I grabbed my phone and brought up my texts with Maddie.
Me: Hey.
Her response came immediately in the form of afinallyGIF.
Mads: I mean, hey. Hi. What’s up? Nothing here. Super chill. Was very relaxed and not at all staring at my phone while I waited to hear from you.
Me: Sorry, I would’ve messaged earlier if I’d known you were awake.
Mads: I’m always up early now. It’s an unfortunate side effect of going to bed at a reasonable hour.
Me: And waking up to toasted marshmallow iced coffee probably helps.
Mads: That doesn’t hurt. Neither does the good…
Mads: Breakfast burritos.
Me: Riiiight.
Mads: So. Uh. How was your night?
I didn’t even have to think about it.
Me: Eye-openingly amazing. Yours?
Mads: Anxiety-inducing but overall, an extreme relief. Well, halfway. It’ll be even better when I talk to Wren.
Mads: At some point.
Mads: Unless you’ve already told her.
Me: Nope.
And I hadn’t considered doing so. Once the shock of seeing Maddie on her knees in front of Easton had worn off—or at least lessened by a tiny percentage—I really hadn’t been that surprised. Like I’d told Tripp, she’d always seemed underwhelmed with dating and sex. She wasn’t opposed to it, but she’d been happy hanging out with friends instead of a significant other. I’d known Easton was different because of how much time she spent with him, and now I knew just how different he really was.
How differenttheywere.
Our sweet friend Wren had a filthy sense of humor and a sex-positive attitude, but the idea of explaining my tiny foray into the wild side was still daunting. And telling her about Maddie wasn’t my place at all.
Mads: I should probably do that soon.
Mads: Think the surprise discovery of Gilded could happen twice?
Me: I wouldn’t bank on it.
Mads: Damn. So, are you going to put me out of my nosy misery by telling me what happened when you disappeared?
Me: I am not.
Mads: Double damn.
Me: Not yet, at least.
Mads: I’ll be patient. I guess.
Mads: If you weren’t messaging me to fill me in on the dirty details(and I really wish you were) what’s up?
Me: You mentioned asking Tripp for a copy of Old Flame. Did you ever do that?
