Free Finished by Claire Kent

realize we’re going to wonder about it.”
    “I’ll tell you,” Drayton said. “I will. But give me some time. Certain aspects of my history are…hard.”
    He looked from Julia to Mike and back again. “And it has nothing to do with what we have here.”
    ***
    Drayton’s refusal to tell them about the necklace made Julia even more curious about the secrets he kept. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. The following day, she could barely concentrate on work. Her mind kept drifting back to Drayton—to all the inexplicable details about him and his behavior.
    She really needed to talk to someone about it—someone who wasn’t involved in the situation. So she called up her best friend, and they arranged to meet for margaritas at a Mexican restaurant after work.
    When Julia arrived, Helen already had a table. She was sitting behind a stack of papers and was busily marking up one of them.
    It wasn’t surprising. Helen taught English at a local college, and she always had grading with her to work on in her spare time.
    “How is it?”
    “C,” Helen said, grinning up at Julia as she slid into the booth across from her. “Boring and mediocre, but not atrocious.”
    A flirtatious waiter came over to take their drink orders, but Helen didn’t waste any time after he’d left. “So how are the boys?”
    Julia made a face.
    “Trouble in threesome paradise?”
    Last year, Helen had been the most immediately accepting of the development of Julia’s non-traditional relationship. She’d always teased and been curious about the dynamics of the threesome, but she’d never made Julia feel weird or wrong for living with two men.
    So Julia filled in her friend on what had happened over the last week, and Helen listened with quiet thoughtfulness until she’d finished.
    “So you’re confident that Drayton wasn’t cheating on you guys?” Helen asked at last, after taking a long sip of her margarita.
    “Yeah. Maybe it seems weird to take him at his word when he’s obviously keeping secrets, but I believe him. And I think Mike does too. You know how good Mike is at reading people.”
    Helen nodded, acknowledging this truth, and pushed her glasses farther up her nose. She wore contacts about half the time, but she looked adorable in her glasses. She was pretty, blonde, and curvy. Helen had a sharp mind, and she wasn’t above taking advantage of those whose initial impressions were that she was a ditz. “So we have the strange woman he has a history with and gave a necklace to, and his generally unforthcoming behavior for the last couple of months. The simplest explanation is that it’s an old relationship gone wrong. Maybe she’s blackmailing him.”
    Her tone had been light, but Julia took the suggestion seriously. It would fit some of the facts and the general mood she’d sensed between Drayton and the woman. “Huh,” she said. “Maybe so. What would she be blackmailing him about?”
    “Who knows? But I’m sure that man has done some dubious things in the past.”
    Julia gave a half-smile. “Vanilla he is not, but the thing about Drayton is that he’s always been honest about what he is. He’s not ashamed of the gray in his nature. Why would he allow himself to be blackmailed?”
    “I don’t know. What does Mike think?”
    Julia felt a familiar drop in her gut. “I’m afraid Mike is wondering if our whole relationship is falling apart.”
    “Is it?”
    “No!” The one word was sharper than Julia had intended. “I mean, I’m not convinced it has to. But it’s…stressful.”
    “It would have to be.” Helen’s expression was sober and sympathetic, without her typical dry irony. “It’s hard enough to reconcile two people’s wants and needs in a relationship. With three…”
    Julia knew the comment wasn’t a judgment, but she couldn’t help but feel a little defensive. “It can work. We arranged things on purpose so there are no emotional obligations.”
    “Yeah, but it seems like it’s