“Are we having dinner together?” she asked playfully because they hadn’t spent a single night away from each other in almost a month. It was as if their relationship was settling into something warmer the closer they came to the end of the semester. During the weekdays, tired from teaching, they cooked together and watched television before heading to bed, sometimes too tired to even have sex. They alternated between their apartments, skating around the conversation that both of their leases were ending in a couple of months. That felt like too much, and yet…

Last Saturday afternoon, they’d spent the entire day in Alejandro’s living room, each of them in their baggiest sweatpants, with piles of student essays around them — carefully separated — and worked through the massive stacks of grading. They barely spoke, but at the end of the night, they ordered pizza, shared some beers, and then had slow, gentle sex to celebrate that they had no more grading until finals week. Deja had fallen asleep holding the secret fantasy that this could be every night for them if they moved in together.

But it was too soon. Right?

Deja wasn’t sure, especially not when Alejandro rolled his eyes at her and spoke as if every day they spent together was a guarantee of another. As if there wasn’t anywhere else he wanted to be.

And he did that now. “Of course, we’re having dinner together, but Jesus, I don’t feel like cooking anymore.”

Deja smiled at him. “I’ll cook,” she volunteered without thinking. “I like to cook. And bake. I’ll make dessert, too.”

Alejandro’s eyebrows lifted, and he shoved his hands into his pockets. “If we weren’t in the middle of the Union, I’d kiss you now. You know that, right?”

“I do.”

“Deejay,” one of the students called from the pickup counter.

Deja sighed at the person mispronouncing her name.

“Her name’s Deja,” Alejandro called in correction, and then he turned to her. “Did you buy me coffee?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course, I did.”

“What’s up, docs?” Jerome called across the Oval.

Deja and Alejandro were on their way to Founders, walking slowly, enjoying the spring sunshine on their face. They might not get good seats, but it was worth it, especially because they were holding hands. It almost never happened that they had time to just relax and be together, even on weekends, but summer was coming, and he wanted it to be like this.