was good to know. Tyler couldn’t imagine doing any of that quite yet, but he had no issue with anything they said. If their friendship and, he guessed, boyfriend-ship continued, and they wanted to get more legal protection for their relationship, that made total sense to Tyler.

“I think the moral of the story for us is that we want to be with you, and this is just the next step in us being with you,” Sky explained as he turned around in Tyler’s arms to straddle his lap.

---