Page 61 of The Accidental Text

“What’s going on?” Hannah asks once the door is shut.

I take a breath. “Stop freaking out. Everything’s fine.”

“I’ll decide that once I get an explanation.”

“You ditched me. And I needed a wingman.” I decide to take a blaming approach. Even if it never works with Hannah. Neither does sympathy.

“So because of that, you invited the stranger who now has your mom’s number?Thatseemed like a good idea?”

“Well, we’re nottotalstrangers,” Chase interjects.

Hannah holds up a finger to Chase. “You don’t get to talk right now.”

Chase takes a large step backward, clasping his hands together in front of him, a sheepish look on his face. He turns around and looks at the wall of pictures I put up of my family doing adventurous things. I put it up after my mom died. It felt like therapy.

Hannah takes a large breath, her eyes on me. “Is he a creeper?”

“I’m right here,” Chase says, his back to us now.

“No,” I say, shaking my head at her. “He’s been great.”

“Well, he’s a terrible wingman. I saw Dawson and some chick getting cozy in the back corner of the tent. Robin?”

“Natasha.”

“Why isshehere?”

I let my shoulders slump. “She was invited.”

Chase turns back toward us. “But she didn’t show up until after I got Maggie and Dawson on the dance floor.”

“That’s true. Chase is a good wingman. We just didn’t know that Natasha was going to show.”

“So you’re not like a stalker or anything,” Hannah says to Chase.

“I’ve never been accused of it.” Chase holds out his hands as if to plead his innocence. “But also, I’d have to be a pretty awesome stalker to make it work out so Maggie would invite me tonight.”

Hannah folds her arms. “That’s a solid point.” She breathes like a bull getting ready to charge, her lips puckered again. “You two do know how weird this is, right?”

“Totally,” I say at the same time Chase says, “Super weird.”

I give him a small smile, and he gives me one back. A secret smile. We just had this conversation in the Lambo. It is weird, but not for the reason Hannah thinks it is.

“Okay fine. I guess you better tell me about yourself, Chase,” Hannah says.

“What do you want to know?”

“Are you married?”

He snort laughs. “Uh … no.”

“Okay, then are you in a serious relationship?”

“No,” he says. “I mean, I feel pretty serious about my dog, Oscar.”

Normal people would say something likehow sweetat that comment. But animals don’t impress Hannah.

“Do you live in your parents’ basement?”