I'm not ‘yours’. I'm not anybody else's either, but I'm definitely not

‘yours’, and I need you to recognize that.”

“But you're supposed to be mine,“ she whimpered, grimacing as if I was stabbing her in the heart.

"Someday. Maybe. I dreamed that future a lot myself. But you and I are

NOT going to ride off into the sunset in a pumpkin carriage just because of a dream."

Again, she grimaced and clenched her eyes like I'd stabbed her in the heart.

“Belle, we're not even dating, let alone on a path to Happily Ever

After. I'm not your boyfriend, and honestly, I'm gonna tell you the exact same thing I told Neevie this afternoon."

That piqued her interest, and she Looked up at me with a frown.

“What's that?"

“If you really think we belong together romantically, I won't stop you from pursuing me. I won't stop you from trying to prove you love me the way you say you do. But I'm not going to just stop being with the others because you say so, and I'm not going to pretend to want a romantic relationship with you right now when... at Least for now... I don't. I love you as my Annabelle. But I am NOT in the right head space to be ‘yours’ or anybody else's."

Belle gave me a curious look. "You really told that to Neevie?"

I blinked. "Yeah, why.”

Belle snorted. "Good lord you're in for it now."

“What did I do?"

Shaking her head, Belle sighed.

“You dared Neevie to prove that she loves you. You thought that girl was all over you before? You have NO idea how crazy she’s gonna get now.”

“Well, I did tell her she had to prove it emotionally. Physically, she's already convinced me. Proving it emotionally is gonna be different."

“Well at least there's that." After taking a deep breath, she seemed to have been calmed down by thinking about something other than her own wounded feelings for me. But a moment Later, she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

“So what it sounds Like you're saying is: Now I'm just one of the BTC girls to you. ALL six of us... equal... And if any one of us wants to escalate a romance to the next level, we'll have to convince you it's the right choice, that about cover it?"

I heard the venom in her tone and thought about my response. Clearly, the thought of being only equal to the other five did NOT sit well with her.

“Well, you're not just one of the BTC girls to me. You're still my

Annabelle. The bottom baseline for us is you ending up my ‘Little sister' who I'll always love until the day I die. I just... I wouldn't abandon the entire BTC for you anymore. The others... they're too important to me now. Does that make sense?”

She made a stink face, quite obviously not thrilled with that change in attitude. But a moment later she sighed and nodded, saying, "That actually makes sense."

I looked into her eyes. "I'm serious. I need you to open up to me and not bury these feelings of jealousy anymore. Hot as it was at the time, having you screaming ‘You understand me?’ in my face while fucking the shit out of me was pretty scary. And if you start getting unhinged like that again, you're never getting this house key back."