Alex smiles, drops a mismatched sock, and says it back.
That was six years ago. Today, Alex is folding laundry—badly, still—while Jamie reads aloud from a novel on the couch. The coffee shop closed two years back, replaced by a vape store. They live in a small house with a leaky faucet and a garden that refuses to grow anything but weeds.
Jamie tilted her head. "You're the one who always stares at the sugar dispenser like it's personally offended you."
Their first fight was over nothing. A misremembered date. A text left on read. Alex's old instinct was to escalate—to make it mean something, to turn it into a scene. But Jamie just sat on the floor of Alex's apartment, back against the bed, and said, "I'm not going anywhere. But I need you to stop performing for me."
Their first proper conversation happened a week later, in the park across from the coffee shop. Jamie was sketching in a worn notebook—architectural details, the curve of a bench, the way light fell through the elms. Alex sat down without asking, the way you sit next to a cat, pretending it's an accident.
Alex should have said something clever. Instead, she said, "I think I'm in love with you."