Free Some Like It Hopeless (A Temporary Engagement) by Megan Bryce

would like.”
    Shane murmured, “She’s checking. To see how you react to me. If she didn’t care about you, she wouldn’t care what you thought.”
    Brady turned off the water and pulled back the curtain. Shane’s eyes met his in the mirror and Brady said, “I’m not going to react to you. I don’t care one way or the other.”
    Shane glanced down and murmured, “I can see that.”
    He turned around, kept his eyes up, and crossed his arms.
    Just two men, facing off. Over a woman.
    Brady couldn’t see that being gay changed much about being a man. Just who you liked to cuddle up to at night.
    Shane said, “I can at least tell her that she doesn’t need to worry about you being a switch-hitter.”
    Brady chuckled, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist. “You think she’d care about that?”
    “Yes. I think she would care a lot. More than I want her to.” Shane’s eyes slid down Brady’s chest. “But really, who could blame her.”
    Brady thought quite a few people could and would, including the two men facing off in this bathroom.
    Shane said, “I love her and I don’t want her hurt.”
    “I don’t know how I could hurt her, she loves you. I don’t know why I’d hurt her, I love someone else.”
    Shane nodded. “Love. C’est impossible .”
    “Impossible and hopeless. Including your little friend out there.”
    “I know, you can’t even see his knees.” Shane held his hands up and shrugged. “Love. C’est impossible .”
    Brady walked over to stand next to him at the counter. Shane propped his hip against the counter and watched. “And who is it that you love?”
    “My wife.”
    Shane blinked uncontrollably. “Married?”
    “She. . .died.”
    Brady grabbed for his toothbrush and thought that those were actual tears popping into Shane’s eyes.
    “So you give Cassandra your body, but she will never have your heart. And she gives you her body, but you will never feel her love.” Shane closed his eyes. “Oh, that is so painfully beautiful. Oh, I love it.”
    Brady grunted, and when Shane opened his eyes again, the tears were gone. “Easy love is boring. Loving your dead wife is tragic. I adore tragic.”
    “Loving your gay friend is just as tragic.”
    “And I adore Cassandra. I love her. If she’d been born a man, or if I’d been born straight, we would have been so happy. It would have been easy. And then, we’d be boring.”
    Brady turned his head away from the mirror, to look Shane in the eyes, and saw the same look that was in Cassandra’s.
    Life’s a bitch. What’s next?
    And he saw also that Cassandra was Shane’s, always would be.
    Brady nodded imperceptibly. He didn’t want Cassandra. Not her heart, not her love.
    She was only a little distraction. A little bit of peace.
    Shane pushed away from the counter and gave him a little finger wave. “Thanks for the show.”
    Brady waited until Shane had pushed open the bathroom door to say, “You’re welcome.”
    Brady was still grooming a few minutes later when there was a light knock on the door. He sighed, hanging his head. He hadn’t realized that when he’d moved Cassandra in, he’d moved her entire posse in.
    He said loudly, “Who is it this time?”
    Cassandra open the door and leaned against the jamb. “They’ve gone home. Are you done with meetings for tonight?
    He nodded, even though she already seemed to know his schedule. “I’m free for a few hours.”
    “Oh, good.”
    “No. You’ve been very, very bad. A man’s shower time is sacred.”
    He walked toward her, slowly, menacingly. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and walked her toward the bed.
    She said, “Is it?”
    “And Dungeons and Dragons?”
    “He’s from Utah. Excuses must be made.”
    Brady sat down, pulling her between his legs, his towel parting helpfully. “Just which one of us were you testing?”
    “You. I can’t really picture myself sleeping with a guy who’s played D&D before.” She whispered,