“Uh, yeah. Yeah, he knew.”

“Of course he did,” Noah said.

I didn’t know if he was hurt or glad. “He wasn’t as cool as you about it though.”

“What do you mean?”

“He, uh—he worried. He focused on how hurt I might get,” I tried to explain. “He never really noticed if or why I smiled.”

“Yeah?” He all but beamed when I nodded. “We can talk about this kind of stuff, then?”

“Sure, bud.”

“Good, ’cause I’ll need help with Kim.”

“What kind do help?”

“Big brother stuff,” he said, and I was pretty sure it was my turn to beam.

I winked at him and turned to go back upstairs, but just as I did, my phone went off, sounding somewhat distant, sort of muffled.

“It’s been doing that all morning,” Noah said casually.

It took me a while to find my phone in the living room, wedged between two pillows. There were several texts from Sam, a couple from Adam, and even one from Summer. None from Ethan though. I unlocked it but was quick to lock it again. I didn’t really want to read anything. I would, eventually, but I was feeling kind of good and didn’t want to do anything to chance my mood shifting. So I threw it on the side table and decided to turn on the TV and binge The Good Place instead. At least until he texted. Not that he had to, he really didn’t. Just in case though.

A few hours later, long after Noah had left to go on his date, I found myself waking up to the doorbell ringing. The sun had already set, and the only source of light came from the TV. I clumsily stood up, miscalculated the distance between the couch and the light switch horribly, and bumped my knee on the edge of the coffee table.

When I finally got to the door, I almost gasped.

“Emma?” was all I could say before the blonde, green-eyed, five-foot-seven undergrad wrapped both arms around my neck and almost suffocated me.

“Tommy!”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised as fuck as I slowly hugged her back.

She didn’t say anything; she simply hugged me tighter. After what seemed like a good five minutes, she finally let go, pulling away and casually wiping her eyes before giving me the biggest of smiles.

“Come in,” I said, then closed the door behind us and followed her to the living room.

“I was in town visiting my parents, and I thought I should check up on you,” she said, slowly looking around. “It’s been ages since I last saw you.”

“Yeah.” I stopped myself from mentioning when we’d seen each other last.

Not since the clinic wasn’t exactly a conversation starter.

“Can I get you something to drink?” I asked, already halfway to the kitchen.

“Sure! Are you alone?”