Page 5 of Before I Knew

Dorian:

Wait, you’re not even going to cook for us, Aston?

Me:

I’m not in the mood to search for a middle finger emoji.

Flynn:

My God, how old are you?

James:

We don’t ask those types of questions.

Unknown Number:

Hello? Do you know how to exit a group chat? Not that this hasn’t been enlightening, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be here.

I leaned backand stared at my phone as if it were a snake ready to strike. I did not recognize the number. It wasn’t Dorian’s ex. And now I was wondering why we had a complete stranger in our family group chat. Damn it. I picked up the phone as soon as it rang, Flynn’s name appearing on the screen.

“Do you know who that is?” Flynn asked, his voice sounding slightly panicked.

“Is it weird that I hope it’s someone that Dorian met and accidentally put her number in?” Because having it be a complete stranger would be worse. At least we hadn’t shared company and family issues within the chat. So far.

“We don’t know if it’s aher.”

That was true. We didn’t know if it was aher. And here I was, acting as if it could be. Weird.

“Hell, no one else is texting, so they’re probably waiting for me to handle it?” I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Sounds about right. But you are the big brother. It’s what you’re used to. Handle it.”

“At least we didn’t discuss company secrets.”

“No, we just said our names often enough that now someone has our numbers. Hopefully it’s not the press. Or a rival. Fuck.”

I could practically see Flynn pace his office. We weren’t working in the same building today. Flynn was off in the smalltown that we had purchased over two generations ago, while I was in our high-rise in the city of Denver. I liked running Cage Enterprises. Our grandfather, and later our father, had built it from the ground up, and while they had made some questionable business choices along the way, we had changed the game. We worked with gaining financing and worked with ethical and environmentally friendly building. Hence why we worked with Ford’s family, the Montgomerys so often. We worked with real estate development, small business backers, and environmental research. Meaning we had way too many NDAs to begin with, and people were constantly trying to reach us.

And now, we were adding random people to group chats.

Again, the group chat went completely silent, and I copied the person’s number before starting a new chat.

Me:

Sorry about that. Wrong number I assume?

The three little dots flared for a moment, before they went away, and I had to hope that that was for the best.

Unknown number:

I wouldn’t know. You’re the one now texting me outside the group chat. Where did you get my number?

I studied the number, then quickly went through my contacts, and cursed under my breath. It was one away from Dorian’s. Meaning, when Flynn had made the group chat, he had somehow typed in Dorian’s number. Which didn’t make any sense to me because you could just go through the contact list. I quickly called up Flynn again.

“How did you make the group chat?”

“My phone was giving me problems, so I just typed in everyone’s numbers. I have them all memorized.”

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