He was glad to feel the tension between them ease. “Yeah, but you still look just the same,” he said, scanning her face. Kara was half black and half Mexican; the mix had resulted in stark, dramatic features and a graceful neck. Extremely short hair looked amazing on her; it always had.

She smiled, and pretended to preen. “Thanks – when you get to my age, you kind of like hearing that.” Her face grew more serious again. She examined her nails; he saw the same expression in her eyes as when she’d made the mistake over the coffee. “So...do you still think about him as much as I do?”

Alex looked down at his plate; the words wouldn’t come. He felt Kara reach across and squeeze his wrist. “Sorry,” she said. “Stupid question.”

“Every day,” he said finally. “I miss him every day.”

They both straightened as Willow came back into the kitchen; he could tell that she’d picked up on the mood. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest, and attempted a smile. “Hey, I’m sorry to be boring, but I’m getting pretty tired,” she said. “I might just go on to bed.”

“Me too,” said Alex, stretching. Then he remembered. “Kara, can we borrow some clothes from you guys? Some thieving jerk stole all our stuff, up in Chihuahua.”

“Yeah, we can fix you up, no problem,” said Kara. She started clearing the plates away; Willow moved to help. “So, Willow, we’ve got an extra bed in the girls’ dorm that you’re welcome to. And Alex, you can take Juan’s old room if you want; it’s right by the guys’ dorm – it’s pretty small; it’s got a single bed in it—” She stopped, looking flustered as she glanced from Alex to Willow. “Oh, wait. I guess maybe you...”

“We’ll both take Juan’s old room,” said Alex. He saw Kara start to say something and then stop, her lips tightening. “What?” he said sharply. “Everyone knows that Willow and I are together; I’m not going to start hiding it.”

“No, it’s not that,” said Kara. She scraped the remains of the spaghetti into the trash. “It’s just...well, Juan thought it was better if people didn’t couple up too obviously. For the team, I mean. He sort of laid down some ground rules when we first got here, and that was one of them. But look, you’re in charge now; you do what you want.”