Monday Flash Fics - Three is ...

 
 

 Three is…

Cory concentrated on the steaming coffee in his cup while listening to the increasingly heated discussion between Jasper and Aaron. He’d known it wouldn’t last. From the start he’d feared that it was too good to be true. Aaron’s suggestion had made so much sense at the time, it had felt right, the three of them fitted together perfectly, and now, here Cory was —listening to his worst fears being realised.

“Oh come on Aaron.” Jasper voice was getting heated as he gathered steam. “Just listen to me for fuck sake. I’ve done this before. I know what I’m talking about.”

Jasper snorted. “The fact that you have done it before is enough reason not to pay any attention to what you say. Remember how that ended? Remember what a mess you were?”

Cory had to stop himself from flinching at Jasper’s harsh words, and they weren’t even aimed at him. He did remember…all too well. Aaron had been a mess, devastated. It had taken weeks and long nights of talking, cuddling, and, eventually, love making to calm him down and restore his belief in himself.

“One…” Aaron sounded as if he had a hard time keeping a reign on his temper. “That’s not fair. And two, maybe I learned something from everything that went wrong then. Maybe we can use my past mistakes to our advantage.”

Silence settled around the table but the mood didn’t lighten. Cory didn’t need to look up to know that Jasper’s face would be scrunched up while he searched for further arguments to convince Aaron. He also had no doubt that Aaron would be staring at Jasper, wordlessly urging him to see reason. I know them so well. I don’t want to lose them.

Part of Cory wanted to tell them they should just forget about it. Obviously this wasn’t going to work. Maybe it had been a stupid idea from the start. There were reasons why most people tried to avoid scenarios like the one they’d embraced so optimistically. But he said nothing. Past experience told him Jasper and Cory had to be allowed to slog this one out between them.

“You know it makes sense.” The pleading note in Aaron’s voice was harder to bear than his earlier suppressed anger had been. “We’re good together. I don’t want to give up on us.” He stared at the table for a few moments. “I don’t think you want that either.”

Jasper sighed and Cory knew that the battle was over.

“You bastard.” Jasper growled the words yet managed to sound affectionate. “I love the two of  you. Of course I don’t want to give up. We’ll try it your way. I’ll take care of finance and IT, you look after customer service and PR, and pretty boy over there can be our face and voice in the world at large.”

Pretty boy, also known a Cory, relaxed and grinned. “You two are so hot when you argue.”

As he followed Jasper and Aaron back to the bedroom they’d vacated only an hour earlier, Cory pondered that he never would have guessed that the three of them starting a business together might turn out to be harder than being part of a triad had ever been.

****

542 words

It's been too long since I last did a Monday Flash Fic and I'm delighted I managed to write a new story this week. I do hope  you enjoyed it. As always there should be more stories based on the same image in the Monday Flash Fics Facebook group. Click on the link to find and enjoy them.