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and he contemplated punching him in the nose.
    “What the fuck was that?” he shouted, his anger getting the better of him.
    “What?” Ian responded as though he didn’t quite get the issue at hand.
    “Let me explain something to you, since you’re clearly way off the mark here. She isn’t some casual fuck you can do this with. And if you haven’t already figured it out, you will absolutely destroy this relationship if you push this with her, and that’s if you haven’t already destroyed it.”
    Ian shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I disagree. She’s … adventurous and—”
    “And you think that translates into being open to—”
    “I’m willing to find out,” Ian cut him off, finally getting irritated.
    “At the risk of your relationship with her?”
    Ian stared at him for a moment. “Yes.” The man was oddly calm and serious when he said it.
    Jas shook his head, letting the anger that Ian’s one word affirmation fueled in him take hold. “Then maybe you don’t deserve her,” he muttered as he stood.
    Ian snorted. “Yeah? What are you going to do? Tell her that? Huh?” Ian said nothing for a moment, but then his expression fell, and he shook his head in frustration. “Look, this … relationship thing… It’s fucking boring,” he cried incredulously. Ian looked at the ground, and when he pulled his attention back up to Jas, he grumbled. “But I like her. I do. I just … want to do it on my terms, and if she’s open to that, then … maybe…” Ian shook his head again.
    “She’s not like you, Ian.” Jas planted his hands on his hips. He needed to walk away from this, but…
    “You mean, she’s not like us ?”
    Jas’s jaw clamped down tight. He didn’t actually enjoy being likened to his best friend in that way. But in truth, his actions said he was exactly like Ian, and he knew it perfectly well.
    “I get it. She’s sweet, she’s wholesome, she’s from Iowa for fuck sake!” Ian was actually smiling when he said it.
    “She’s from Idaho you asshole,” he muttered. “She doesn’t want this, and you’re going to end up ruining this relationship over it.” He studied Ian for a moment. “Bravo, you fucking asshole.” Jas turned and walked away then, tossing his anger over his shoulder. “Leave this alone!”

Chapter Four
     
    “So, are you going to break up with him?” Anna was sitting cross-legged on the practice room floor, picking at the dead skin of a blister on the side of her toe as she asked the question.
    It was late, and all the other dancers and instructors were gone for the night. But they enjoyed this. It was quite a thing to have the building to themselves. The only other people in Butler Center were the janitors, and as Gray sat on the floor, pulling her pointe shoes from her feet, she stretched her aching toes and ankles and listened to the far off sound of a vacuum.
    “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. She hadn’t seen Ian for three days, and after one phone call between them that had ended badly, she’d given up on communication for the time being. It didn’t mean he had. He’d called her multiple times since that conversation, but she’d not answered, and he’d text messaged her incessantly too, but he hadn’t once come over to try to talk to her, and she was glad for that. She just didn’t want to see him. But … she wasn’t sure she was ready to pull the plug either. Or maybe she just hadn’t worked up the nerve to finalize that decision.
    “Is this guy you mentioned the one who was in the theater with Ian last week? The taller nicely built guy with the longer dark hair? Looks part… I don’t know… Native American or Hawaiian?”
    “That’s the one.” She wrapped the long laces around her shoes, stashing them in her bag that sat beside her on the floor, and then she stood.
    Her loft was only a few blocks away, and she had no intention of changing out of her black leotard and pink tights just to walk that short