“Sam,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

They looked up, and there was a spark there, in their eyes—did they truly like the clothes? But whatever it was faded. Their eyes were steady on mine as hurt came to the surface instead.

“You said a few minutes ago that you had a wonderful night,” they said quietly. “So why did you leave?”

I closed my eyes. Here we go.

“I feel like you got to know me under false pretenses, Sam,” I said, snapping my eyes back open to look at them. “The person you see at karaoke, who dances and sings loudly and confidently is...not me. She only exists at Moonie’s. The truth is that in my everyday life, I’m…” I shrugged. “Quiet. Kind of boring. I didn’t want you to actually get to know me and…be disappointed.”

Their eyes narrowed.

“Wait a second,” they said. “I thought you yelled at me for calling myself boring.”

“You’re not,” I said defiantly. “You’re a professor. You have this badass little office.” I waved my hands around to make my point. “I would kill to have a little office like this, all to myself.”

“You make your own clothes,” Sam countered. “You knew how to make me clothes.”

“You studied abroad in Rome,” I shot back.

“You have this voice,” Sam said. “This voice that…” They faltered. “Slays me.”

My breath caught. I blinked, a gap of silence stretching a moment too long.

“You have two cats named Simon and Garfunkel,” I managed. “Which is really fucking charming.”

“You have cool, interesting friends who love and support you,” they said.

“And my middle name is Marie!” I threw my hands in the air. “Why are we shouting facts about each other?”

“I don’t know,” Sam said, but they were smiling. I was sure now. It was possible they had been smiling this whole time. “Although I’m pretty sure you started it. My middle name is Anthony, by the way. After my grandfather on my mom’s side.”

Ridiculously, I felt like crying again.

“Well,” I said. “Well, that’s nice to know. I want to know stuff like that. I just…” I shook my head, trying to get back to the point. “Saturday night was intense. And my past relationships have not always been awesome, and it felt like...things could potentially be awesome, with you.”

“Yeah,” Sam said, face sobering. “We’re agreed, there.”

“And it’s...scary,” I ended, and wow, that sounded twenty times more embarrassing coming out of my mouth than I had anticipated. And I had anticipated it being pretty fucking embarrassing. “And I don’t want to be scared. So I just want you to know who I really am, that I’m not actually Karaoke Lily, before we go any further. If you want to go any further.”