Page 22 of Finding a Melody
Paxon shook his head. “I’m not. Not really. I’m basing it off of Cadence. Have you seen how she is with Calvin, when it’s just the two of them? They’re in their own little world. She’s beautiful. She shines. Her real personality comes through and I can see her as she really is and probably should be. I can’t let a person like her go. I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at, but I do know that she’s someone I want in my life.”
“So you love her?”
He shrugged. “I know what I feel for her is strong.”
Seth nodded.
“I’m not letting her go.” Toby crossed his arms and glared at Seth.
Seth’s lip twitched into a smile at Toby’s answer. Finally, he gave us his own thoughts. “Me either. I’m willing to take her however she wants me.”
There was something in his tone that grabbed my attention. “What do you mean?” I asked.
Seth made a point of looking at each of us slowly before stopping on me. “I care for her and I’ve already told her that.” He shrugged. “If she wants to date me, I’ll be happy. If she wants to just stay friends, I’ll take it. I can’t just walk away from her. She’s strong and she cares deeply. There aren’t many people like her these days. Everyone does things thinking about themselves but she thinks about everyone.”
“Wait! Hold up! Just pause for a moment,” Bryan said, his eyes wide with realization.
I still felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle. Seth was hinting at something, but I wasn’t sure what.
“Does this have to do with your aunt?” Bryan asked.
Seth and Bryan stared at each other and the rest of us could only wait for an answer. I tried to remember anything regarding Seth’s aunt, but it wasn’t something he talked about often. If he did, it was probably a while ago and said in an offhand manner.
Finally, steeling himself, Seth sat up straighter. “Yes.”
Bryan’s expression went from confused to hard. “No.”
“What am I missing?” Paxon asked.
“Seth’s aunt is married to two men,” Bryan said. “At the same time. He’s telling us we can all date her and fucking share her. Pass her around as we see fit. She isn’t a goddamn whore!”
“Calm down, Bryan!” Seth’s face grew red with anger.
I was still stuck on what was said about Seth’s aunt. Two men? Seth wanted us to do something like that with Cadence? All of us date her? How did that even work? How could it even work? That sounded like a disaster.
“This is ridiculous,” Bryan said.
“Why? Why is all of us liking her so hard?” Seth asked in a genuine manner.
“Because we can’t just pass her around like that. It’s being unfair to her and unfair to us. Not to mention what would happen to her reputation if anyone found out. They would tear her apart for it. She isn’t a whore.”
“You’re the only one bringing up that term. Of course she isn’t a whore,” Seth snapped, his eyes narrowed into slits as he grew furious. “And I don’t appreciate you insinuating that my aunt is for loving more than one man.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Bryan said, softening his voice.
“Yes, it is. There is nothing wrong with harems. There are plenty of cultures now and in the past that supported that concept. It’s a lot more common than you think, especially now when people push for freedom of love. Are you calling all those people whores too?”
The room fell quiet and my thoughts whirled, trying to grasp what Seth was saying.
Seth blew out a breath, cooling himself down. He ran a hand through his hair. “I know you guys care about Cadence, and I do too. And I get it. We are all still too young to make a commitment like that. I’m only bringing this up now because we’ve been friends for a very long time and I don’t want to lose any of you or her. She cares about our friendship. If she thinks she’s going to ruin that, she won’t be sticking around. Us being together is important to her.” He let out a sigh. “And I’m a greedy fuck who agrees with her. I want her, but I want us too. I’m not saying we agree to marry her. Just date her. Together. Take her out, love her, let her love us, and see where it goes from there. I’m not dumb. It wasn’t easy for my aunt with two men. She had to deal with learning how to split her time and deal with their jealousies. It won’t be easy between five of us. But I want to try it with anyone else who likes Cadence. Just think about it. There is no rush. It’s only an option I’m throwing out there before we try to fix what we just broke with her. All I keep seeing is all of us wanting to be with her but destroying ourselves because of it. I don’t want that.” He paused and looked down. “Besides, we still need to find out how to make her trust us again anyways. This whole thing is pretty moot until we fix what we broke.”
“I don’t know about this sharing crap,” Bryan said.
“And I get that. I didn’t want to spring this on you guys, not like this. For now, just think about it,” Seth said. “Maybe some of you have no interest in dating her at all. But I do know some of you do, and I don’t want to force her to choose because I have a feeling she won’t, not if it meant ruining friendships.”
“Why don’t you mind?” I asked, finally speaking up and hoping to interrupt them before Bryan and Seth broke out into another argument. Between all of us, those two had the most explosive arguments when they were pitted against each other.
Seth looked at me, before glancing at everyone else, and then focused on his carpet. He frowned hard, eyebrows furrowing.