When he finally separates himself from me, I give him a cheeky smile. “We’re doing it on this counter one day.”

His cheeks flame a bright red, his pupils exploding, darkening his eyes. “Jesus, Sadie.” Finally, he bursts out laughing. “I’m holding you to that.”

GEMMA: Um, excuse me, Miss Sadie. WTF am I seeing on your IG right now?

HARLEY: What’s on her Insta?

HARLEY: Wait, why am I asking that when I can open it up and check for myself?

NICK: Oh shit. Where is that?

GEMMA: WHY ARE YOU IGNORING US RIGHT NOW.

GEMMA: Sadie.

GEMMA: Sadie.

GEMMA: Sadie, I have literally 20 minutes between classes to pee, shove food in my face, and regroup and I’m using those 20 minutes to text you, so you better fucking answer!

ME: Jesus. I was on the phone with a customer. Good lord.

ME: Hi, all! What’s everyone up to?

GEMMA: I’m going to kill you.

HARLEY: My caseload is full, so you might want to rethink murder at this point.

NICK: Good god, Sadie. Tell her so my phone stops blowing up please.

ME: It’s not really a big thing, it’s just the top level of the brownstone.

GEMMA: The top level of the brownstone has coolers, a sink, and an island perfect for flower arranging? Convenient.

ME: Jack provided some of those things. Obvs. I think he was sick of me taking over the kitchen every day.

HARLEY: I’m sure that’s it

NICK: Yeah, that shit looks expensive. He wants to bang.

GEMMA: He wants to do more than bang.

NICK: True. He’s probably in love with you.

HARLEY: Probably?

NICK: I mean, I wanna say definitely, but I also don’t want to jinx it.

ME: He’s not in love with me. I straight-up propositioned him and he still hasn’t touched me.

NICK: Oh shit, yeah, then he definitely loves you.

ME: That doesn’t make any sense. If he loved me, he’d want to sleep with me.

GEMMA: Oh you sweet sweet summer child.

GEMMA: I have to go, but we’ll be continuing this conversation.

ME: Is this like one of those telemarketing texts I can opt out of?

GEMMA: No.

HARLEY: Definitely not.

NICK: I’ve been trying to opt out of this group text for YEARS.