Page 99 of Run Wild Omega

She looks up. Our eyes meet, and there’s a flash of something in her expression—understanding, maybe, or recognition. She doesn’t push. She goes back to her ice cream.

But I know. And she knows I know. And the knowing sits between us like a third person at the table, quiet and present.

After ice cream, she says she’s hungry, so I take her to the burger joint two blocks over. It’s a dive, the kind of place with sticky menus and a jukebox that still plays CDs, and Tess orders a bacon cheeseburger with extra pickles and eats the whole thing while I work my way through a basket of fries and try not to think about the fact that this is the closest thing to a date I’ve had in over a year.

My phone buzzes. Then buzzes again. I glance at the screen.

Dylan: How’d it go?

Wyatt: She good?

Two separate texts, sent within seconds of each other. I watch Tess pull out her own phone and start typing.

“They want to know how the appointment went,” she says, not looking up from her screen. “I’m telling Dylan first.”

“Why Dylan first?”

“Because he texted first.”

“That’s not how I would have organized the communication flow.”

She looks up, one eyebrow raised. “How would you have organized it?”

“Group chat. Single message, multiple recipients. Eliminates redundancy and ensures information parity.”

“That’s the most Miles sentence you’ve ever said.”

“It was accurate, though.”

She considers this. “Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Make the group chat.”

I pull out my phone, open my messaging app, and create a new group. I add Dylan, Wyatt, and Tess. I hesitate for a moment over the name field, then type it in.

Tess’s Pack

I hit create.

Tess’s phone buzzes. She looks at the screen, and her expression does something complicated—a flicker of surprise, then something softer, then a careful neutrality that doesn’t quite hide what’s underneath.

“Tess’s Pack,” she reads aloud.

“Descriptive. Unambiguous. Easy to identify in a crowded messaging inbox.”

“You could have just called it ‘Scheduling’ or something neutral.”

“I could have. I didn’t.”

She looks at me for a long moment. Then she types a message into the new chat.

Tess: Hospital visit went well. Rod is aligned, bone is healing, got a new cast that’s lighter. Miles took me for ice cream and burgers. I’m alive and functional.

The responses come fast.

Dylan: Ice cream and burgers? That sounds nice.

Wyatt: Good to hear. What time are you heading back?

Tess: The burger was great. And I don’t know, Miles hasn’t told me yet.