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My finger hovered above the delete option before I just went ahead and sent it.

Honey responded with a voice message of her own.

“You’re so cute, Bren. I can’t get over it. All I ask is that you’re open with me and you talk to me. You don’t have to try so hard. Just be yourself. That’s all I want. Just be Bren and I’ll be Honey. Okay, I’m cutting myself off before I ramble too long. Good mice, Bren.”

I played the message three times before I turned my lights off and let Arson curl up on my chest.

“I’m scared of how I feel about her,” I told the cat. She just yawned and settled herself on me again.

“What am I going to do?”

The blareof my alarm came far too early even though I’d gone to bed at a fairly reasonable hour. Everything with Honey last night had exhausted me, but as soon as I thought about seeing her face today, I found the energy to get out of bed and get ready.

Did I put on more makeup than I normally would have? Yes. Was I ashamed of wanting to look good for Honey? Only a tiny bit.

At the last minute, I decided I wanted to bring her something, but I only had a short time to decide what that was.

I looked through my stickers and found one of the bee ones I’d printed recently. It was totally adorable, and I knew she’d like it, so I put it into my bag along with a few bookmarks. There. That was something.

I almost wanted to bring her breakfast, but she probably already ate, and I didn’t know what she’d like anyway.

Matcha. She was always getting matcha from the marketplace. I’d get her one of those when I arrived.

Perfect.

Honey

Bren approached me with a smile on her face and an iced matcha in her hand.

“Good morning,” she said, holding the matcha out to me. She had an iced coffee in her other hand.

“Oh my god, yes, it is a good morning now. Hi.” I stepped around the matcha and leaned close to her.

Her eyes went wide.

Crap. Public kissing was probably pushing her too far.

“Sorry,” I said, stepping back and taking the matcha.

I could feel multiple sets of eyes watching us.

“They’re staring, aren’t they?” I asked. My family hadn’t stopped singing, but they were doing it with a little less enthusiasm than usual.

“Oh yeah,” Bren said, having a perfect view of them. “Did you tell them?”

I shook my head. “No. Because they’d have all kinds of opinions and right now, I only want to listen to my own when it comes to you.”

If I didn’t hold them back, they’d overwhelm me, and I might let someone else’s ideas influence me and I didn’t want that.

“I’m not used to people being so interested in me like this. It’s a lot.”

She was trying not to make eye contact with anyone, but I could tell they were absolutely watching her. There was no privacy for us right now.

“How about we keep things on a business level today and then tonight we can maybe do something?”

Bren nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a better idea than trying to talk while standing in a fishbowl. Christ, everyone is probably talking about us right now. I bet even the Johnsons have stopped fighting to talk about us.” She muttered the last part and I stifled a laugh.

“Maybe. They do love fighting with each other though. Thank you for the matcha. This was really sweet.”