“You’re not pushing me away?” she asked quietly, a subtle hint of nerves in her soft gaze.
I shook my head. “I’d never push you away. I’m choosing you, us, this special closeness we have, okay?”
Her breath left her in a shaky exhale, and she leaned into my chest again, resting her forehead there like she needed a second to recalibrate. I tightened my arms around her, holding her like this was exactly where she belonged.
“I don’t trust myself to rush with you,” I admitted, my voicelow. “This isn’t some lust-filled choice. That’s not what you are to me. We’ll get there, andgodwe’ll have fun, but not tonight.”
We stayed like that for a minute, breathing each other in, the heat still there but no longer running the show. I brushed my thumb along her back in slow, grounding strokes, letting the moment settle into something steadier. “There’s something I want to ask you,” I said finally.
Her head lifted. “Okay.”
I hesitated, nerves finally catching up with me now that my body wasn’t in charge. “I, uh… don’t laugh.”
She leaned back enough to see my face. “Oh, I’m absolutely going to laugh. But go ahead.”
I huffed out a breath. “I looked up things you’re supposed to talk about before you date someone seriously.”
Her eyes widened. “You Googleddating?”
“I did,” I said defensively. “Multiple articles. Some of them were terrible.”
She smiled, soft and incredulous. “That’s… kind of adorable. But why would you do that? You’re so smooth already.”
“I’m ignoring that,” I muttered. “The point is—I don’t want this to just be chemistry. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and realize we skipped the part where we figure out if we actually work.”
Her expression shifted then, warmth blooming in her eyes. “Okay,” she said slowly. “So… what do you want to know?”
I relaxed a fraction, encouraged. “I want to know what makes you feel safe. And what makes you shut down. I want to know how you fight with people and how you like to be apologized to.”
She was quiet, really listening now.
“What scares you about relationships?” I continued. “And what do you hope for when you let yourself imagine one going right?”
Her throat bobbed, her eyes narrowing on the sides. “That’s… a lot, Noah.”
“I know,” I said. “And we don’t have to answer it all tonight. But I want you to know I’m thinking about it. Aboutyou. Not just how this feels, but how it lasts.”
She reached up, cupping my cheek, her thumb brushing my jaw in a mirror of what I’d done to her earlier. “No one’s ever asked me those things before.”
“That’s not because they didn’t matter,” I said quietly. “It’s because they didn’t know how to stay. They didn’t knowyou.”
She swallowed, eyes shining.
“So,” I said, my voice steady even though my chest was pounding again. “What I’m asking is… will you date me? For real. Learning this version of each other instead of assuming we already know everything?”
Her smile spread slowly, beautifully. “You’re asking me out, Abbott?”
“I am,” I said. “Not because I need you for anything but because Iwantyou.”
She nodded once, decisively. “Yes.”
The relief that hit me was almost dizzying.
I laughed under my breath, pulling her back into my chest, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Thank god. I’d lose my mind if you said no because Em…all the foundational things are strong. I can’t wait to learn all the things I don’t know.”
“Even if I’m a mess?”
“Yeah. You know organizing brings me joy.”
