Three in Porto – Part 1: Two Best Friends

The apartment in Porto had blue-tiled walls, a balcony overlooking the Douro, and a kitchen so small that Leo kept banging his head on the cupboard. Elena had booked it for her thirtieth birthday, and Leo and Marco had insisted on coming, because, as Marco put it, a woman should not travel alone with only her own bad decisions.

"You're both terrible," said Elena, from the balcony, watching the river sparkle below.

"We're wonderful," said Leo, emerging with three glasses of tawny port. "Ask anyone."

"Ask the shopkeeper who sold you the lobster," said Marco, following him out. "He still thinks you're insane."

They had been friends since university, the three of them, in a crowded flat in Leeds with a broken oven and too many books. Elena had always been the centre: the one who remembered birthdays, who organised the dinners, who made sure the others were eating properly. Leo had been the joker, the one who turned every problem into a bet. Marco had been the quiet one, the steady presence who fixed the broken chairs and listened when the others were too loud.

Now the three of them sat on the balcony with the sunset painting the river orange, and for the first time in years there was nothing to organise.

"Can I say something serious?" asked Marco, after the second glass.

"Only if you promise it's not about cheese," said Leo.

"It's about us," said Marco, and set his glass down carefully. "I've been in love with both of you for about five years, and I've been too scared to say it."

The river slid beneath them. A tram rattled somewhere far below, up the hill.

Elena's heart thumped painfully. She looked at Marco, and then at Leo, who had gone very still beside her.

"Oh," said Leo, quietly. "Marco. Me too."

"You're both mad," said Elena, but her voice wavered. "Both of you?"

"Both of us," said Leo. "And I think you know it, Elena. You always look at both of us when we're in the room."

She opened her mouth to argue, and found she couldn't.

"Can I ask you something?" said Marco.

"Yes."

"Do you want us to stop, or do you want to find out what happens if we don't?"

The question sat between them, bright and honest. Elena swallowed hard.

"I want to find out," she said. "But slowly. And I want all three of us to say yes out loud, every step, so nobody feels left out."

"Agreed," said Leo, grinning and nervous at once.

"Agreed," said Marco, his eyes soft.

Elena reached out and took one hand from each of them, warm and steady, and the three of them sat on the balcony in the fading light, holding on.

"Green?" asked Leo, teasingly.

"Green," said Elena, laughing and close to tears. "Both of you. Very, very green."