Page 25

Zarek nods toward a row of heavy wooden dressers lined up against the wall near the bed. "Your things are drying by the fire. Everything else we have is in there." He pauses. "But it's all men's clothing."

"All of it?"

"Every stitch."

I finally take a proper look around the cabin. It's one enormous room. There's a kitchen in one corner and a little study in another, all bookshelves and a big desk. Rugs everywhere. That massive fireplace. A door on the far wall that must lead to a washroom.

And one bed.

One gigantic bed, which I am currently sitting in the middle of. Plenty of room for three huge men to sleep side by side without touching. And no women's clothes anywhere.

"So you've never brought a woman up here?" I ask. "Not once?"

"Never," Zarek says very seriously.

"No," states Kaelen simply.

"Not a single one," Rhydian says, grinning. "You're the first."

I frown. That doesn't make any sense. Look at them. In my village, girls would be lined up out the door for any one of these three. They'd be fainting in the streets. There'd be fistfights.

"Why not?" I ask.

Zarek considers the question. He seems like a man who considers everything.

"Over our long lives," he says at last, "we've discovered that an endless parade of beautiful women and meaningless nights gets tiresome. Eventually, you'd rather have some peace and quiet with the people you trust most." He glances at the other two. "This cabin is where we come to get away from our responsibilities. Somewhere nobody's asking anything of us. Somewhere it's just the three of us."

Long lives?

I study him. He can't be more than a few years older than me. None of them can. They talk like old men, but their faces don't wrinkle between them, and they don’t have a single gray hair.

The endless parade of women part, though. I believe that.

Peace and quiet. The people they trust most. Just the three of them, every winter, alone in a cabin in the mountains, sharing one enormous bed.

Oh.

Ohhh.

I look from Zarek to Rhydian to Kaelen. Then I look very deliberately at the bed. Then back at them.

It all makes sense now.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I say. "I didn't realize you three were together."

Silence.

"Together?" Zarek repeats slowly.

"Yes. Together." I wave a hand at the three of them, then at the bed. "Together, together. You know. Romantically."

Rhydian makes a noise like he's swallowed a fly. He starts coughing. Zarek looks like I've just told him the moon is made of cheese and he's responsible for it. And Kaelen goes so still he could be carved from wood.

"No, no, it's fine!" I hold up both hands. "You don't have to look so embarrassed. Truly. You don't have to explain anything to me."

"We're not," Zarek starts.

"I don't care about any of that. I've never understood why people make such a fuss about it. Men liking men, women liking women. Who cares?" I shrug. "As far as I'm concerned, whether you prefer an asshole or a pussy, it all comes down to the same thing in the end. Having a good time."