Page 126 of Dear Future Husband: You're My End Game

Madelyn shrugged not seeming to be bothered by Penny’s snooping or unfiltered opinion, picking her phone back up, “Yes, he’s a little older than me and will be graduating next year but there’s no heartbreak if you’re not emotionally invested. We made a deal that this is just for fun, no commitment, and no rules. Just fun.” Madelyn affirmed and Maybelle could see right through the facade.

She felt like a Magic Eight Ball in the moment.

Will there be heartbreak in Madelyn’s future because she actually is very much emotionally invested. Abso-freaking-lutley.

“Well how did that all start? I didn’t even know you knew Larson.” Maybelle asked throwing away her used napkins.

Madelyn snorted, “Coincidentally, it happened over pizza of all things. We met at an after-game party, made out in the bathroom, exchanged numbers and then over fall break I got a text from him that said,You want to get pizza and make out?” Madelyn relayed in a mocking mimic of Larson’s voice, “And I wasn’t about to say no to such an offer, so we hooked up and have been working well like that ever since.”

“You guys have been doing this since fall break and we are just now finding out?” Gracie questioned.

Madelyn nodded simply.

“Again, not emotionally involved so we didn’t feel a need to tell anyone about us.” Madelyn left the counter approaching the TV, “No more talk of boys, this is girls' night. Let's play something.” She pronounced and they all seemed content with the idea. Madelyn rummaged through a drawer of games before pulling one out that Maybelle immediately recognized.

“I didn’t know we had Just Dance! Why haven’t weplayed it yet?” Madelyn inquired.

Penny turned to Maybelle, “Isn’t that yours?”

Maybelle nodded, “My mom and I used to play it together.” Maybelle stilled instantly with that answer having left her lips so naturally.

All the girls awed in unison, “We are definitely playing it now.” Penny announced as she readied the gaming console, “Come on Bells, get your booty up here with me.”

…

Trey continued to stare at the last texts from Maybelle.

Maybelle: Do you ever wonder

what your future wife is up to?

Trey: What are you up to?

Maybelle: Missing you.

Jesus,he was going to marry the hell out of this girl. Trey finally peered up from his phone to the room before him. They were at Austin Lunt’s place with a few of his teammates. The basketball players were a solid group of guys Trey wasn’t super well versed with, but he enjoyed hanging out with them well enough.

They were in a basement apartment, Larson, and Williams at one end of the space playing a heated game of pool, while Bear was in the corner with Daniel Aguilar of all people. Penny had asked Trey to invite Daniel for guys’ night and he was more than happy to. Trey never knew Daniel from high school, they never had classes together and they had very different interests that kept them on opposite sides of the social cliques. He’d only spoken to Daniel once outside of school and Penny, but he liked the guy, especially with how happy he madePenny. Now Trey did know Daniel well enough to know the guy was extremely shy, and Bear was probably pressuring him into spilling his guts, so Trey stood from the couch and joined the two in the corner.

Trey came in on the tail end of Bear saying, “…love is hard, but it sounds like you already know what you have to do. You just need to tell Penny.” To Trey’s surprise Daniel nodded intently, his whole focus entirely on Bear.

As Trey approached, immediately regretting his attempt at heroics, Bear and Daniel both turned to look at him, “Sorry to interrupt guys.”

Bear met him, clapping him over the shoulder, “No worries brother, we were done anyway. I’m going to go get a drink, I’ll be back.”

Trey and Daniel were alone now, and Trey was seriously wishing he was cuddled up next to Maybelle watching a movie and not cringing at the silence. Again, he liked Daniel, but the guy was painfully quiet, and Trey could only hear himself talk for so long before feeling like an absolute idiot.

So, he searched for the first conversation topics to come to mind, “You work at the hospital, right?”

Daniel shifted, “Sort of, I work on the ambulance as Paramedic.”

Damn. That’s cool.

“That’s impressive.” Trey admitted aloud, “So you were at the hospital a lot, more than that one time I ran into you right after high school?” He asked thinking back to that day just after Maybelle’s accident, he had run into Daniel outside her room. Daniel had been taking a break from work to visit her, besides Trey and his mom Daniel had been the only other person he knew that had actually come to visit Maybelle while she slept. They made the connection of being from the same high school that day, Daniel had said he and Maybelle had been friends andhe wanted to check in on her.

Daniel adjusted again, “Yeah, when I worked with that hospital, I had been there a lot.”

“That’s awesome man, and thank you, again.” Trey said drawing Daniel’s attention to him.

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