Twenty minutes later, the fire is crackling in the grate, we’re all on our second whiskey sour, and we’ve migrated to the couch. I’m sitting cuddled up against Eli, watching as Riven sits down stiffly. He looks like a man who’s just been sentenced to death.
“Let’s get on with it, then,” he mutters.
I reach across and squeeze his hand.
“Right.” Eli strokes my arm. “Well. We met Johanna down in Kiruna, seven or eight years ago. Cole and I were both working at a sports centre, and Riv was doing his allmäntjänstgöring.” I nod sagely, and he tilts his head. “It’s like… the internship you do after medical school, to get your license. Johanna moved into the flat next to ours. She was pretty, and sweet. We fell for her immediately, and it got serious pretty damn fast. We actually spent Christmas that year with Riv’s family in America, all four of us.”
“Oh.” My eyes widen. “You guys are open about this?”
“It’s not like we’re doing anything to be ashamed of. The next two years went by. She eventually got bored of me and dumped me, but we were all living in the same flat at that point, so we were still roommates. One day, the police knocked on the door. I’d rented a car earlier that day, and the rental place found a massive baggie of coke stashed down the back of a seat. Johanna had also used the car, but it was rented in my name, so I ended up getting arrested. Nobody believed me when I said it wasn’t mine, I got sent to jail—you know that bit of the story.”
I nod, squeezing his thigh.
“Right after the trial, Johanna told Riv that she wanted to be exclusive with him. She wanted to dump Cole and get married. And Riv was head-over-heels for her, so he proposed, and they moved out and started planning the wedding. The only problem was that a few months in, she found out that she was pregnant. She did the calculations, and said that Cole was the father.”
I take a sip of my cocktail. “This is like Eastenders, or something.”
“Glad we’re entertaining you,” Riven says drily.
Eli elbows him. “Riv wasn’t thrilled about it, but it’s a risk of what we do. They only went exclusive after the engagement, so it wasn’t like she cheated on him or anything.” He downs the rest of his glass. “The baby was born. Rickard. Johanna and Cole worked out an arrangement where Cole looked after him on weekends. He was so excited; he renovated a room in his flat into a nursery, bought all this baby shit. And then…” he pauses dramatically. “One night when Cole was on baby duty, a man arrived on his doorstep and told Cole that he was really the father. Cole was furious. He loved this kid so much. He almost beat the guy down in the street. When Johanna came to pick Rickard up, he told her what happened, and she got all weird and defensive. So he demanded a DNA test, and lo and behold—Cole wasn’t the father.”
“She was cheating on you?” I ask Riven. “Um. Both of you?”
Riven nods.
“But I don’t get it. Why would she say the baby is Cole’s and not Riven’s?”
Eli gives me a pointed look.
“What?”
“Riven’s black,” Eli says kindly. “Cole is white.”
I flush. “Oh. Right.” Duh.
“Didn’t you notice?” Riven drawls, taking another deep swig of his drink.
“I try not to look at him.”
Eli guffaws. “Anyway, it hit Cole hard. Like, really hard. He felt like he’d just lost his kid. He just disappeared. Up and left town. Meanwhile, Riven couldn’t believe his fiancée was cheating on him, so he started searching through her stuff, looking for evidence. And guess what he found?”
“Do you have to make this so interactive?” Riv mutters. I peer up at his face. His eyes are pained. He really isn’t enjoying this.
I push away from Eli and go to snuggle under his arm instead, putting my head on his chest. He presses a kiss to my hair, breathing me in.
“He found baggies of coke,” Eli continues. “A lot of it. She was stashing it for a party she was going to.”
My eyes are probably the size of plates. “She set you up.”
“My dad knew that Eli was innocent,” Riven forces out. “He defended Johanna in court for free, because my parents hated the fact that I had group relationships. They saw it as an opportunity to get me locked down with a smart, beautiful, educated woman.” He flicks the rim of his glass. “Dad told her that he would do the case pro bono if she agreed to dump the other two and get married to me. And I fell for it.” He swallows thickly. “As soon as I realised the mistake, I tried to visit Eli in jail, but he wouldn’t see me. I found him months after he got out. He was unemployed, drinking himself to death in a motel room.”
“It’s pretty hard to get a job with a drug charge,” Eli shrugs. “But it’s okay, because after that, he fixed everything.”
I heave a sigh of relief. “Yeah?”
Eli nods. “Anybody else would have just given up on us and moved on. But Riv tracked Cole down in Stockholm, and took us both up here, where we grew up. He got me a job as a ski instructor at the resort. Vouched for me to the owner. And he bought this place.” He waves around the cabin. “It was falling apart, but we fixed it up together. And the rest is history.”
“Wow.” I slump back against the sofa cushions. “That’s the most wack relationship story I’ve heard in my life.” It makes my bad breakup look tame. “At least it has a happy ending.” Riven scoffs. I look across at him. “Don’t you think so?”
“No,” he says shortly. “It’s not a happy ending. Eli was wrongfully imprisoned. Cole lost a kid. None of that had to happen, but I let her manipulate me.”
“It wasn’t your fault, man,” Eli protests. “That’s why it’s manipulation.”
“I get it,” I chip in. “I’ve been manipulated by an ex, too. When you love someone that much, they have so much power over your thoughts. They don’t even have to get inside your head; they’re already there.”
Riven frowns, his gaze focussing on me. “Who manipulated you?”
I look down, examining the slice of orange in the bottom of my glass. For a second, I think about actually telling them what happened with Sam. But the words die in my mouth.
I can’t. It would ruin everything. I wouldn’t be able to stay here with them anymore, if they knew.
“Just an ex who didn’t want me to leave him. It was a while back.” I clear my throat, looking for a quick way to change the subject. “Um. Well. Thank you guys for telling me.” I set my glass down and slide out from under Riv’s arm. “You know, Eli got me a present, today.”
Eli grins, perking up. “I definitely did.”
“Do you want to see it?”
“Okay.” Riven looks bemused.
“One sec.” I practically run to the bathroom to freshen up, then trip along to my bedroom to get changed. Riv’s left the lingerie bag on my bed, and I quickly unfold the white, sparkly tissue paper, pulling out the slip. I run my hand over the fabric. It’s unbelievably soft and silky, a delicate, ballet-slipper peach. I wriggle into it, not bothering with underwear, then brush on a touch of makeup, spritz some perfume into my hair, and run my fingers through my curls, loosening them. When I check myself out in the mirror, I’m impressed. I look hot.
Something pangs in my stomach as I study my reflection. I do. I look hot. I look hot and sexy and kind of… beautiful. I reach out, touching the glass with my fingernail.
I’d never admit it, but before I left for Sweden, I didn’t think I’d ever find myself sexy again. I couldn’t even look at my body in the shower. Everyone that I thought was my friend was suddenly talking behind my back, calling me a whore and a slut. Journalists on the news were talking like I was some kind of sexual deviant. Everywhere I went, I felt men looking at me, undressing me with their eyes. My body didn’t feel sexy; it felt used, like a bit of trash at the bottom of a rubbish bin.
But now my body feels like it’s mine again. I’m flushed and turned on and excited. And that feels incredible.
Fluffing up my hair, I pad back into the living room barefoot. The guys are chatting over their drinks. Riven spots me first, and he freezes, mid-word.
