I cup her face in both hands and kiss her.
It’s not the kind of kiss you give someone in front of their family at a restaurant in the middle of lunch.
This is desperate. This is every single feeling I don’t have words for.
This is:You. Only you. I don’t see anyone else.
This is:Whatever you’re thinking right now, you’re wrong.
This is:I’m so far gone for you that nothing else exists.
She makes this small sound of surprise against my mouth. For a second she’s completely still.
Then her hand comes up to my wrist. Fingers wrapping around it, warm and firm. Holding my hand against her face.
And she kisses me back.
Her lips part under mine, and something inside me cracks wide open. Everything else disappears. The restaurant. Her family. Melissa and Garrett and every complicated feeling I had five minutes ago.
When I pull back, she’s staring at me with wide eyes.
“What was that for?” she asks, breathless.
I smile slightly, looking at her like she’s the only person in the room. Because right now, she is.
“You looked like you needed kissing,” I say quietly.
She’s watching me. Looking for something. Doubt, maybe. Or proof that this is real.
I let her look. Let her see everything.
“Rodriguez,” she breathes.
“Yeah?”
“We’re at lunch.”
“I know.”
“In front of everyone.”
“I know that too.”
She blinks. “Okay.”
I turn back to my plate like I didn’t just kiss my girlfriend senseless in front of twenty people. Pick up my fork and take a bite of pasta.
Down the table, Melissa’s face is tight and angry.
Good.
Juliette’s hand finds mine under the table and threads our fingers together. And just like that, everything else—Melissa, the bathroom, the panic—it all fades.
The bus rideback to Toronto should feel long. Two hours of sitting still after a full day. But Juliette falls asleep on my shoulder about twenty minutes in and I spend the entire ride watching her breathe.
She looks peaceful like this. No fake smiles, no performance, no walls. Just her, completely unguarded.
I’m so gone for her it’s actually embarrassing.
