Eli reached out now, took Daniella’s hand. It was a gentle hold, meant to make her pay attention. He released it as soon as he had her eye contact. “You know it’s not fine, right?”

Daniella nodded. “I know. I know it’s not fine. But it wasn’t the first time, and as much as I hope, I don’t think it’s the last time. So I’m fine, and it’s fine. It’s not okay, and it’s never okay, and maybe, somehow, I’m not okay. But I’ll have to be, and also it’s fine.”

“And you say my logic doesn’t make sense.” Eli shook his head.

Daniella shrugged. “You know what I mean, though, right?”

“I do,” said Eli.

Daniella looked over the edge of the roof. She could make out the horizon, in a sliver between two other brown-gray buildings. She didn’t look, but she reached out for Eli’s hand, threaded her fingers through his. “I’m glad you came up here.”

For a moment, everything stopped. It went muffled and quiet, like it was winter. In that moment, the roof was no longer Daniella’s. It was both of theirs. It was this—two hands intertwined on a rooftop over a city.

“Me too,” was all that Eli said. But he said it like he understood. That he was welcome there when nobody else was.

Daniella looked over at him—he was still staring at the sliver of horizon like she had been. What Daniella really wanted to ask was How did you know about the poetry? but she couldn’t ask that, not yet. It was too real of a question. “How’d you know about the astrology meme thing?”

“Pops up in my feed all the time. It took me a while to figure out who it was. I kept assuming it was all these other people. But it was you. It had always been you.” It was Eli’s turn to shrug. “Isn’t it funny how we make all these assumptions, but in the end we’ve always known the answer? It’s just not obvious. I mean, you love math. It would make sense that you like stars. Like telling a story about stars.”

“Yeah,” said Daniella. “It’s never obvious. The best things are always a secret.”

“The best things?” Eli leaned back, his hand still entwined with Daniella’s.

Daniella leaned back with him. “Definitely.”

He looked over. “Tell me a secret, then.”

Daniella laughed. It felt good to laugh. Felt good to forget everything that was making her head spin—hangovers and creepy dudes and poor girls she’d slapped—and just laugh as she looked into Eli’s solid brown eyes and counted his freckles. “I think I’m in love with you.”