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Reid ran her fingers through her hair. “Nope. She doesn’t actually show up for a while. I’ll let you know, but I’d like to see if you figure it out on your own.”

Well now I really had to pay attention.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re enjoying this too much.”

She held up two fingers about an inch apart. “Maybe a little bit. It’s fun to watch someone else experience it in real time.”

“You haven’t made your friends watch this?”

“Nope. They don’t really know about any of my fandoms. Or my fanfic.” That didn’t make sense and she must have seen the confused look on my face.

“I like to keep things separate. I don’t know. It’s something I’ve always done. Kept my private shit private. And my fanfic is private.” Now that did make sense. The more time I spent with her, the more I put the pieces together that explained who she was.

It didn’t take a psychologist to understand that Reid’s relationship with her mother, her main caretaker, had affected her in both big and small ways. As had her relationship with Kaylee.

I still hadn’t told my sister that I was living next to Reid. I didn’t know how to broach the subject, especially given my changing emotions about Reid.

The crush I had on her could no longer be denied. It was here and it was kicking my ass. Sitting next to her on the couch was almost more than I could take. I wanted to get up and sit right in her lap and let her pet my hair. I wanted to shock the hell out of her by kissing her. Making Reid the first woman I’d ever kissed was my new life goal. It wasn’t going to happen, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t imagine it in a hundred different ways.

We’d spent the day together and it kept getting later and later and I knew I was overstaying my welcome, but I didn’t want to get up from her couch. Not only was it comfortable, but my apartment was lacking one major thing that made everything better: her.

Reid wasn’t acting like she wanted to kick me out, though. I’d been watching her for signs that she was getting tired or disengaged with me, but she was still laughing and listening and pressing Play on another episode.

I had a few hours of work tomorrow and my class started on Tuesday, so I wanted to prepare for that, but being wrapped in this cocoon of Reid was far more pleasurable.

“Shit, I didn’t realize how late it was. With my work schedule I’m basically part vampire and I don’t know what normal waking hours are like anymore. If you want to go, you don’t have to stay here and keep me company,” she said after she’d glanced at her phone.

“No, it’s fine. I don’t have to go to work until ten tomorrow. Thanks for inviting me to hike. And for the pizza and showing me your secret fandom. I’ll keep watching and let you know when I see the ship appear.” It wouldn’t be as fun watching it alone, but I couldn’t sit around and wait for her to be free and force her to watch six plus seasons of a show with me.

“No problem. It’s been a good day.” Reid followed me to the door, and I wanted to say something else. Something witty that would make her laugh.

Of course, now that she was standing so close to me, my brain had absolutely shut down and I barely knew my own name, let alone anything clever to say.

“So, uh, let me know if you have any more questions about the show. I have way too much lore in my brain that’s just rattling around in there.” Was she babbling? Surely not. Reid didn’t babble. That was all me.

But her words had tumbled over one another when they came out of her mouth.

“Yeah, I definitely will.” I studied her face and tried not to get lost in her brown eyes. They were dark in this light. Rich, like chocolate, but then there were those golden flecks.

“You’ve got to stop doing that,” Reid said.

“What?”

“Biting your lip,” she said slowly. I’d been doing exactly that. It was a habit that I’d never been able to break. When I was younger it was so bad that it bled almost constantly. That was when I first started seeing a therapist. I’d gone to see one off and on since then. Sometimes I needed to go more often and then there were other times that I could go months managing fine using my coping skills. I hadn’t been for almost a year, which I was pretty proud of.

“I’m sorry,” I said automatically.

Reid leaned closer, her voice low and soft. “You don’t have to be sorry.”

Oh.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was about to kiss me. But she definitely wasn’t. Women like Reid didn’t kiss women like me.

Reid closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sound.

“I’ll see you later, Soph.”

Before I could think of what to say, she’d shut the door in my face. Again.