Becca smiles. “Ugh, thank God.” She turns to Devin. “That was a test. You passed with flying colors.”

Devin laughs, but I’m sure all the attention is making em a little uncomfortable. I slip a hand into eirs so e knows I’m there if e needs me. And, like, e can totally choose to tap out at any time. We set that boundary too.

“Hope you don’t mind me tagging along,” Becca says.

“Obviously not,” I say. “You still have to catch me up on everything.”

“Have fun, children. Don’t get arrested because I won’t be bailing you out,” Brian says.

I roll my eyes. “Whatever, Brain. Okay, who’s driving?”

“I can do it,” Devin says.

“You sure? My uncle’s car is pretty sweet, and the guy’s a dick, so I don’t even mind draining his gas,” Becca says.

I turn to Devin, an eyebrow raised. I want em to know that e doesn’t have to commit to anything that makes em anxious.

But e just smiles back at me says, “No, it’s okay. I think we’re all safer in my car anyway.”

I smile. E’s probably not wrong about that.

We end up at two different comic shops plus a bookstore, though we fortunately manage to avoid Amy’s shop. At the bookstore, Becca tears through the romance section, making jokes about all the bad puns used for titles.

“When does your trashy romance come out, Noah?” she asks.

I roll my eyes. “Okay, first of all, I’m done with coming out. I think I’ve come out of the closet enough times this summer.”

“Ugh,” she groans, “that’d be your book. Coming Out of the Closet but with a literal closet involved.”

I laugh, picking up a bright and colorful book with a cooking pun on the cover. I haven’t been much in a reading mood lately, and I’ve mostly been avoiding the Diary. Since my not-discussion with that troll, I’ve tried posting a handful of meet cutes, but the Diary’s been losing followers, and honestly, I don’t know how to save it. Then again, maybe it’s me. Maybe my stories have been uninspired since the whole fiasco with Drew. Maybe I just don’t have a lot of faith in meet cutes anymore, especially given how Devin and I met.

But then, who’s to say we have some epic love story when I can’t even ensure we’re endgame? I leave in a week, and then that’s it. No more Devin and Noah.

“Something wrong?” Devin asks. E slides up next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist.