Chapter 22: Close Enough

  The rain had stopped sometime in the early afternoon, leaving the sidewalks damp and dappled with sunlight. The campus smelled like wet leaves and warm stone—soft, clean, and quiet. Most students had either gone home for the weekend or holed up somewhere with coffee and ptops. It was a zy kind of day.

  Lena hadn’t pnned on leaving her apartment. But Mira had tugged on one of her sweaters—an oversized, ste-gray one that fell past her thighs—and murmured something about needing air and snacks. So Lena found herself walking slowly down the path beside her, a hand tucked into the back pocket of Mira’s jeans like it belonged there.

  Mira hadn’t let go of her all day.

  She wasn’t obvious about it. Not in the way she clung to Lena behind closed doors. But she drifted close in small, persistent ways—brushing their hands together as they walked, looping her pinky around Lena’s when they stopped at the crosswalk, leaning into her side while they stood in line for drinks at the café.

  Lena didn’t say anything. She didn’t tease. She just let it happen.

  At the café counter, Mira ordered something sweet and entirely impractical—whipped cream piled high, foam shaped like a cat face. She turned, holding two cups, and bit her lip as she looked at Lena.

  “I don’t know what you like, so I just got you the boring one,” she said. “I mean, the sensible one.”

  Lena took the offered cup. “You don’t have to know everything I like. Yet.”

  Mira smiled, soft and a little fluttery. “I want to.”

  They found a quiet table by the window. Mira sat on the inside bench, and before Lena could settle across from her, Mira tugged at her sleeve.

  “Here,” she said, scooting over. “Sit with me.”

  Lena arched a brow. “You want me right next to you? We’re in public.”

  Mira flushed. “I know. But you’re warm.”

  The hesitation in her voice was sweet and small, like she was asking for something she still wasn’t sure she was allowed to want. Lena sat down beside her without another word. Their shoulders pressed together. Mira exhaled, visibly rexed, and leaned in.

  They sipped their drinks in silence for a moment. Lena watched the way Mira’s fingers curled around the cup, the way her leg bounced faintly beneath the table. She was restless in that gentle, distracted way she got sometimes—like her mind was full of things she wasn’t saying.

  “You’re fidgeting,” Lena said softly.

  “Sorry,” Mira whispered. “I’m just… I don’t know. I don’t want to go back to my pce.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Mira turned her head, eyes wide. “Really?”

  Lena gave her a look. “Have I ever asked you to leave?”

  “No,” Mira admitted.

  “Then why would I start now?”

  Mira ducked her head. “Sometimes I still feel like I’m sneaking into something I’m not supposed to have.”

  Lena reached over and brushed a thumb beneath her chin, tilting her face back up. “You’re not sneaking,” she said. “You’re with me. And I want you to be.”

  Mira’s throat moved as she swallowed. “Even when I’m being clingy?”

  “Especially then.”

  She stared at Lena like she didn’t quite know what to do with that. Then she shifted, curling just slightly into Lena’s side.

  Lena’s arm settled around her shoulders like it had been waiting to.

  They stayed that way while the afternoon light spilled across the floor and the café filled with the hum of soft conversation and milk frothers. Mira’s cheek pressed against Lena’s colrbone. Lena, for her part, looked calm as ever—one hand on her cup, the other casually stroking up and down Mira’s arm in a rhythm she probably didn’t even realize she’d fallen into.

  Mira finally broke the silence.

  “I think I’m starting to need you,” she murmured. “Like, not just in that way. In the… every day kind of way.”

  Lena didn’t respond right away. She traced her thumb in a circle against Mira’s wrist.

  Then she said, “Good.”

  Mira blinked. “Good?”

  Lena leaned closer, her breath brushing just under Mira’s ear. “Because I already need you like that.”

  Mira flushed to the tips of her ears. “That’s not fair.”

  “What’s not?”

  “Saying something like that in public.”

  Lena smiled, slow and private. “Then stop clinging to me in public.”

  Mira pouted. “No.”

  “Didn’t think so.”

  There was a pause. Then Mira whispered, “You’re really not going to push me away, are you?”

  Lena’s tone turned just a little sharper, enough to anchor.

  “I don’t let things I want go that easily.”

  Mira stared at her, lips parted. Her voice was small. “You want me?”

  Lena turned her head until their noses nearly brushed. Her voice was soft, but unshakable.

  “I want all of you. Every version. The quiet one. The clingy one. The messy, soft one who won’t stop looking at me like I hung the moon.”

  Mira blinked, stunned into silence.

  Lena kissed her temple, then murmured against her skin, “So you might as well keep looking.”