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It’s way too soon to call this love, but I can’t help wondering what that would be like: just taking it slow, getting to know her and watching this thing between us grow without the constant pressure of the situation bearing down on it like a load of rocks.

What if we could just be? What would it take to get there?

“Becca, you have to let me see your hair down!” DeeDee’s voice calls me back to the present. Her accent makes my name sound like Bee-cah.

I look over and find her gesturing for me to take my ponytail out. Hope is laughing, and both of them seem oblivious to the way I was staring at her, but I catch Zach stroking his short, barely-there beard with a knowing grin on his face.

I brace for the nerves to hit, but instead, I just feel warm inside. I feel right. I smile back at him as I reach up to let my hair down.

By the time we reach the Biodome, DeeDee has demanded I switch seats with Zach and spent the rest of the ride holding different pieces of my hair up around my face. I make a mental note of a few of her suggestions. I really am clueless when it comes to haircuts.

There’s a bit of a line to get tickets, but eventually we head in with the throngs of people spending their Saturday afternoon getting acquainted with the wonders of the natural world. The place is huge, and just like Hope said, they have several full-size ecosystems set up with special overhead pathways for visitors to walk through them without disturbing the animals.

“Do you like it?” Hope asks as the four of us stand waiting for our turn to get a good look at some penguins.

“It’s amazing!” I answer. “I love all the conservation aspects. I’m a little iffy about zoos, to be honest, but this is really incredible.”

“So it’s up to your environmental science standards?”

I chuckle. “Yes, I would say it is.”

Zach turns to me. “So that’s what you’re studying? Cool!”

“Oh, it’s just my minor,” I explain. “I’m a kinesiology major.”

“But it could be her major,” Hope adds. “She knows so much about it. She’s like an oracle of environmental knowledge. Like here, watch this!”

She heads a few feet to our left, where there’s an information sign with a ‘pop quiz’ question and answer section.

“Becca, what are the five major biomes?” she calls back to us.

“They want five? Hmm.” I cross my arms and think. “I mean, a lot of people disagree on what a major biome is. Some people say there are up to nine, but if they want five, it’s probably...aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra?”

“Damn!” Hope bounds back over to us. “Five for five!”

Zach and DeeDee clap.

“You sure that’s only your minor?” Zach asks.

It’s only a high school science level question, but I smile at the compliment anyway. I have to work to drill kinesiology terms into my head, but something about environmental science has always just stuck for me. It’s effortless, like cradling a lacrosse ball up the field.

We get a look at the penguins and then continue making our way through the exhibits, with Hope throwing out pop quiz questions at me off the signs every now and then. I get them all right.

“Oh my god, capybaras!” she shouts when we’re up on one of the walkways, looking down on a grassy landscape dominated by a big pond and a small forested area. “I love capybaras!”

There’s a herd of capybaras swimming and laying on the shore of the pond. They look like long-legged guinea pigs, but they’re all as big as sheep dogs.

Zach groans. “We’ll never get her out of here now.”

Hope glares at him. “Do not mock my adoration of the world’s largest rodent!”

She makes her way to the edge of the path and rests her chin on her hands to stare dreamily down at the animals. The rest of us join her. Zach and DeeDee move on after a couple minutes, but Hope insists she’ll catch up later.

“I just love them!” she gushes while I lean against the rail next to her.

“They are very cute,” I say without looking away from her.

She squeals every time one of them does something new. It’s adorable.