Why my birthday weekend?
I didn’t disagree that we needed to know when exactly we’d gotten together, but it was slightly depressing that I’d had so little going on for my twenty-fifth birthday weekend that I could have plausibly been at his.
PHIL
It was the first weekend after I last answered Jack’s emergency call.
AMY
Been ending your dates yourself like a big boy, have you?
PHIL
Bonus lore drop: your pet name for me is “big boy.”
AMY
Big boy is what does it for you? Really?
PHIL
Hey, come up with something better and we’ll talk.
I deleted the part of the shared note that said “Amy’s pet name for Phil is big boy”, but it reappeared almost as soon as I’d removed it.
* * *
I triedto tackle the mess that was Dad’s invoicing. I’d planned to do it across Thursday and Friday, working a half day each, but since I was apparently going to be spending Friday wandering into the wilderness, I had a full workday ahead of me. But not before Phil could send through what had quickly become my favourite part of each day:
PHIL
Daily Phamy lore drop #4. We haven’t used the L-word yet.
That one made me frown. When would that come up with anyone else? But I didn’t hate the idea of defining just how serious we were. We’d known each other long enough that, without doing that, the others might assume we were basically married immediately after getting together.
AMY
Seems sensible. But to clarify, we absolutely have had sex.
PHIL
Well obviously. I’m only human. But maybe let’s skim over that detail around your brother?
AMY
BTW, found my tent in dad’s workshop, and it is indeed too small to share.
PHIL
Mine too! Look at us, avoiding the one bed trope like a couple of pros.
AMY
Yes, my vast fake dating experience has prepared me for this moment.
PHIL
Really? I learned from cheesy Christmas rom-coms where they get snowed in at the local B&B run by a poorly disguised Santa.
