Tilly waited until she was looking at them. Really looking.
They didn’t say it back. The word sat heavily in their mouth, not wrong, just not ready to be spoken aloud yet. They refused to rush it into something smaller than it deserved.
“I heard you,” Tilly said.
Savannah searched their face, bracing.
“I’m here,” Tilly added. “I’m not going anywhere.”
That was the sentence that landed.
Savannah’s shoulders dropped. Her breath left her in a slow rush. She leaned forward and kissed them, careful and unsteady.
Tilly kissed her back, grounding, one hand steady at her waist.
They rested their foreheads together for a beat.
“Okay,” Savannah murmured.
Tilly nodded once. “Okay.”
The timer went off.
Savannah laughed quietly and wiped at her eyes. “We should finish this. They’ll be here soon.”
Tilly didn’t move right away. They stayed where they were, memorizing the fact that nothing had broken.
Then Savannah turned back to the stove and picked up the spoon like this was just part of the night.
“Can you set the table?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Tilly said, reaching for plates.
They lined them up. Forks. Glasses. Ordinary things. Necessary things.
The kitchen warmed. The door would ring soon.
Tilly watched Savannah move around the space as if she belonged there. Like she wasn’t waiting to be asked to stay.
Still here, Tilly thought.
Still choosing.
Fifty
Savannah noticed the eye contact before she noticed the food.
It kept happening without intention. Stolen glances as they sat at the table. Tilly’s eyes caught hers in the middle of someone else’s sentence. A half-smile that wasn’t asking anything, just checking in.
Still here.
The table was crowded in a way Savannah hadn’t let herself have in a long time. Jamie and Erin sat across from them, wine glasses already half empty, jackets tossed over chairs like they planned to stay awhile. The apartment felt warmer than usual, fuller. It had been waiting for this exact configuration of people.
Jamie gestured with her fork, mid-story. “I’m just saying, if your job requires you to pretend you didn’t hear that question, you should at least get hazard pay.”
Erin laughed, leaning back in her chair. “Youloveasking those questions.”
“I love the truth,” Jamie corrected. “The chaos is incidental.”
