Medically Speaking

Chapter 30

There's a weird nervous glow fluttering around in my stomach like a butterfly trying to escape. It's not a real relationship, not yet. Not really. But it's something and there's a clear path that could lead to that if things go well. I'm on that swing, all the way at the top begging for it to hang in that spot for as long as possible.

I should have known that with this family running like a well-oiled machine, they weren't going to allow the beginning of our almost-relationship to be anything other than controlled, planned, and well thought out. We were clearly leaving miscommunications behind.

Still trying to look into my soul, Axel says, "This is usually the part where we explain the basics of how a relationship like this would look. Since you already have experience, I'm not sure where to go from here."

I shrugged, settling into the couch as Luke's arm wound around my shoulder. My feet were still wedged under Max, but I was still having a hard time getting them free. "We're going a little out of order for me, too. But I've always started out by laying down a foundation of expectations and rules that we could build on. Like, I don't do relationships where we can date or sleep with someone outside the relationship, but not everyone has that boundary. Some people in the community don't want that boundary. It's helpful to know where everyone stands from the beginning."

Owen relaxed back into his chair, asking, "Do you have any rules besides not seeing anyone else?"

"No date crashing," I say immediately, even though I hadn't considered the chance of them handing out rules tonight. I've definitely had it be a problem in the past. "If I'm here and in a public part of the house, it's fine, but if I'm on a date with one or even a couple of you, you can't insert yourself if you're not invited. If you don't know and wind up at the same coffee shop or whatever, saying hi is fine, but give us space."

I paid attention to who was getting side eyed, completely unsurprised that it was mostly Luke, North, and Raven, and made a note to ensure they understood I was serious.

"Sounds fair," Axel said as I finally extricated my feet from under Max and curled them under my butt as I leaned more into Luke. "Anything else?"

There were plenty but some of them were things that weren't really important yet. For now, I wanted to focus more on boundaries that would make the early stages of a relationship easier to manage. "Please understand that fair isn't always going to look equal," I say, my attention flitting up to Sean as his eyes glow with understanding. "My schedule is insane and a lot of the time I'm exhausted when I come off a shift. I'll do my best to make sure my time spent with each of you is meaningful, but there's a lot of you, so it may not always tally up to an even amount of time."

They all nodded, and Kota spoke up. "We're used to working around Sean's schedule and to an extent, Owen and Axel's since they're busier than most of us. We'll work with you to make sure when schedules line up for you to spend time with them, you're getting time with them, especially if things have been busier than usual."

Having people that were used to these sorts of schedules would hopefully make that aspect of it easier this time around. "On a similar note, I have friends, family, and hobbies outside of work, so not all of my free time is specifically for you guys." It sounded harsh, but it was a hard line for me. I let myself grow apart from my friends because of a relationship once and I don't plan on going down that road again. "I don't expect all of your free time, either, and I don't want to intrude on brotherly bonding or whatever." A chorus of reassurances that they don't want to steal me away from my friends ring through the room.

I hesitate before I bring up my next stipulation. I'm not anywhere close with most of them, but there are a few of them that are probably on the speed run version of getting into my pants. By telling them now, it at least gives them all a chance to handle things before it becomes an issue. "This shouldn't be a surprise, considering who finished raising me and the fact I'm a nurse, but I'd also like to see updated STI screenings before we start doing anything that's going to be risky. Obviously, condoms are fine, and we'll probably use them for a while anyway, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." And if we pass an STI through fifteen people the CDC might start thinking there's an outbreak.