Page 69 of Structure of Love

“Huh. Good to know. I’m still not helping them with a lawyer.”

“Good! Don’t. Your brother’s ridden the Fuck Around train all the way, and he’s now at Find Out station. If he doesn’t like the destination, he shouldn’t have boarded the train.”

Gage outright grinned. “I love how you just said that. I feel like I should write that down.”

“I mean, feel free to text it to your family. It’s the truth. Don’t like the result? Don’t do it again, then. It’s simple math.”

“That it is.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

“Mainly fed up. Some twinges of guilt here and there, but that’s conditioned programming. I’m not giving in to them. Mostly, though, I’m just tired of this cycle.”

“That’s fair.” He didn’t seem inclined to break his boundary, and I was proud of him.

I glanced at the dash’s clock and did some quick math. “How long’s your lunch break?”

“However long I want it to be. Why are you grinning at me like that?”

“I maybe have plans. My-house-is-nearby plans.”

Gage considered my words for a long second as he pulled into the parking lot and put the truck into Park. Then he ordered me, “Eat fast.”

I loved it when a plan came together.

After appropriately sexing up my boyfriend and picking up my bike back at his office, I decided I’d better get to work myself. I had a day manager, of course, but I liked to be at work and keep tabs on things myself.

I’d just hit my parking lot when my phone rang. I picked it up with a smile because a buddy was calling. “Si, whazzup?”

“Man, how fucking dare you not tell me you two are officially dating!”

“It’s been less than twenty-four hours since he agreed. Excuse me for not texting you immediately. How the fuck do you know, anyway?”

“In that case, you’re forgiven.Ran into Grandma at the gas station and she showed me pictures, gushing about how nice he is and how tall he is. You realize she’s already filling out adoption forms, right?She loves this guy, apparently enough to assume you’re together before you actually were.”

His words delighted me on several levels. “To be fair, he’s an awesome guy. Might be falling in love with him myself.”

“My god, you’re serious. Duuuuude. Say something, you promised me tea!”

“Sorry, been kind of wrapped up in him. Oh! He plays DnD with a group. You wanna potentially join in? They do the occasional one-shot.”

Silas made gremlin happy noises. He was every bit the geek I was, after all. “I’m there. Just give me a date and time, I’msothere.”

“I figured. I’ll text Riggs and let him know.”

“Awesome. Send pics of this guy to the chat group and announce your relationship status or there’s going to be hell to pay later.”

“That’s…a fair point. Will do. Bye, man.”

“Bye.”

I disconnected, thought about it, then trolled through one of those candid shots I had of Gage painting the bedroom. He had a little bit of green on his cheek, laughing because I’d cracked a joke, and it was honestly my favorite picture of him. I posted it in the friend group chat, then addedI found a boyfriend. This is Gage.

Group chat was silent for about five seconds. And then—explosion.

Yeah, okay, let’s just go in. I could at least sit in air conditioning while fielding the many, many questions and watching my friends collectively lose their shit. Free entertainment?

But hey, spending an hour or so bragging about Gage was absolutely well worth my time.