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“Ruins? That’s pretty cool.” I change my mind about treating Brenda to a fancy lunch with a view, we could do that anywhere.

“Hey, you’ve been here twice, and I only got to spend a few minutes in your world.

How about I come visit your universe this time?

You can show me the ruins and tell me what happened to Echo Mountain House. ”

Brenda grins at me. “Would you want to meet my friends?”

My heart thuds nervously. I’ve never been someone people actually introduced to their friends before. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Brenda copies the coordinates on her phone, typing them carefully, along with the time.

“There’s another one for late Saturday night, so we could spend the whole afternoon together. You could show me around your world.” I’m thrilled at the possibility. I want to see this world without magic, the different technology Brenda’s described, everything.

“It’s a date,” Brenda says.

“It’s a date.” I lean forward, thinking this would be a good moment for a goodbye kiss, but shyness takes hold of me and I pause. There’s something about her, about this moment, that I don’t want to rush into, don’t want to lose.

Brenda hugs me, wrapping her arms around me quickly and letting go.

Her eyes are warm, soft and questioning and sweet, and I want to keep looking into them forever.

I want to tilt her chin up and meet her for a kiss—I want to, I want to so badly, but I don’t know how to do this, the sweet girlfriends thing, the relationship thing.

I don’t know how to give her what she deserves, how to be someone reliable.

Everything I do know how to do isn’t right for Brenda, isn’t what I want for her.

The moment passes, and she looks away quickly, like she wanted to ask me something and changed her mind.

Fancy is winding around my ankles like she doesn’t quite want to go back yet, but she lets Brenda pick her up and settles into her chest, snuggling close as Brenda steps toward the tracks. “Okay, where do I need to be?”

I pull up a map on my runebook and plug in the coordinates. “Two steps back. To the right—your right, not mine. Okay. It must be that archway there.”

Brenda nods as we both stare at the empty doorframe of an abandoned warehouse.

The sun is rising through the trees, and the town is waking up. In the distance I hear the faint jingle of a streetcar. Streaks of pink race across the sky, and all around us is the quiet morning air, leaves rustling softly and the condensation still wet and heavy on the ground.

The clock on my runebook is ticking forward, and Brenda smiles at me, waiting.

“You’ve got two minutes,” I say.

“All right,” she says. “So I just go—”

“Exactly when the timer goes off—step through and you should be home.”

“Okay,” she says quietly.

Brenda’s hair is still tangled from the night in my bed, and she looks rumpled and soft with sleep. There’s a speckle of crust from the dan tat we ate this morning on her cheek, and in the early morning mist she could almost be a dream, a vision, this girl from another world.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you Saturday.” Brenda toes the dirt a bit, dragging her shoe nervously. “And yesterday—it was kinda scary, kinda stressful, but I’m glad we found each other.”

“Yeah.” I grin at her. “Saturday will be fun. Like a real date.”

“Would you—I think I’d like to—”

She smiles at me, and the affection in it is clear, and I’m a bit overwhelmed by the sheer warmth in it. I don’t know if anyone has ever looked at me like that, like they want me for me, and they see me for who I am now, not who they want me to be or who they think I need to be.

“I haven’t gone on many dates,” Brenda says suddenly.

“I’ve never really dated anyone. Never really wanted to, not in the real sense of, like, making time to and, like—thinking about—but I—I want to, with you.

I want to do so many things. And on Saturday, if you want to—I’d like to have a first real kiss with you. ”

Her words are rushed, tumbling out of her, and she seems surprised for a moment, but she smiles at me and takes a deep breath, her intention clear.

“I’d like to kiss you now,” I say without thinking.

Brenda’s cheeks flush. “I—yes—but—you said—there’s less than a minute now, probably—”

I don’t remember moving, but my feet take me toward her, bridging the scant few steps between us, and I cup her chin in my hand and kiss her, like I wanted to when we first met, like I wanted to again once we had talked about anything and everything, with everything rolling inside me, feeling seen in a way I didn’t know I could feel.

Brenda kisses me back after a soft gasp of pleased surprise, and quickly deepens the kiss, all enthusiasm and wet eagerness.

It’s clumsy and I don’t care, it’s perfect, this moment of connection, her warm mouth against mine in the chilly morning mist, and there’s nothing else in the world I want more than to spend forever getting to know the girl in my arms.

Something thumps against my neck—it’s Fancy, putting a paw on me gently, her eyes flickering as she looks beyond me at something I can’t see. “Meow,” she says, shuffling in Brenda’s arms.

“Oh,” Brenda says, pulling back from the kiss and resting her forehead against my own.

I press back, exhaling like I’ve just cast a spell I didn’t know I could do, and bask in the comfort of her touch, at her being right there.

She looks at me and smiles, leaning back to catch her breath. I can still feel the warmth of her on my skin.

The timer goes off before I can take another breath. Brenda gives me one last smile before she steps through and disappears in the early morning mist.