“If I was your boyfriend, we could do this every weekend," I replied back quietly.

“Don't tempt me.” Naimh's eyes glittered before she took a deep breath and sighed. The others were all walking ahead of us, intent on getting to our destination while the pair of us hung back enjoying each other's company. She gestured forward with one hand, saying, “I could never do that to the girls. But even as just friends, it would be nice to at least do THIS a little more often."

She squeezed my hand for emphasis, and I reached over with my other hand to rub her forearm tenderly.

“Let's at least enjoy today, huh?"

“Sounds Like a plan." She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

Continuing our Chinatown tourism, the seven of us popped in and out of little trinket shops, and Naimh bought a paper parasol painted with flowers while Mari got a pretty fan. Belle was eyeing a jade necklace, and feeling a little bad for how much time I'd spent thus far with

Naimh, I quietly offered to buy it for her. She just rolled her eyes and walked away from me. A minute later Sam sidled alongside me, bumping my hip and giving me a quick wink. I went out of my way to flirt with her to feel Like I was still being "in balance", and Zofi as well. If Naimh minded, she certainly didn't show it, and indeed seemed to welcome the girls' presence. Their presence probably assuaged her guilt a little after monopolizing my attention all afternoon. And Sam and Zofi stayed with me and Naimh for the next thirty minutes or so.

We ate take-out dim sum and boba drinks. We hiked up to the Cable Car

Museum and caught a ride downtown and then back. Naimh squeezed my hand and whispered naughty musings about finding a quiet corner so she could give me a blowjob. We walked all over the place and had a great time.

In the end, everyone was a Little footsore but quite satisfied with our trip by the time we finally returned to the minivan for the drive back home.

Because of the footsore part, everyone was pretty quiet as I focused on getting the van out of our metered parking spot and over to the main roads. But less than two minutes into the drive, Naimh turned around in her seat and began, “So... when are we gonna talk about these one-on-ones?"

The girls all Looked at each other for a second, and then as one, they all turned to look right at Sam. The blonde sighed and put her hand across her forehead. "Do we have to talk about this now? Can't it wait until we all get to Matty's place? I'm tired.”

Naimh stared hard at her. "C'mon, on Monday you asked me to wait until

Wednesday. It's Wednesday. And we're all stuck in the van until we get home. You have a better time?"

"I thought you were on your period anyway.”

"So? I want this resolved."

"You can't date him," Sam cautioned. "The Rule is still The Rule.”

“I didn't ask to date him, even though YOU already went on a date with him."

“Then what do you want?"

“I want to FUCK him is what I want," Naimh said a Little heatedly. "But

I'll settle for an afternoon walking around someplace Like Chinatown hand-in-hand and then doing whatever you two did after the wedding.”

Through the rear-view mirror I could see Sam and Zofi exchanging a look. I got the distinct impression that Sam had now told Zofi the truth, but I had to focus on not crashing the van for the next few minutes as I worked my way through heavy San Francisco traffic back to the freeway.

Sam glanced into the back seat.

“This isn't a dictatorship. If we're having this discussion, what do the rest of you think?"

“How would one-on-ones work, anyway?" Alice asked. "We're all friends, and I don't want to do anything that would cut into the time we spend together as a group. Like, would one of us and Matty go up to his bedroom while the rest of us were studying downstairs in the afternoon?