But I told Diana.
“But I’m—”
“Not great with talking?” I had a hunch when she kept herself silent around me after the pie incident. “I don’t want you to feel scared to talk to me. If that’s the case, then I’m not doing my job of being a somewhat decent person.”
“I’m not,” she tells me. “I’m just worried this”—she motions her hand between us—“could be too fast.”
“Then we’ll go slow.” I take her free hand in my own, holding it lightly since it’s her right hand that I know still flares up. “We talk about it, and we figure it out. I want to figure this all out, too, but I want to do it with you.”
She stops twirling the bottle with her left hand but keeps a firm grasp on it.
“I want to do it with you too,” she says softly. I could kiss her again right now but I hold myself back. “But I’m scared.”
“Then we’ll be scared together.” I smile softly at her, hopefully assuring her that she’s not alone. “Besides, if we can get through calculus, then I think we can survive anything.” I wink and a small laugh escapes her lips.
“Yeah, nothing was tougher than optimization,” she groans.
“We’ll have to do it all over again for the final,” I remind her, to which she shakes her head vehemently.
“Fuck. That.”
I shake my head and we both start laughing.
“Could it really be that easy?”
“Talking? Simple. Just like this.” I let go of her hand, stepping closer to her. Placing one hand on her cheek, I inch myself closer to her. “Can I kiss you?”
Her breath tickles my nose and she nods. I close the distance between us and she pulls me closer with the straps of my sweatshirt until there’s just about no space left between us.
It doesn’t feel fast to me. If anything, it feels fucking right. There will be times when we don’t agree on random shit butsomething tells me that, regardless of what happens, we’ll be alright.
Besides, this is only the beginning.
Hard to believe that this all started with a pie to the face, right?
Epilogue - Full Circle Moments
Diana
December
“You sure he’s not gonna see me here?” I ask Jake before stepping inside the closet, along with Lucia and Carly.
“Don’t worry,” he assures me. “It’s dark in there and he won’t see you girls.”
After finishing my finals this morning, a lightbulb lit up in my head and I had to relay it to Jake—because it’s a surprise for Carson. Sure, it requires me to hide in my boyfriend’s bedroom closet, but it will be so worth it.
Everyone else has left for the holidays except for us—me, Jake, Lucia, Carly, and Carson—so I planned this little hurrah to celebrate the end of the winter term. And for the dreaded calculus finally ending.
Thank the fucking gods that Scott’s useless lectures are over. Though I have to give him credit—if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have spent all that time with Carson. We still kept up with those sessions—though he started calling them study dates instead.
“Thanks, anyway.”
“So I bring him here and you will attack him with the pie?”
I nod.
“What a full circle moment,” he mutters, mostly to himself.
