Page 66 of Lessons in Chemistry

“If I tell you something, will you promise not to get mad?”

I narrow my eyes. “Okay.”

“And you can’t get mad with Casey either.”

I know where this is going. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“That he might be somewhere on the ace spectrum? Yes.”

My stomach lurches like I’m standing on a boat in a storm. “He told you before he told me?”

“I think it was easier for him to talk to me. Don’t be angry with him. He needed a sounding board, and I was there.”

I nudge my glasses up, pinch the bridge of my nose, and take a deep breath. “I’m glad you were there for him.”

“Your dream, while I knew that exact scenario was extremely unlikely, it got me thinking about what could be.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“You like Casey.”

I nod, even though he wasn’t asking a question.

“And you like me.”

“Yes. We’ve established this already.”

“And we’ve established that I like you and that I think Casey looks crazy hot in Speedos.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Have you heard of polyamory?”

“Is that marrying more than one person?”

“No. That’s polygamy, and it’s different, plus it’s often linked to religion, whereas polyamory isn’t. According to the Internet, polyamory is consensual non-monogamy.”

“Like an open relationship?” He did say on Saturday that we might not be cut out for monogamy, but I hadn’t given it much thought. Honestly, I’d decided I was horny for two guys because I’m nineteen.

“It can be like that. Are you ready for me to go into tutor mode?”

I chuckle. “Go ahead.”

He clears his throat and rolls his shoulders back. “First, there’s no right and wrong way to have a poly relationship. It can be different for everyone.”

“Okay.”

“Second, most poly people interact with their various partners romantically and sexually, but that doesn’t have to be the case. A relationship with one of the partners could be purely romantic, for example.”

My heart skips a beat.

“From what I read, the various different types of poly relationships are hierarchical, non-hierarchical, polyfidelity, vee, solo-poly, and mono-poly. Following?”

“Not really. I don’t understand what any of those terms mean.”

“That’s okay. I don’t know what half of the stuff we learn in our course means. It makes a change for me to know something you don’t.”

I laugh.