Page 21 of Six of Hearts
"Yeah," Gabriel replied.
"That's weird. He never calls."
Liam was a religious texter. He did so much talking all day, every day at his job, so when he was off the clock, he preferred to save his voice and text.
"Get dressed and we'll call him from the car," Gabriel said.
I changed out of my workout clothes, and met Gabriel at his pristine, silver Lexus in front of our gym. I climbed into the passenger's side of his car, and then Gabriel got in and started his car.
He pressed the phone button and his car blinged to life.
"Call Liam," Gabriel told it, and a second later Liam answered.
"Where the hell have you been?" Liam barked.
"Whoa," Gabriel replied.
"Hey, Liam, it's me and Ethan. We were at the gym, boxing. I kicked his ass, obviously."
"If by 'kicked his ass,' you mean fell flat on yours, then I would say that's an accurate depiction of what happened today," I cut in.
"You cheated," Gabriel spat back.
I gasped.
"What? No, I–"
"Hey guys, fun fact, I don't give a shit who won your little means-nothing boxing match. Something happened with Aria last night," Liam said.
Gabriel's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "What do you mean, something happened?"
There was a pause on the other end. "She asked me about our dating lives. I tried to keep it vague, but she pushed. So I told her the truth about our arrangement."
My stomach dropped. "You told her? We agreed Noah would—"
"I know what we agreed," Liam interrupted. "But she was asking direct questions, and I wasn't going to lie to her face. She's not stupid, Ethan. She was already picking up on things."
Gabriel and I exchanged a look. He was right about that—Aria was perceptive. Still, this wasn't how we'd planned it.
"How did she react?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level.
"Better than I expected, honestly. She seemed... intrigued. We talked for a while about how it works, and then things got a little heated between us."
"How heated?" Gabriel's voice was tight.
"Heated enough that I had to make a choice about how far to take things. I didn't sleep with her—we agreed to wait on that. But we didn't exactly keep our hands to ourselves either."
I sat back in my seat, processing. Part of me felt a flash of something—not quite jealousy, but close. The bigger part of me was concerned about what this meant for all of us.
"Is she okay with everything?" I asked. "With the arrangement, I mean?"
"She seemed to be. More than okay, actually. But that's why I'm calling. We need to meet and figure out what we're doing here. If she's genuinely interested in moving forward with this, we need to be clear about expectations. For her sake and ours."
"And the kids," I added. That was the part that worried me most. Leo had already gotten attached to Aria. If this went sideways, it wouldn't just affect us.
"Exactly," Liam said. "Can you two come to Noah's? We need to talk this through before Aria gets back with the kids."
"Yeah. Let us go home and change, and we'll be over," Gabriel said.
