Page 78 of Untethered Heart
GAGE:
She means from this chat, who isn’t sitting at the dinner table right now…
BETH:
It’s a good thing you don’t talk during sex Mason, I can’t imagine anyone sticking around for long if you did.
MASON:
How do you know I don’t talk during sex?wink-face-emoji
GAGE:
Man, I regret dropping you on your head when we were younger.
MASON:
Hey!
GAGE:
I meant Beth. Why the fuck would you say that? I don’t need to know about his sex life.
BETH:
One of the girls I went to school with came for a sleepover and snuck into his room. She told me far too many details the next morning, despite my protests, then proceeded to ask the redundant question for the next week, ‘Did he say anything about me?’
BETH:
Bitch, if he had anything to say, he’d be saying it to you, not me.
MASON:
…which friend was this?
BETH:
When did I say it was a friend? There’s a reason for that distinction.
GAGE:
Before I drown myself in the ice bucket, Cale,where are you?
I roll over to sit back up, then pull Lex until she’s seated between my legs and I’m cocooning her with my thighs, hugging my chest to her back.
I lean my face over her shoulder and hold my phone out in front of us, smiling as I take the selfie.
“Hey, I wasn’t ready.”
I don’t know why she thinks being ready will change anything. She looks beautiful, no matter what. I take a few more photos of us smiling at the camera, me kissing her cheek, her kissing my cheek. When I look back over the photos, the last one is my favourite. I’m looking at her like she hung the moon, and she’s looking directly at the camera, cheeks rosy and glowing from the setting sun and a smile full of bliss.
I send it to the group chat and then make it my phone wallpaper.
“Why did you do that?” she asks.
“My siblings were wondering why I wasn’t at the family dinner.”
“Oh no, have I kept you from something important?”
