I nod and follow her into the house.

“It’s nice to see you again so soon!” She smiles. “You don’t owe me an anything. I wasn’t going to tell Jamie. Your dad came around to tell me what happened. I’m sorry she found out the way she did.” She grabs a water bottle out of the refrigerator.

“Well, um, I wanted to tell you I think you’re great, and I … I have an internship lined up in New York, but I’d love to keep in touch, no strings attached or anything. If you want to keep in touch, that is. I think I plan on coming back here eventually. I don’t think I want to live in New York forever.”

Dawn puts down the water she’s swigging from. “Really?”

“Really.”

“How’s Jamie?”

“Much better. She agreed to come to therapy with me once a week. I’ve been going like every other day.” I shake my head. “TMI, sorry.”

Dawn shakes her head. “Siri, if your therapist is helping you and you’re going through the shit, why not see her more than once a week.”

I smile weakly.

“So, Jamie’s not freaking out about us anymore?” she asks.

I shake my head. “She’s working through it. But I kinda don’t think I’m ready for anything relationship-y right now. I have to find my footing again in all the other aspects of my life.” I huff a sad laugh.

Dawn nods.

“Can I show you something?” she says softly.

I blow out a relieved breath. “Of course.”

“Don’t make fun of me, okay?”

“I would never.”

Dawn leads me into her dreamy room and opens the top drawer of her nightstand. She pulls out a snow globe, her hands clasped over it.

“So, after you left, I was looking through the pictures we took and … um, well, I did a thing.”

She takes her hand off the snow globe and puts it in my outstretched palm. Our ice cream–covered faces are pressed cheek to cheek in the picture at the center. I’m not Jamie in it anymore … I’m me.

Dawn spins the globe in my hand. The stand that holds the picture allows for another on the back. In the back picture, we’re kissing.

I suck in a sharp breath. I didn’t even know she snapped that. “You made us a real snow globe.”

She smiles shyly. “I know it’s cheesy and stupid. I didn’t think you’d be back so soon, and I didn’t know how seriously you wanted to take the idea of never seeing each other again. But I don’t have many perfect days. I wanted to make sure I could never lose this one.”

I look up at her with watery eyes. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”