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‘Only you would use that as a weapon.’

‘It’s hard not to. Nobody’s ever loved me before, y’know. Got to make the most of it.’

He rolled his eyes, though he was smirking, and so was she. ‘I highly doubt that’s true.’

It was very, very true. Her few relationships hadn’t lasted long enough for theLword to come up, and it was usually Juniper who was more tempted to drop the bomb, though always for the wrong people. That she was preserving it now, she knew, was because of how real it would make it to say it aloud. A reflection of how much she truly felt it.

And she did. ‘I… I can’t say it back yet,’ she admitted.

‘I didn’t tell you so that you would say it back, you dope.’ He held out his hands, beckoning with his fingers. ‘Give me the bloody gloves.’

She did, with her hand still inside them. ‘I just mean that until this contest is over, I won’t be able to think straight.’

‘I know. That’s okay. But I sort of need the gloves without your hands in them.’ He tried to tug the gloves off, but she curled her fingers. She really, really needed him to know what tonight had meant to her, even if she was rubbish at articulating it.

‘Aiden.’

‘Juniper,’ he mimicked, then looked at her with some reluctance. ‘I’m not asking you for anything, okay? And I can wait. Until after the competition, or until we finish first year. Until we graduate, if you want. But eventually, you and me… we’re going to do this properly.’

‘You don’t think we’re too different? Too incompatible?’ In the dark, it was easier to voice her worries. They might have been the only two people to exist in the city at this time, for all the noise they heard outside, and there was a comfort in that she wanted to sink into. Even with the contest looming, and her future uncertain. Even after everything.

Aiden chewed on his cheek for a moment. ‘No, I don’t think that. When I’m with you, close to you, all the ways I’ve felt lost and wrong go away.’

She felt the same. Like she could be herself, even when she was at her worst.

She stepped closer without realising it, and his hand slipped from her gloves to her elbow as he cast her an inquisitive glance.

‘Be honest,’ he whispered, and she readied herself for a question she wasn’t yet prepared for. ‘Do I want to know where those gloves have been?’

Her laughter peeled through the kitchen, so loud she didn’t hear anybody come in. Not until she saw the deformed shadow standing on the threshold. It looked like a person, only some sort of horn protruded from its head. Her amusement died out, and she hopped back, dragging Aiden with her in the fear that one of her mythological creatures had come to life. With the day she was having, it wouldn’t have been all that surprising, but she didn’t feel like getting eaten alive by a bipedal unicorn, or a—

‘Gianna,’ she breathed in relief when the figure stepped onto the kitchen tiles. Not a monster – or, not aparanormalmonster – just her boss sporting a bun that tapered into a messy point on top of her head… and, on her feet, slippers shaped like horses, which were slightly disturbing. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘What amIdoing here?’ Gianna snapped. ‘I got a notification that the security alarm went off.’

Oh. She looked at Aiden as though he might produce an excuse from thin air, but when he only grimaced, she knew she had to handle this on her own. Honesty was probably not the best policy, but it was better than any alternative theories Gianna came up with after seeing Juniper and her non-boyfriend in her kitchen, the former wearing rubber gloves.She wouldn’t let her misconstrue this for some sort of cleaning kink.

‘Well, we were just going to go through your bins.’

‘Oh, of course you were. What a normal thing to do at eleven o’clock in the evening. Mind you, you never do it during yourshift.’

‘It’s for a project!’ Juniper blurted quickly. ‘I needed some broken pottery, and remembered the mugs I broke earlier, may they rest in peace.’

Gianna looked at the sky as though seeking aid from the powers that be. Juniper wondered if she was about five seconds away from getting fired and could only be surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner.

But her boss glanced at the two of them, crossing her arms over the big fluffy cloud on her pyjama jumper. ‘I’m going to assume that you two are back together, and therefore you will come into work less mopey tomorrow morning. At eight o’clock.’

‘But my shift doesn’t start until…’ One scowl from Gianna had Juniper shutting her mouth. ‘Yes. Eight o’clock. In the morning. That’s a time I am very good at being awake for. See you then.’

‘Good.’ She already had one foot out of the kitchen. ‘Get your pottery and then get out. No shenanigans. And remember to lock up!’ She shouted that last part, because she’d already reached the front door. Once she was outside and out of eyesight, Juniper’s tension eased, though not completely.

‘She’s going to fire me one of these days, and I’ll deserve it.’

‘Or, she’ll be scrambling to buy your pottery when you create something wonderful.’ Aiden motioned to the bin again. ‘Give me the gloves, Hodge. I’ll be chivalrous, just for you.’

She smiled and did just that, an idea already forming in her mind as he plucked the pots from the waste. Gianna had her faults, but her taste in pottery was great, most of the mug designs unique in some way. The vivid greens that matched the houseplants might just save her.

All thanks to Aiden. Once again, he’d believed in her work more than she did, and now, hope was returning, along with a dozen ideas of what to do for her contest set.