An hour later, crunching on Doritos and drinking root beer, we were situated on Leaf’s couch, our feet side by side on the ottoman, a stash of disgusting food piled up between us. Young Frankenstein played on the flat-screen. We hummed along to the violin theme. We neighed when Frau Blücher’s name was said. We giggled at Marty Feldman’s Igor. By the time the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” song and dance routine was up, the junk food had been packaged away for another day and we were sitting side by side, holding hands.

He didn’t even mind my orange cheesy fingers.

“I feel like we’ve been doing this forever,” Leaf said quietly.

“Huh?”

“Hanging out.” He turned on the couch to look at me, smiling softly. “You’re an easy person to get comfortable with, I think.”

That surprised me. The ex-boyfriend had said the opposite—that I was prickly and hard to warm up to. Of course, Aaron had said that after he’d asked if Samantha could hang out with our group of friends and I’d pushed back. I’d known early on that she had a thing for my boyfriend; that’s why she wanted to hang out. But Aaron made me feel like I was being a bitch and wasn’t giving her a chance, so I’d relented and she’d become part of our circle despite my never really liking her.

We know how that all went. Apparently, though, the idea that I was prickly had lingered long after Aaron had made his exit.

“I can be kind of a douche,” I said. “Devi says that all the time.”

“Hardly. You’re funny! But it’s not mean funny. You’re just sarcastic, that’s all. I like that type of humor. I like you.” He reached up to finger a curl of my hair, pulling it long and watching it boing back up into shape. He did it again.

I let him.

“I like you, too,” I said. “I’m just worried that this whole baby thing will be too much.” I paused, then frowned. “I don’t mean I’m looking for you to take responsibility or anything. Just that I’ll have to sink a lot of time into being a mom, so I’m hoping that won’t be a problem for you. I won’t be around as much as other girls.”

He nodded over at the picture on the wall of his niece, Elana. “I think I’d be more put off if you didn’t take it so seriously. Do you know how angry I’d be if my sister neglected Elana? They’re babies. They need parents who love them.”