Monogamy isn't for everyone, but for most of us, being with one person at a time is enough. Of course, you may know someone in an open relationship or non-monogamous marriage [1], you may have even flirted with the idea yourself, but chances are you decided it wasn't for you.

That's what Nerve [2] writer Naomi H. Lane thought, too, until she fell for two friends at the same time, friends who were already dating each other. This is a threesome [3] like you've never seen before. We've excerpted the beginning of the essay below; visit Nerve to read the whole thing.

Polyamory used to be something that happened to other people — paunchy swingers in the suburbs with chest hair, hippies sprawled on rattan pillows. I imagined harems, armpit hair, hairiness in general. Multiple partnership always struck me as either a new age cop-out from the realities of relationships, or a frat boy fantasy — either way, it was gross. "Polyamory" sounded distasteful — scientific even, like a subspecies of amoeba — and nothing like the half-formed thoughts and desires I could barely admit were my own. So when I found myself falling for two of my friends last summer, I was quite literally at a loss for words.

A recent heartbreak had thrown me off kilter, and a good friend and his lovely girlfriend were leaving town. Plus, Sam and Melissa (not their real names) had done this before. As their goodbye party wound to a close, we were dancing in bare feet, a little St. Regis Death Trip by Jerry Stahltipsy on sangria, a little high on the view of the city they were leaving, a little emotional. I sat on the couch. Melissa leaned in next to me. I put my arm around her shoulder. She lay her head in my lap. I started running my fingers through her hair. Every time her hair slipped through my fingers, I could feel the heat rising between my legs.

She turned her face towards mine and her lips moved up closer, and then Sam was on the other side of me, leaning gently on my shoulder, encouraging this kiss. I could feel Sam's breath on the back of my neck as he watched our lips meet. I had kissed a woman before then, but it was nothing like this: This was softer, and more electric.

 

To read the rest of the essay click here [4].