It’s not like you like me or something. Right?

A simple question. And such a complicated one to answer. He could deflect. Change the subject. Feign ignorance. Lie.

“Wrong.”

She leaned back slightly and touched her throat. “What?”

“I do like you.”

Was he really the one saying this?

“You do?”

He swallowed hard. There was no going back now. Putting his hands flat on the table as if to hold himself up, he said, “Yeah, I like you. I’ve always liked you, from the moment I saw you. I wanted to say something but I was too nervous. You’re always around friends. Then the thing happened with the soup. And that was embarrassing. But you showed up in the class, so I thought something would happen, but it didn’t. And then the incident at the dorm, and. Oh, the earring of course. Anyway. So yeah. I do like you. But if you don’t feel that way it’s fine.” He suddenly wished he could crawl under the table, but forced himself to keep talking. “I can handle that. I mean, I’m not going to go crying or something, everybody’s entitled to feel the way—”

She reached out and put the tips of her fingers on top of his. He stopped talking.

“I feel the same.”

It was his turn to look at her in shock. “Really?”

“After what happened with the earring. But then… everything you did seemed sort of brash. And then there was the dorm incident. It made me… hesitate.”

“That.”

She pulled her fingers away, and he wanted to hold onto them, but didn’t.

“I saw you that night,” she said. “I was the one who opened the door. Then you ran. And the next day, your friends said they did it, but I knew they were lying.” She hesitated. “Why?”

“Why… did they take the fall?” he said.

“Why did you let them?”

The question felt like a punch to the gut. He looked away from her and shook his head, trying not to look frustrated. “At morning assembly, I was scared at first. But in the end I decided to step forward and say that I was the one who went into the dorm. Except Jad jumped out and took responsibility because he threw out the idea to begin with. And before I knew what was happening, it was over. Afterward, if I’d gone forward and told the truth, it would have just caused more trouble for them.”

“I noticed you didn’t leave the campus the entire time they were in trouble.”

“Yeah. It was the least I could do. By the way, it was also Jad’s fault that I fell in the dining hall. That was part of it too.”

She smiled. “When you spilled the soup?”

“Yeah, then.”

With a final sip, she finished her coffee.

“Well, at least that’s out of the way. And now we have a much better cover story. I’m getting some more coffee, you need a refill?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Then she went back to the counter, leaving Xerxes sitting there feeling like his head was spinning in circles. This must be a dream.

He bit his lip a bit harder than necessary until it nearly bled.

It was definitely real. He turned his head to look at Katayoun at the counter ordering more coffee. She was looking at him. This time, she didn’t look away. He smiled. She smiled back.

She liked him. And she was fine with him liking her? Before he could get his mind wrapped around it all, she was back.

“We can talk about other stuff later,” she said. “And believe me, there’s a lot. For now, I think the most important thing is to plan our next step.”

“Right.”

An hour passed during which they discussed everything from the direction to approach the meeting, to what they would wear. She told him that cultists tended to wear different clothing than ordinary people.

“It’s not a rule,” she explained. “More of a tendency. I think they like recruiting people who are… different. Either way, we need to do some shopping.”

They left the coffee shop and started wandering the bazaar looking for clothing to fit the bill. Apparently, Katayoun was familiar with the general layout of the market, and knew just the right places to look. They browsed clothing, and as she helped him, he couldn’t help but notice how often she touched him. Brushing his elbow as she helped him put on a cloak. Putting her hand at the small of his back when pointing out a tunic she liked. Sometimes when she spoke, her lips were so close to his ear that her breath caused his chest to fill with fire

They purchased dark clothes and new cloaks. The cloaks weren’t the type that fell below the knee, but instead, a variety that hung by the thighs. She also got them fingerless gloves.

“Really?” Xerxes whispered. “Why no fingers?”

“I don’t know,” Katayoun said. “But based on what happened in my family, I’m pretty confident in saying that this is what they wear.”

He offered to carry the packages, and before long, his arms were full. Eventually, they had dinner. Minutes after, he’d already forgotten what they’d eaten. At a certain point a bit later, as he followed her around a corner, he noticed Jad, Enusat, Kashtiliash, and Teucer about fifty cubits away, coming out of a gambling hall.

“Shit,” he murmured. “Kat, my friends.”

“Right.” She slipped her hand around Xerxes’ arm and pulled him into a side aisle. The feeling of her hand on the inside of his elbow was electric.

A few intersections later, she stopped and turned to him. “At what point do we tell them?” she asked.

“About…?”

“About us!”

Us? he thought. Everything had moved so quickly he wasn’t sure what exactly ‘us’ meant. Regardless of the specifics, he said, “I think we should wait a few days. Enough time for rumors to start circulating, but not enough that Shabadras will swoop in and call the thing off because of us.”

“You don’t think he’d do that, would you?”

“Probably not, but… I’d rather play it safe than sorry.”

“Good thinking. In that case….” she started pulling packages out of his arms and redistributing them. “I’ll take mine, you take yours. We go back separately and pretend there’s nothing going on between us. Next weekend, we meet back at the coffee shop before going to the cult meeting.”

“Okay.”

After she had her packages, she hugged them against herself and looked at him. “I’m glad it's all happening this way.”

“Me too.”

“See you back at the school. I’ll go the southern way, you go west.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. Then, before he could react, she turned and walked away.

He stood there like a block of stone for a good minute or two.

“I swear this is a dream,” he murmured.