<p>Alright, miss prissy whiskers, I can’t keep that up, sorry! I promised I’d only write you on on your birthday, but I just wanted to say that. I’m moving on, slowly, but I’m still here. I love you, I miss you.</p>
<p>Pad Thai was the order for the evening. Malina had learned early on to cook something simple on holidays, where the focus was company rather than amazing food or flare. It was too easy to mess up something and spend the rest of the night feeling bad.</p>
<p>Luckily, everyone seemed delighted by the Pad Thai.</p>
<p>Their arrangement around the table was a curled line: Aiden, Sélène, Malina, and Saul. An unbroken line of relationship kinked into a neat square by the corners of the table.</p>
<p>Aiden and Sélène had already plowed through their first plate of food and were eying the dish at the center of the table, and Malina had nearly finished. Poor Saul, though, hadn’t gotten much more than a few bites into his plate. A three-on-one interrogation leaves little time for eating. The badger took it calmly, serenely.</p>
<p>As if on cue, though none had been arranged, Aiden and Malina looked to Sélène. The fox toyed with her paper towel of a napkin, tugging small corners free, and rolling them into small, white torpedos.</p>
<p>Malina watched those nervous paws tugging and rolling, tugging and rolling, and took pity on the vixen, holding out her paw, pads up, by Sélène’s. Aiden mirrored the gesture to the other side of her.</p>
<p>The fox smiled bashfully and carefully set the paper towel and a small pile of rolled up paper up on the table before setting her paws in those of her partners. Malina gave a gentle squeeze.</p>
<p>Malina grinned widely. “Good, I do too.”</p>
<p>Aiden laughed, “It’s decided then. We like you.”</p>
<p>Saul blinked and looked up from his food. He’d been racing to catch up. “Was this an audition, then?”</p>
<p>“I…uh, are you alright, Saul? I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>The badger shook his head, “I’m fine, Sélène. I just–“</p>
<p>“It’s my fault,” Malina smiled, looking surprisingly bashful. “I wanted them to meet you, and vice versa, before things got too far along. I love Sélène, and we’ve built ourselves a family, I just…”</p>
<p>“Wanted to make sure I’d fit in?”</p>
<p>Malina nodded. “This is the first time we’ve done this. Uh…perhaps obviously.”</p>
<p>Saul nodded. “I can’t say I’ve been on a poly-date-slash-audition before, either.”</p>
<p>“We just wanted to be deliberate,” Aiden offered. “After Sélène and Malina, I mean.”</p>
<p>“We that was a mess,” Sélène said.</p>
<p>Malina felt the vix’s paw tense and un-tense in her own, as if itching to do something.</p>
<p>“Do we?” Sélène asked.</p>
<p>Saul tilted his head, working to swallow another bite of food. “Pardon?”</p>
<p>“Do we pass?”</p>
<p>Malina watched her partners’ faces. Sélène looked anxious, eager for approval. More than that, she looked excited. She looked like she wanted this to work.</p>
<p>“You do,” he said finally. “I mean, of course you do, but I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s going to take some time to adjust.”</p>
<p>“It will,” Aiden confirmed. “We’re still adjusting, the three of us, and it’s been months.”</p>
<p>“Think it’ll be worth it?” Malina asked, feeling her own anxieties show through in her choice of questions.</p>
<p>Saul’s expression softened, and he took Malina’s paw in his own and gave a firm squeeze. “Definitely.”</p>
<p>Initially, the idea had concerned her, that someone had affected her life so greatly had slipped so easily from her mind. She’d wanted to latch onto that weekend and try to internalize it, but some part of her either already had or wasn’t ready to. Which one it was depended on the time of day.</p>
<p>The ringtail had accepted the warmth Dani had offered, gratefully and gracefully, and then left without a sound, minimizing the impact her presence had had on the otter. That was the safe path, and, when Dani did think about it, she realized that it was Amber’s way of staying safe; to expect anything more would be to impose her will on someone with plans for her own life.</p>
<p>And while she wasn’t happy, neither did that fog of depression settle down on her after her guest had left. They’d both made it through the spell, each in their own way.</p>
<p>And, once a day, almost without thinking of it, she’d tell herself a story in her head.</p>
<p>Guilt changes one, but less so than I thought it would. I spent my time in community service and my five thousand dollars — while I’d plead guilty to trashing the house and abandoning the car, Jarred had also automatically assumed it was because I’d caught him cheating on me and had admitted his own guilt.</p>
<p>Not something I cared about, but I wasn’t about to take the reduced sentence, such as it was.</p>
<p>On the flip side, it got me back up to Adam’s before too long, and gave me the freedom to use my name again, to start hunting for a real job. Tomorrow’s my first day back at work. The guy who runs it out of the front half of his house is quirky enough that he laughed at my story and hired me on the spot.</p>
<p>Whatever, I’ll take it.</p>
<p>Now I just need to continue figuring things out with Aurora, and maybe I’ll eventually find a way to settle down, feel happy.</p>
