Page 14 of What It Means To Be Found

“I sent them to Logan by accident,” I wheezed. God, this was so embarrassing. Now Logan was going to know I read alien erotica at four a.m. like a crazy person. “He’s going to tease me so bad for reading this.”

“What did the voice messages say?” Josh asked, his eyes bouncing between his fiancée and me.

“I can’t remember, but I know I was tipsy and now he has yet another reason to make fun of me.” I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation with myself.

“Play them. If you were tipsy, you probably just didn’t make sense. Which would explain why he hasn’t responded to them yet.” Courtney shrugged with a nod of her chin towards my phone. I tapped on the first recording I sent him.

“First of all, the communication barrier? Hot. The protectiveness? Hot. Holy hell. I am so blown away by all of this.”

Oh dear god.

The kitchen was silent.

“Um,” Josh nodded, his eyes wide as he tried to make it not weird, “That’s fine, what was the next one?”

My blood was running colder than normal, so I tapped on the second message.

“The things I would let him do to me. I’m so glad I charged my vibrator recently. Hot. Damn!”

Oh fuck. I tapped on the last one while everyone sat in silence absorbing that message.

“I’m ruined. I can’t come back from this. Am I into grunting, pushy men with communication barriers now? I’m feeling the feminism leave my body little by little.”

Fuck. I knew that this was worse, but my sleepy brain couldn’t quite fathom why yet. All I knew was that my heart was racing and I wanted to hide in a hole for the rest of my life. I slowly slid down the cupboards until I was sitting on the kitchen floor, my own eyes wide as I stared at the message thread with Logan.

I assumed my face conveyed the horror I felt.

“Oh my god!” Josh started laughing, and soon Courtney and Susan joined him. I didn’t care. They could laugh as much as they wanted, but that didn’t change how mortified I was, “This is my favorite day!” Josh cried as he covered his eyes with one of his hands.

“Screw you all, this is humiliating!” I flipped the room off, my eyes still glued to my phone. It was like if I stared at it long enough, it would magically disappear and cease to exist.

Nope. The voice messages still sat there on my screen.

“Logan thinks you want him now,” Courtney giggled, sliding down next to me on the floor. “This is amazing.”

“What?” I was blinking rapidly at her, my mind racing with her words. “Why would he think that?”

“Because!” Courtney pointed directly at my phone with a grin she couldn’t hide, “You’re talking about how hot you are for quiet, grunting men with communication barriers. Getting into fights and defending your honor. Why wouldn’t he think that, after getting into a fight during the game just last night? No man would listen to that and assume you were talking about erotica.”

“It’s true,” Josh was still laughing as he spoke, his face buried in both of his hands as his elbows rested on the kitchen table. “If I was Logan, I would one hundred percent assume you were into me. Regardless of how buzzed you sound in those recordings.”

No, no, no.

This was horrible.

Logan and I had gotten into it in the past due to my inability to understand ASL as well as everyone else in the group. In fact, I had specifically smushed pie all over him because he had teased me for the inappropriate signs I accidentally used.

Logan was going to think I was making a pass at him.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

Just then, I glanced at my phone and saw three dots start to bounce at the bottom of the message thread. Oh shit, he was responding!

“Fuck!” I cried, fumbling my phone out of my hands. Courtney was trying to control her laughter as she retrieved my phone from the kitchen floor and held it up. I could see that hismessage had come through, but not what it said until she grinned like the Cheshire cat and turned the phone to show me after reading it herself.

Logan: We should probably talk.

“I told you!” Courtney pulled my phone away from me and clutched it to her chest, pointing a finger at me as she jumped off of the kitchen floor and cackled. She then hopped over to Josh and Susan to show them the message, making them both laugh some more.

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