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I squeeze her hand. “God, I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

The tension between us feels thick and textured, almost corporeal.

I really want to lean over and kiss her, but she sits there, still, very very still, the strain in her neck showing she’s not moving toward me on purpose, and that purpose keeps me in place, too.

“So you want it slow,” I say.

“Yes. We’ve just met.”

I smile. “Okay. So tell me a little bit about what you’ve been up to these past few months. How you like it at Qpik. That kind of stuff.”

Her neck and shoulders relax, and she tells me about her colleagues and the work she’s doing. I listen and nod, so happy that she seems happy here, content, and I feel calm and hopeful and more like myself than I have in months.

Before I know it, it’s quarter to 1:00 and I really have to leave.

We give each other a hug, only slightly longer than appropriate for the middle of the day in a busy cafeteria, but I don’t miss that she squeezes me really tight and there’s a barely audible sigh on her lips once she’s encircled in my arms, and—Fuck. Me.—I really hope the slow isn’t too slow because I really don’t want to make a habit of going to client meetings with a raging hard-on.

I feel unusually grateful to the inventor of suit jackets.

****

Joe: So do you wanna get together for lunch or coffee or something else slowness appropriate

Liz: A snail race?

Watching paint dry?

Joe: Seriously now, I want to see you soon

Fully aware it might be the opposite of slow

Liz: I kinda want that too

Let’s get coffee before work tomorrow

Joe: This Saturday we can go have a decent breakfast

Go to the indoor Farmers Market

I admit I’m googling stuff to do in Madison in the winter

Liz:

Slow means we don’t have to do everything right away

Let’s meet for coffee tomorrow at Spill the Beans before work

My treat

Joe: Only if you let me get coffee the next day

Liz: You got it

****

And so we spend the next few weeks having coffee together every workday (except Monday, which is Roxie’s day). We text throughout the day, send each other memes and funny videos.