“So… let me make sure I understand,” Brian hedged. He frowned his confusion. “You come here to admit that you wanted someone else, and then you ask me if I’m interested in a threesome. I’m… I try to be decent about it. To get what you’re going through because it can’t be easy on you. I actually suggest you take time out to make sure you really want to be in a monogamous relationship with me… but that’s not good enough. Instead I have to decide right now if we’re still in a relationship or not because otherwise, it’d be too hard. For you. And if I can’t, then you’re not willing to be my friend.”

Brian stood up. He picked up the vodka by the neck of the bottle and let it dangle between his fingers.

“Okay.” He smiled a little brokenly and wiped a hand over his face. “I guess it didn’t occur to you that I might need more than ten minutes to process this. Or maybe it doesn’t matter what I need because what you feel right now is so urgent that you can’t stand to live with it for another minute, well…” He shook his head.

There was nothing left to say. If Valerie wasn’t willing to let these admittedly fluid thoughts she’d had today settle down, there was nothing he could do to change her mind.

He wiped his eye against his shoulder and laughed, a hoarse and humorless sound. “Ah, god, Valerie.” He set the bottle on the floor and walked away from it, in the direction of his bedroom.

The bottle vibrated, cracked, and began to leak its contents on the rug.