When I reenter Golden Years, it strikes me how everything has changed in the past two hours. Raj meets my eyes when I walk in and my heart does a backflip. I lean against the bar; he leans over it to kiss me.

“You’re so beautiful,” he says.

It’s the first time he’s ever complimented me like that, and my cheeks go hot. “Thank you,” I mumble. “You look great always.”

You look great always. Do I sound like some sort of AI robot reciting fragments of human speech? I hope that didn’t sound too awkward.

“I’ll be done here in one minute, cool?”

“Yeah!” I take a seat on a bar stool to wait for him.

He disappears into the back room. I send Carmen a text.

“You’ll never guess what’s happening right now,” I say, baiting her into a response.

Her reply is instant. “???”

I see another text from her bubbling up. A minute later, it appears: “Won’t lie, I def used Find My Friends to lightly spy on you, and I KNOW YOU’RE AT GOLDEN YEARS!”

I laugh and dash off a quick text to fill her in on what’s gone down since I saw her earlier tonight.

She shoots back a GIF of Kris Jenner cooing, “You’re doing amazing, sweetie.”

Raj emerges from the back. “Ready to go?” he asks.

We walk to the subway. I try to focus on anything other than his hand dangling inches from mine.

“I didn’t know you were into poetry,” I blurt out.

“It’s not really my thing, but my friend is performing tonight,” he explains. “Plus, House of Yes is always fun.”

“It took me two weeks to wash the glitter out of my hair last time I went,” I say.

“See? Fun.”

And then, as if he can read my mind, he slips his hand into mine. It’s warm and comforting. He squeezes my hand, turns to me, and raises an eyebrow as if to say, “Is this okay?” I squeeze his back. From there, it’s easier to relax. The more affectionate Raj is, the calmer I feel. The compliments and the hand-holding make me feel like this is for real. Carmen’s words from happy hour echo in my head: I just have to take this one step at a time and focus on our chemistry—not necessarily our entire future together.