“No one’s ever, in all my life, done anything even close to that for me. I can’t—” She paused, holding Miriam’s hands and gazing down into her face, trying to remember what breathing even was.

A microphone crackled.

“And now,” Cole said in an old-timey radio announcer voice, “it’s almost time to start the countdown to midnight. Grab your favorite partner. I’ve given the DJ instructions to play the most romantic slow dance song in the history of the world, ‘I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ by multiplatinum American treasure Marvin Lee ‘Meat Loaf’ Aday. Unfortunately, Hannah has paid him double to play you something else. But as long as you’re in the arms of the one you love, your year will still end nearly as well as it possibly could.”

The first notes of “Time After Time” played over the speakers.

“Dance with me?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be spending this dance in the arms of the person you love?” Miriam replied even as she moved her hand to Noelle’s waist and nestled her head under Noelle’s chin.

Noelle started to answer, but Miriam kept talking.

“I know you’re going to say my emotions are all over the map right now, and you don’t trust me. I know I messed things up, and you’re scared of making your heart vulnerable again. I know the feeling, because right now I’m more afraid than I’ve ever been, and I’m still walking through it. Maybe you’ll choose to say we can’t ever be together. It won’t change anything for me, I’m still here. I’m so tired of running. This might be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. The kind Cass always told me to find—”

“Baby, stop for a minute,” Noelle interrupted, “and let me tell you I love you.”

This woman, this miraculous woman, whose mind and heart were so fascinating, who sparkled so brightly, who understood Noelle’s worst impulses and her highest hopes, was in her arms declaring her love.

Noelle had been loved, and seen, in her life, but she’d never dared to dream about being loved like this. If she had ever lain in bed at night and asked the universe for a girl (not that she had, of course, at least not for a long time), never in her wildest imaginings would she have asked for a girl who painted La Llorona in silver Docs. She wouldn’t have believed she could deserve this. But here this woman was, in a slinky dress smelling like heaven, and Noelle was going to love her so fiercely that Miriam never regretted choosing her.