Ruben: *gif of Rue McClanahan, aka Blanche from The Golden Girls, nervously laughing and saying, “Don’t judge me! I can’t help myself!”*
Raina: Oh Ruby Tuesday. How did I fail you?
Ruben: *gif of some redheaded woman saying, “I’m a hot mess, and I like it!”*
Riley: The rough night was Rowan’s. Now I get a rough morning.
Riley’s text was followed by a photograph of Rowan’s blackened carpeting from the lightning damage. Milo could be seen in the photo too, standing beside the window, not too close to the broken area, thankfully, but just staring out of it, which was… odd.
Ruben: Holy shit, bro! Pass out while smoking a joint? Been there.
Raina: At least something belonging to Rowan is getting rug burn.
Ew. Was that supposed to be a sex joke? Rowan shot her a glare.
When he looked back at his phone, while he didn’t know how it related, Ruben’s newest gif was of a man writhing on a hospital bed with his trouser-clad crotch on fire. Where did he even find these?
Rowan typed a response so fast, he fat-thumbed multiple typos before getting it right.
Rowan: My bot was hit by lightning last night!
Ruben replied with the now classic gif fromThe Brady Bunchparody: “Sure, Jan.”
Raina: Ha! If RoRo’s bot turns into The Flash, apartment lightning rods could become the next big thing.
Riley: No.
Rowan: No!
Ruben: No.
Raina: What are you saying ‘no’ for, Ruben?
Ruben: Just guessing what the other two would say.
Riley:??
Rowan: I am at work!
After firing off that final retort, Rowan shoved his phone back into his pocket. He hadn’t even wanted to tell Raina about the lightning, but he’d had to in order to get her thoughts on fixingMilo’s back. Riley had been an inevitable confidant, but now Ruben knew too?
Maybe if Rowan got Riley a new toolbelt or something, she’d drop it.
Raina and Ruben were entirely different matters.
“Oh, wipe that scowl off your face,” Raina said, setting her phone aside finally too.
“You know what actually happened, and you still had to crack jokes?” Rowan groused.
“Of course I did. I’m your big sister.”
Rowan scowled deeper.
“And the humor helped me process that if that lightning had hit one room over, I might only have one hot mess of a brother.”
The reality of that hadn’t occurred to Rowan. Had it been a fluke, dumb luck, divine intervention that the lightning hit Milo instead of him, or had the lightning been drawn to Milo and the new surge protector? He would definitely need to dig into that as part of his research.
“Forgive me for being glad it only hit your bot,” Raina said a little softer. Then her tone immediately flipped back to teasing. “Just try to remember it’s more of a pet than an actual boyfriend.”
