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Her thumbs swipe away even more tears. Florence is far beyond controlling them; they just keep falling, pouring silently down her cheeks. It’s mortifying. Florence is about to apologize a second time when Luca leans down and kisses her forehead. It’s the faintest brush of lips, but its effect is immediate: From one second to the next, Florence stops crying, startled into stillness by the unexpected gentleness.

Leaning in is the tiniest, easiest movement. When Florence’s mouth brushes Luca’s, she finds her lips warm and slightly chapped, and she knows she isn’t supposed to do this, but Luca is making these quiet, wounded noises, and she’s still cradling Florence’s face, and for the first time in weeks, that quiet, tugging ache inside of Florence doesn’t hurt as much.

She nips at Luca’s lip, and Luca whines, soft and low in her throat. Florence has been wondering if she would be able to feel the little gap between Luca’s teeth when she kissed her; running her tongue along them, she has the devastating realization that she can.

And then Luca is pulling back, exhaling raggedly. Her eyes are dark and wide. Some of Florence’s tears have transferred onto her cheek, glistening like crystals. Like proof.

She sounds pained as she says, “Florence.”

“I’m sorry,” Florence whispers. They seem to be the only words her brain is capable of producing.

Luca’s throat bobs. Florence can almost see her take her own desire and lock it away in some airtight part of her brain. Her touch is unfathomably tender as she smooths over Florence’s curls once more, drops another kiss into her hair, and pulls the blanket up to cover both of them.

Florence lets her head drop back onto Luca’s chest, fingertips to her lips to chase the memory of the kiss. It feels surreal the moment it’s over, more like another dream than something that happened seconds ago.

At the foot of the bed, Before Sunrise is still playing. The rain is still pouring. It won’t be long until the others get back and Florence will have to crawl into her own bed again. She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to steady her breathing, waiting for the shaky thing in her chest to settle.

Major Note Hot 100—Week of July 12, 2025

26 Thally’s Song

Juno Wilde

27 Melancholia

Don’t Go Easy

28 Never Needed You

J3remy

↑ 29 swallow me

Scorpio Season

30 How do you sleep?

From Jupiter

27

They don’t speak about the kiss.

When they wake up the next morning, Florence is back to acting like her usual self. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Luca watches her put on lipstick and dab perfume on her wrists, putting herself together before the day begins. It’s almost impossible to find a trace of the trembling, tearful version of her that Luca held last night. The only proof that it wasn’t a hallucination is the way Florence smiles at her over breakfast when their feet accidentally knock together under the table, fragile and nervous in a way Luca has never seen her before. Luca smiles back and goes back to eating her pancakes, ignoring the flutter in her stomach.

The venue is a beautiful old theater that feels much too nice for them to be playing in. Sitting in the plush red seats in the front row, they watch Juno go through sound check. Even though they’ve been touring with her for more than two weeks now, the starstruck feeling from their first day on tour hasn’t completely worn off.

“She’s incredible,” Miray whispers while Juno sings her usual sound check song with the ease of decade-long experience.

“Her breath control is crazy,” Toni agrees, head tilted as she watches her.

Nursing her third tea of the day, Florence nods in agreement. She has one hand on her throat, absently rubbing circles.

A moment later, Juno leaves the stage and their band is called up. Luca can tell Florence is nervous from the way she tucks her hair behind both ears while she takes her spot behind the mic. She did some gentle warm-ups in their room earlier, but she hasn’t properly sung since Prague.

“Some vocals, please,” the sound engineer says.

Florence clears her throat, the tea still clutched in her right hand. The microphone amplifies her shaky intake of breath. “I’m Alexandria, baby,” she begins. Her voice sounds raspier than usual. She takes another small breath before she continues. “You’ll never know my depths.” Her vocals are firmer on the second line. “I’ll burn myself to the ground before I let you have the answers.” The smile that spreads on her face is so relieved, something inside Luca’s own chest loosens at the sight of it. “I’ll set myself on fire before I let you know all of me.”