“You literally just had five,” Tyler said. “You’re still on it.”
“Then I’m extending that five,” Chase said with a shrug. He took me by the elbow and steered me back out onto the street. “Holy shit. Did you steal another dog?”
“Shut up.” I untied Dog’s leash. “This is Dog. He’s just been washed and brushed.”
We sat on the bench and I checked the paper bag. There was a spinach and feta pastry inside. It was still warm. I took a bite and gave Dog a corner of the pastry. “I got your text.”
Chase’s glower was back. “So, are you coming?”
“Don’t be an asshole. Of course I am. Why’d you even text me about it?”
Chase dragged the toe of his sneaker along the grit of the sidewalk. He shrugged. “Avery asked me to.”
“What?” That didn’t make any sense. “I always come to spaghetti night. Why would he ask you to ask me?”
Chase’s glower deepened. “He said you could invite Mason.”
“Okay,” I said. “I will. You could have put that in your message.”
“I would have,” he said, “except you didn’t even answer. You just came down here instead. You were supposed to say you were coming, and then I was going to tell you to bring Mason. So I didn’t just ask with no context, okay?”
“Since when do we need context?”
He rolled his eyes. “Since you basically moved out to live with some guy and I don’t even see you anymore.”
“It’s been like a week, Chase.” But I felt guilt bite at me anyway because we’d never been apart for this long before, not at any time in our lives. A week might as well have been a year, and the worst part was that I’d hardly noticed because I’d been busy with Mason and Dog and the kittens. It hadn’t occurred to me that Chase would miss me. I should have known better.
“Whatever.” He glared as he scritched Dog’s head.
“I’m sorry.” I leaned against him. “It’s going good, by the way. Everything with Mason.”
“Good,” he said, still glaring. “It better be.”
I nudged him with my shoulder and nodded at the flyer in the window of Gobble de Goose. Goose Pride, it said, and then in Sharpie: GAY. “I see Bobby’s been here too.”
Chase snorted, a smile threatening the downturned corners of his mouth. “He’s put in an order for two thousand rainbow cupcakes. Can you imagine any event in Goose Run getting two thousand people? He’scrazy.”
But he said it in an admiring tone, because Bobby’s craziness was exactly the sort that the world needed. Like, maybe it wouldn’t be such a fucking dumpster fire if more people were like Bobby Merritt. And I, for one, would welcome our new goose overlords.
“Yeah,” I said. “He really is.”
“And you know who’s gonna cause a big stink?” Chase asked, eyes brightening. He jerked his head in the direction of Goose Run First Baptist Church. “Pastor Asshole.”
“Bobby can take him in a fight.”
Chase’s mouth quirked. “Fuck yeah, he can.”
He tilted his head sideways, bumping it gently against mine, and I knew we were good. I relaxed and dug into the paper bag again. Chase gave Dog pets while I finished the pastry. It was good, but everything Lee made was good. Except biko. I didn’t like that.
“So, spaghetti night?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, ignoring the thrum of anxiety that spiked through me. Would Mason want to come? DidIwant him to come? If I invited him, would that be the same as telling them we were dating or something? Did I want to share that yet? What if the guys were weird about Mason? What if they were weird tomenow because of Mason? I didn’t think they would be, but what if theywere? What if someone told him about how sometimes I had to burrito myself in a blanket and not come out for hours when everything got too overwhelming? Mason hadn’t seen me go full pill bug mode, and while I thought he’d be cool about it, what if he wasn’t?
Jesus. I hadn’t even known I had this many insecurities about being with Mason until the prospect of inviting him to meet my family had been raised. Was that normal?
Chase slung an arm around me. “Don’t overthink yourself into a spiral, idiot.”
“I wasn’t,” I lied.
