My entire apartment smelled like chicken.

I wasn't sure how surprising or not it was that Jed was the better chef of the two of us. Despite my more meticulous nature and his complete lack thereof, food worked in his favor almost always, including tonight when he swore he would figure out how to make this chicken casserole dish he saw on Instagram. I didn't mind though - my cooking skills stopped at turkey sandwiches and mac and cheese.

"I can't believe you purchased your broccoli from Whole Foods. That's so elitist," Em remarked, aware that I oversaw the grocery shopping tonight. She eyed the wooden cutting board with remnants of chopped-up broccoli, which Jed had left on the island in front of us.

As per one of our many three's a crowd traditions, Em joined us for dinner once a month at our apartment, though because of the uptick in action for the campaign, we'd had trouble picking a day this past month. August was almost over.

"It's organic," I pointedly corrected. "And we're supporting Illinois farmers."

"We're supporting Illinois farmers," Em mimicked. "How righteous of you. You'd fit right in with the campaign staff."

"Thank you very much," I nodded as I took a sip of my wine, ignoring the sarcastic undertones of her comment.

The sound of Jed's handheld electronic mixer interrupted me and Em's vocal sparring. She raised an eyebrow at me as Jed intently gripped his mixing bowl with a floral oven mitt clad hand.

"Don't ask," I rubbed the side of my temple with my finger. "He takes this far too seriously."

Em laughed. "Where'd you get the mitts Jed? Anthropologie?"

"Hey, they were a gift from one of my students," Jed snapped back, setting the metal mixing bowl down on the kitchen island. "Also, Anthropologie has a great home section."

"That's true," Em conceded. "I love their coasters. You should put them on your holiday wish list for all of the adoring parents of your students."

"We don't need coasters," I held a hand up before Jed would undoubtedly agree with Em. "Can we just get back to the debate at hand? Do you or do you not think we need to bench Nix for Summers? He threw three picks."

"Do I look like an offensive coordinator to you?" Em clapped her hands to her bright green utility shirt. "We won. That's all that matters."

"Not in college football," I insisted. "Right Jed?"

Jed glanced at us from over his broad shoulder, still bent over in front of the oven. "What did you say?"

Em intercepted the conversation. "He said thank god I missed out on your little football reunion before the game. Davis has always been such a meathead, despite his nice head of hair."

"In that case, you would've enjoyed watching him fail to hold Kiernan's attention. It was embarrassing for him, and I know because I've been there."

I hid my grimace behind a slug of wine. I didn't inherently dislike Davis. He was fine to be around in the places that a meathead of his caliber belonged - i.e., tailgates and the like.

But for some reason last Saturday, seeing him shamelessly make a play for Kiernan's attention grated my nerves in a way Davis normally didn't. In a way most people normally didn't. But I was starting to figure out that Kiernan wasn't most people.

Jed shut the oven door with a bang, and the noise seemed to summon Rudy from my room, where he'd been sleeping on my bed like the lazy freeloader he was. He sat beside me and tilted his head up at me, almost as if he knew I'd been internally talking shit about him. I gave him a pat on the head, and he turned his attention to Jed as he began to clean up the scraps of food and such.

"You're right, I absolutely would have enjoyed that. I also admire your self-awareness in hindsight, Josiah, and I once again apologize." Em straightened as she laced her fingers together on the island in front of her and grinned. "But look at us now, we're all best buddies."

"Are we?" I reached for the wine bottle and topped off my glass. "You know, the phrase isn't four's a crowd."

Jed side-eyed me as he fed Rudy the scraps of broccoli off the cutting board. 

"You know what I mean, Montana." Em waved me off as she hopped off her stool and stared over to the hall bathroom. "Don't be pissy."

"Pissy? Me? Never," I called out just as the door shut.

Jed leaned over the kitchen island on his elbows and waved me in the way I imagined he did when one of his third graders told him they had a secret.

"What is it, Josiah?"

"Do you not like Kiernan?" Jed asked, voice low.

"What?" I scoffed. "No. I mean, yes I like her. I mean–no, not like..."

Jed's mouth lifted into a coy smirk and he tapped his finger against his temple a few times. "It all makes sense now."

"There's nothing to make sense of," I groaned. "Stop speculating, it's not one of your stronger skills."

"I don't know anything about ghosts, Montana." Jed straightened up with a frown.

I propped my chin in my hand with a sigh. We'd moved on, as usual. "That's spectors, Jed."

"Oh."

"Both of you need to clear your calendars for next Friday. I'm planning something for Kiernan's birthday," Em declared as she strode back into the kitchen, reclaiming the stool next to me and bumping her knee into mine when she slid into it.

"Something fun?" Jed asked.

"No. Something to drive her out of the city for good." Em rolled her eyes. "When have I ever planned something not fun?"

"The ABC party at the soccer house Junior year. You and Callie took the caution tape way too far," Jed answered, taking her question literally.

"Please stop, I still have trauma from that night, and I can't even smell Maker's Mark without wanting to yak."

"We've matured since then." Em tossed her braids over her shoulder. "This will be fun and I promise we will all be wearing clothes. It's going to be a surprise, so don't say anything. I'm looking at you, Josiah."

I arched an eyebrow at her. "A surprise? Kiernan doesn't really strike me as a surprise kind of girl."

A subtle crease formed between Em's brows. "Then what kind of girl does she strike you as then?"

I swallowed. "Uh...I don't know, just not that kind."

"Surprise party or not, I'll bake a cake," Jed spoke up, proudly waving his oven mitts in our faces.

"Can it be chocolate?" Em asked. "I know Kiernan likes chocolate. She keeps those little Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares at her desk."

Kiernan also didn't strike me as a chocolate girl, but what did I actually know anyway? Apparently nowhere near as much as I thought I did, as usual.

･:*˚:✧｡｡✧:˚*:･

Jed had taken Rudy for his nighttime bathroom walk, leaving Em and I to clean up the kitchen since he'd done the cooking. I wasn't sure what prompted me to open another bottle of wine, but I felt like I needed it. Em clearly shared similar sentiments as she slid her glass over to me.

"There's something I need to tell you, and I don't want you to freak out because it's not a big deal anymore." Em took a deep inhale and smoothed her hands out over the white fabric of her trousers. When she looked at me, it was with a decisive edge in her eyes. "I had this huge crush on you during our sophomore and junior year, but I never said anything because I didn't want to risk screwing up what the three of us had going on. What we still have going on. It's too important to me."

"Oh, um..." I instinctively felt myself recoil. It wasn't Em's fault. It was just me being me, like it usually was. "I don't want to ruin what the three of us have either. It's...important to me too, ya know?"

I had been a lot of things since Emelia and I met, and I'd grown into being a lot of things following college graduation, but disingenuine wasn't one of them. I liked my friends, I liked my life, and I didn't want to fuck with any of it.

"I figured that would be the case." Em offered me a soft smile and sighed. "I just needed you to know because...I just didn't want to be kicking myself 10 years from now for never saying anything at all."

"No, I get it. " I nodded slowly. "I'm glad you did. It's just..."

It's just maybe I like someone else, and I wasn't really ready to even admit that to myself yet, let alone anyone else.

"I like having you as my friend, Em, and I don't want that to change."

"Thanks," Em laughed. "I honestly don't know where I'd be without you and Jed."

The front door clicked open and Rudy galloped into the kitchen, with Jed trudging in behind him.

"Next time, please remind me that broccoli makes dogs unreasonably gassy," Jed called out as he kicked off his sneakers.

"Then stop feeding him from the table," I said.

Em and I shared a look, like there was a silent understanding that the conversation we'd just had would stay between us.

･:*˚:✧｡｡✧:˚*:･

montana has ALSO booked himself a one-way ticket out of denial land.

big thanks to everyone who's kept up with the story so far, we're really having a great time working on it and sharing it with y'all <3