Julie lay on the sofa, my head in her lap and her hand stroking my hair. Mike was collecting everyone's clothes, making drinks and generally cleaning up.
"I can't say I expected this," said Julie.
"Well, me neither," I couldn't look up into her face.
"But I'm awfully glad it has."
"You are?"
"Oh, honey. Don't you remember how much fun we had in college?"
I smiled at her, raising my eyes.
"Yeah, I do. But things change, you know?"
"I know."
"We move on, and, well, that's all that happened."
"Isabelle, you might hate to hear this – "
"What do you mean?"
"I haven't seen you date a single man worthy of your attention since college."
I started to blush, and to object, but she cut me off.
"I think you've been choosing deliberately bad boyfriends just so you don't have to commit to anyone."
I sighed, and put my head back down.
"After college, when we stopped seeing each other all the time, I became sort of uncomfortable with what we'd done. I was worried because I'd enjoyed it too much, and I worried that you might not feel the same way."
"Oh Izzie, you could have told me, I would have understood."
"Well, yeah, I didn't understand it. You meant a lot to me Jules, and I didn't want to freak you out. I didn't want to loose our friendship just because I was still hot for you."
"I had a hard time too. You were always hooking up with guys that just didn't seem to care about you. I hated that we'd lost our intimacy." She sighed. "But last night, when you saw me and Mike fucking –"
"You knew?"
" – well, yeah, it was hard to miss the moaning coming from the bathroom. I remember how much I loved to cause it, and I realized that you were watching."
Mike brought over some hot chocolate for all of us, and we all sat on the sofa; Mike, Julie and me, watching the fireplace.
"So," he said, "what have you two figured out?"
Julie looked at him, and smiled such a loving smile, I was no longer surprised at the jealousy I felt; I knew what it was now.
"Well honey, you were right. I've still got a lot of feelings for Isabelle, and she has for me too. How does that make you feel?"
He blew air slowly from his mouth, considering.
"I can understand it. It's very easy to imagine the two of you getting together. I don't think I've seen a sight as sexy as watching Isabelle eat you out."
It was my turn to blush.
"I hope that us, what we've got together, doesn't have to stop just because you and Isabelle have reconnected."
Tears came to Julie's eyes as she took Mike's hand, and kissed it.
"This is why I love him so much," she said to me. "When he says that my happiness is the most important thing to him, I know he means it."
I blinked. I guess I had expected this, but it still hurt.
Julie saw the look on my face, and grabbed my hand.
"No, no, no, Isabelle. I'm not rejecting you. Please, honey. I want you too! I want to have both of you, Mike and Isabelle."
Tears were coming to my own eyes.
"I've loved you since college, Isabelle, and I still do. But I can't be yours alone. I love Mike, and I love you. Maybe I'm being selfish, but I want to have you both."
Julie took me in her arms, hugged me and cradled me as I cried on her shoulder. I'd not understood what I felt for her for many years, and then I feared revealing it to her. She'd been happy in her relationships, and while I hadn't really been happy in mine, and I'd accepted that we weren't going to be together.
"Mike, honey, do you mind if I sleep with Isabelle tonight?"
"Of course not Jules," and he kissed Julie, and kissed me as well. "Goodnight girls," and he left to go to bed.
Julie and I climbed the stairs, her arm over my shoulder and using me as partial crutch to take the weight off her foot.
In the dim moonlight in my room, I lay her on the bed, and we started talking again.
"I like sex with men," I stated baldly, but Julie just laughed. Her hand was playing with my breast, and I was happy to have her do that again.
"I should hope so, but I did wonder with some of the men you've been out with."