Hearing Abby say this is a huge weight off her chest. Not just I really like you, even though it's mostly that, but a little bit I got in my head about it too. It makes Clarisse feel a little bit less dumb about how weird she's been making this, when the whole time she didn't have to be.

This time when she breathes in, it feels like she's actually filling her chest with air. She's still—nervous, a little, that butterflies in the stomach kind of feeling. But she's happy more than anything. Relieved. Excited. Watching Abby tuck an invisible piece of hair behind her ear makes it feel like something soft is blooming inside her chest.

Abby's still holding onto her coffee, so Clarisse doesn't so much take her hand as just place her own over top of it, letting her thumb curl gently around Abby's wrist. "I really like you too, Abs. I'm sorry," she says. "That I was so stupid after the first time."

Maybe she had a good enough reason to act a little stupid. Maybe. But even after that, she'd said they shouldn't have, that it was a mistake, and she'd made herself hold back instead of doing what she wanted. Wasting time, when they both know that it's so finite.