🖤
Time stopped feeling like time, it blurred, softened like the world outside the apartment didn't fully exist anymore.
Cassy was still sitting beside him. Caleb was still there too close now closer than before and neither of them had moved away. That alone said everything.
Cassy glanced at him briefly. "…You're still here," she said softly.
Caleb gave a faint hum. "I said I would stay a little longer."
A pause. "You did," she admitted.
Silence again but it wasn't empty. It was full of everything they weren't saying yet. Caleb shifted slightly, not away but closer again.
Cassy noticed. Of course she did. "You keep doing that," she murmured.
Caleb looked at her. "…Doing what?"
"Getting closer when you don't know what to say."
That made something shift in his expression not denial just awareness.
"…I think I know what I want to say," he admitted quietly.
Cassy turned toward him a little more now, waiting.
Caleb didn't rush, he never did when it mattered most. "I just don't know if saying it changes anything," he said.
Silence.
Cassy studied him. "…Maybe it already has," she replied softly.
That made him pause because she wasn't wrong. Nothing between them had stayed the same since she opened that door. Since she left, since he followed, since they started… this.
Caleb exhaled slowly. "I don't want to lose what we have right now," he said, honestly, careful. "But I also don't want to stay in this space forever."
Cassy nodded slightly. "…Neither do I." A pause then she added softly, "But I don't know what comes next yet."
Caleb looked at her. "I don't either."
Silence but this one wasn't uncertainty anymore, it was shared truth. A kind of honesty that didn't need fixing just understanding.
Cassy shifted slightly and this time their shoulders brushed barely, accidentally but neither of them moved away. That tiny contact, it changed the air again not dramatically but enough that both of them felt it. Caleb didn't look away neither did she.
"…We keep doing this," Cassy said quietly.
Caleb frowned slightly. "Doing what?"
"Almost." That word hung there softly but heavy.
Caleb didn't respond immediately because she was right. They were always almost something, almost together, almost distant, almost clear, almost safe but never fully anything.
"I don't want 'almost' anymore," he said finally.
Cassy's breath slowed slightly. "…Neither do I."
Silence and now the space between them didn't feel like distance anymore, it felt like a choice.
Caleb shifted a little more, close enough now that if either of them moved everything would change. "I'm not asking you for a decision," he said softly.
Cassy nodded slightly. "I know." A pause. "But you're saying it anyway."
That made something flicker in his expression. "…Yes." Honest, no hiding it anymore.
Cassy looked at him for a long moment then quietly asked, "What if I say I don't want to move away from you right now?"
Silence.
That question, it wasn't a commitment, it wasn't a promise, it was something softer, something real.
Caleb's gaze softened. "…Then I stay," he said simply no pressure just presence.
Cassy exhaled slowly and this time she didn't move away neither did he. The space between them disappeared slowly not suddenly, not dramatically just… naturally. Until there was no "almost" left to pretend about.
Just two people finally choosing not to step back and in that quiet moment everything changed.