Page 52 of Structure of Love

Sandi stopped by with a tray full of our food. She set it down, but she looked at Gage with suspicion. “I know that face. That’s your prankster face. What the hell are you doing?”

“Logan accidentally got added to a group chat.” He didn’t even look up from my phone.

Strangely, Sandi didn’t need any more information to put the pieces together. “You rotten bastard. Tell those poor people they have the wrong number!”

“Wait, wait, it’s just gotten juicy.”

I read the reply and snorted. “Too wide a swing, boo. It was a miss.”

3:Who is this

4:Christy I swear to god if you’re messing with us

1:Omg I just realized I typed the number in wrong who is this?

“Aww, they figured it out.” With a shrug, Gage came clean.

Me:Sorry wrong number do play again

Someone sent a whole string of middle-finger emojis. Others were angry faces.

My number was abruptly removed from the chat, and the only thing left was the convo we’d just had.

Sandi shook her head at both of us. “At your ages, you’re still like this, huh? Gage, I knew better than to hope, but Logan, you won’t even stop him, huh? Just going along with it.”

“My dear friend,” I said, “you seem to have mistaken me for a responsible adult. This is not the case.”

“Clearly.” With a roll of her eyes, she asked, “Anything else I can get you?”

I looked, but I had utensils, drink, and food, so I was set. “I’m good, thanks.”

She didn’t even bother to wait for Gage’s response before walking off.

Gage screenshotted the conversation, looking pleased with himself, and then texted the images to his phone.

I looked at his mischievous smile and had a feeling we’d be just fine. If we had a similar sense of humor, he’d be easy to live with.

Gage squirted ketchup on to his plate, next to his fries. “Oh, speaking of texts, I got one from Asher this morning. He wants me to invite you to his birthday bash on Saturday.”

Pleasure and relief ran through me. I’d not gotten to engage with Asher much during the game, as we’d been too busy playing, but apparently I’d made a good impression. “Sounds great. I’d love to go.”

“I’ll text you the details. Don’t worry about a gift or anything. I normally throw fifty bucks into a card and let him go buy books.”

“Now that I can do.”

“I don’t know if you realized just how much fun everyone had with you last night. Today I received a lot of questions asking if you were going to join the campaign. They’re hoping you will.”

Oof, right in the feels. “So they’re not inviting me just because I’m dating you?”

“Nope,” he said, popping the P. “Well, in part, but it’s mostly because you’re fun.”

“I’m happy to join.” Those words were an understatement. I’d missed playing with a group like Gage’s, and being able to do it again was a fervent wish of mine. Plus, I could hopefully become close with his friends.

“Good! I’ll add you to the DnD group chat.” He picked his phone up again. “We coordinate times and snacks through it. I promise not to add some random person instead.”

I snickered. “Now, Gage, let’s not limit ourselves.”

He snickered along with me.