Elizabeth -or Liz, as her friends called her- never thought she (marry) two men at the same time. Not legally, at any rate. She was well into her twenties when she was proved wrong.

Long before, back at high school, she’d met Joe. Liz and Joe loved each other, but somehow it was clear from the start that things (be set) to be difficult. Expecting Joe to be really faithful to her was, well, illusory. Joe was bisexual, and Liz alone simply really make him happy.
Things (end) soon if Liz had been like her sister Mary -conventional and even a tad jealous. “You (leave) him”, Mary would often say. “Something like this (end) in tears, Lizzie. I know it. For God’s sakes, he’s into blokes as well. He (run off) with one any time. He possibly have enough with you alone!”
Liz didn’t listen. How she ever leave her Joey? Yes, there (be) pain in store, but she was sure it would turn out alright in the end. She would just (accept) Joe the way he was.
Through university, and still they were together. They had arrived at a covenant, a deal. Each of them (meet) others, it ran. But they (be) honest about it -and safe, of course. They (ever, keep) a secret. It worked, more or less.
Then Sid appeared. Sid was gorgeous, and Liz fell for him the day she met him. For the first time, here was another man who really was more than a toy, or a mate with privileges. For a while, Liz even doubted whether she really (tell) Joe. But how she not do so? But how he react? They’d always known something like this (happen). But still…
What Liz didn’t know was that Joe was having the same problem. He, too, had met Sid, and they had had a little adventure. Now, Joe just (forget) him.
“We (talk),” said Joe one day. “I’ve met this guy, and … well, it’s complicated. I love you, but I … I just (tell) you what I feel for him -it makes no sense. I feel like ... I (be) going nuts. Damn, I think I love both of you.” Liz was destroyed. How could this have happened? Her Joe! Still, what she say? Did she have the right to say anything at all?
Tears in her eyes, her heart breaking, she asked for the boy’s name. “Sid,” came the answer, half-choked in tears. Liz sat up. this be? Yes, it .
Two years later, all three of them moved to Nepal to get married. Polyandry was legal there. Thinking about that fateful day, all these years after, they still (suppress) a laugh. And Mary still (believe) it.