“OK, let me start over. What I was going to tell you was that I like you,” Luke said. “I mean, I think I’m in love with you. At first when I felt something, I figured it’s just that because I’ve done so much plant medicine that I can fall in love with anyone. But it just kind of got more and more intense and so I talked to Wolf about it and he made me realize that I just wasn’t admitting to myself that I was in love with you.”

Aria felt her stomach tighten. “Dude, what the fuck … you can’t just spend all this time with someone and not ever say something and never even act like it and then act betrayed when they get with someone else,” Aria said.

“Yeah, I know it’s stupid,” Luke said. He reached into his backpack. He took out a folded letter that was surprisingly neat, given that he had been keeping it in his backpack for over a week. He handed it to Aria. When she opened it, a red tail hawk feather, which he had folded into the paper for her, fluttered to the ground. He picked it up for her and began twirling it in his fingers to distract himself.

“Do you want me to read this now or later?” she asked.

“Whenever … No, actually, you can read it now,” he said.

Aria was surprised to see that he had written the letter in immaculate cursive.

To My Twin Flame,

I know you or my heart knows you.