The decision settled over the apartment like a permanent change in the air.

I didn’t go back to my old place that night. Or the next morning. Ethan and Aiden helped me bring the rest of my things over the following day—clothes, books, the few plants I cared about. By Sunday evening my old apartment keys sat in a drawer in their kitchen, and my toothbrush stood beside theirs in the bathroom. The shift was quiet but absolute. I lived with them now. I belonged to them now.

And they made sure I felt it.

That first official night as their live-in shared girl, they took their time.

They started...