“Shit!” Greg gasped, his chest heaving. “Sorry, buddy. Might’ve got carried away a bit.”

“S’all good,” Archie murmured. “Needed that. Just gimme a minute.”

Somewhat embarrassed, Greg pulled his pants back up and sat down next to Archie, who had just enough strength left to curl up in his lap like a cat. 

“Shit dude, I need to send Loretta a gift basket,” Archie said, once he could speak in complete sentences. 

“That, uh, that wasn’t her thing,” Greg said. “You said you liked it rough, so I figured you could take some rough handling, though.”

“You figured right,” Archie said. “The choking was a nice touch.”

“I aim to please,” Greg said, grinning.

“And you don’t often miss,” Loretta said from the kitchen.

“SHIT!” Greg and Archie shouted in unison.

“Easy, boys, I’m not here to ruin the party,” she said. 

Greg hadn’t noticed when she’d come in. Granted, he’d been a little distracted at the time, but he didn’t think he’d been that distracted. 

“Well goddamn,” Archie said. “You could have at least knocked.”

“Point in fact, I never left,” she said. “Thomas said I could borrow the spare room to put Harriet down. She had one too many and wasn’t feeling well.”

“This is hell,” Greg said. “I’ve died and gone to hell.”

Loretta padded over and joined them on the couch. She didn’t seem to mind the mess at all.

“I’ll admit, this isn’t how I wanted to find out,” she said. “But, I’m drunk, and guy on guy is hot. If I didn’t think Greg would have had a heart attack, I might’ve been inclined to join in.”

“Still not too late for a heart attack,” Greg muttered. “Christ on a cracker, Loretta. I just got done having a big heart to heart with Archie about trying to give you some space and making my mind up.”

“I don’t see how me being here negates any of that,” she said. 

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Archie demanded. “He’s been driving himself up the wall trying to tiptoe through the fucking tulips with your feelings. I finally get him to blow off some steam before he bursts a fucking blood vessel, and then you come right the hell back in and trample all over his.”

Loretta winced and held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. 

“Shit,” she said. “I’m sorry. This was a bad move on my part. I fucked up.”

The naked apology took the wind out of Archie’s sails. 

“How did you see this conversation going, exactly?” Greg asked. 

“I can’t say I really thought that far ahead,” Loretta said sheepishly. “The tequila said ‘wow, that looks like fun, you should get you a piece of that action.’ I didn’t realize this was the culmination of some great big emotional arc.”

“I’ll show you a ‘great big emotional arc.’ I’ve half a mind to jump his bones in front of you just to prove a point,” Archie grumbled. 

“Please do not,” Greg said. “I don’t know what the LD50 is on awkwardness, but I reckon I’m bumping right up against a lethal dose.”

“You know what? I should go,” Loretta said. 

Archie swallowed the smartass remark that tried to leap off his tongue when he saw the tears threatening to leak from Greg’s eyes. The poor guy was trying his hardest, but his heart was breaking in real time. 

“No, you stay,” Archie said, sighing. “Y’all need to sort this out. I’ll go.”

“Wait, no, Archie-”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Archie said, cupping Greg’s face with his hands and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “Come find me when you’re done. I’m not mad at you or anything. I had a wonderful time.”

Archie wiped the corners of Greg’s eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie, then retreated off to his room. 

“I fucked up,” Loretta said, miserable. 

“Just a little bit,” Greg replied. 

“Can we fix this?”

Greg sighed and sat up, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. 

“Well, I don’t think you meant to cause harm, so there’s that,” he said slowly. “And I reckon Archie’s a little heated now, but he’ll come around once he’s had time to cool off a little. So, not completely befuckled, no.”

“So, what happens now?”

“I don’t rightly know, Loretta,” Greg said. “I’d like to say we can brush this off as a confluence of alcohol and libido, but that’s not what really happened here, is it.”

“The alcohol, yes,” she said. “I am definitely drunk.”

“But not so drunk as to lose yourself entirely, and not, I’d wager, as horny as you’re making out to be. Sure, if we’d invited you to play, you’d be game, but that ain’t why you stuck your nose in, is it.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was hot,” Loretta said. “I was originally planning just to peep for a few minutes and sneak off to the bathroom. But then you put that belt around his neck, and it’s just…the way he looked at you. I’ve never seen another human being put their faith so completely and utterly in someone else. You could have killed him with a flick of your wrist, and he knew it, and he didn’t care. I wanted to know what that felt like.”

“There are easier ways to find out,” Greg said. 

“Are there? Would you have done that to me if I’d asked?”

“Shit, I don’t know. Would you really have trusted me?” he replied. 

“I don’t know, either. But, maybe I want to find out,” Loretta said, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“As fun as that might be, now’s not the time,” Greg said. “I’m not the sort to start something and not see it through. I don’t expect he’s looking for anything long term, but he trusts me to do right by him, and that’s what I plan to do. Can’t really say tossing him aside just ‘cause you came sniffing around is the right thing, can I?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Now, I’m not saying no forever,” Greg said. “You are drunk, and that has to be taken into consideration before passing judgment. As far as I’m concerned, it’s water under the bridge come morning. We can sweep this under the rug and go about our business. You can make your own apologies to Archie. I expect he’ll understand if you lay everything out like you did to me. As for me and him, I intend to let that run its course. Could be a week, could be a year, could be ten years. I can’t rightly say. If you still want to find out after that, well, we’ll talk then. Think you can live with that?”

“That’s better than I expected,” Loretta sniffed. “And probably better than I deserve.”

“Aww, don’t be like that,” Greg said. “We got lifetimes ahead of us. One goof ain’t gonna fuck things up forever.”