Page 17 of I Think They Love You

Uncle Tevin Williams

can someone help me find that TikTok recipe for countertop tacos? its my night to cook

Aunt Cheryl Carter

Babe not now! DENZEL. HAS. A. SECRET. BOYFRIEND. Leena?

Leena Carter

I just want all my children happy.

Today 2:12P.M.

Mom

Hi sweetheart! Call me ASAP!

Unsurprisingly, the news traveled fast.

Before the workday’s end, everyone around the office had heard about the newest CEO candidate:Denz. He’d barely stepped into the downstairs lobby before Corrine, the front desk receptionist, was asking all about his new boyfriend too.

“Have a great night, C!” he’d said, cheery and fake, while shouldering out the glass double doors.

Avoiding his mom? Not as easy. She’d called the second he was outside. Like she had some kind of Parent GPS on him. Over his car’s Bluetooth, he gave her quick, one-word answers before pretending to lose service in a tunnel.

He hasn’t called her back.

“Okay, okay, wait, wait,” Jamie says between wheezing laughs. He’s a hulking figure. Six foot two, all toned muscles and wavy brown hair. “Start over. I need to hear this again.”

“Again!” exclaims Mikah from his spot on the carpet, opposite Jamie.

It’s Denz’s turn to babysit. Kami is out with Suraj. It’s not lost on Denz that therealsecret relationship their family group chat should be focused on is hers.

He snatches a pepperoni slice from the box on the coffee table. Tonight’s dinner: pizza and kiwi-strawberry juice pouches. He’s truly living his best adult life.

“From the top?”

He doesn’t mind recounting the last few days to Jamie. They’ve been best friends since age fourteen, a destined meeting at their private school, Brighton Academy. Two outsiders on a campus full of pretentious, born-rich assholes. Technically, Jamie was one of them, but he didn’t act that way. He was a human golden retriever going through a rebellious-skater phase. Still new to the “established” scene, Denz was in his own preppy, sweater-obsessed phase.

(Who’s he kidding? It’s a full-onlifestylenow.)

After attending college in different cities, moving in together was the next obvious step in their lifelong companionship.

“I’m speechless.” Jamie wipes happy tears from his eyelashes. “What’re you gonna do?”

“Tell the truth?”

“That youinventeda relationship to look serious foryour family?”

“Is it that bad?”

“Should I plan the funeral now or wait until the body’s cold?”

“Draw three!” Mikah shouts, smacking aSKIPand yellow3card on top of the red8card Jamie played a minute ago.

Whimpering, Jamie falls over. The Uno rules they’re playing by are preposterous and wrong, but Denz isn’t about to burst their bubble. Babysitting with Jamie is always more fun.

Their top-floor luxury apartment is cluttered by the aesthetic of two combating personalities: an HGTV DIY mood board and someGossip Girl-esque fever dream. Denz is willing to overpay for all eleven hundred square feet if it means his best friend is one living room away.

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