(Author's POV)
She'd shown up anyway, persistently and cheerfully, until he'd run out of reasons to keep saying no. And somewhere along the way, between late-night study sessions and the first time she'd laughed so hard she'd knocked her coffee off the library table, he'd stopped wanting to.
They'd made a quiet agreement: finish the degree first, then do it properly.
She'd taken it seriously. He remembered being surprised by that - by how hard she'd worked, how her grades had climbed until their names had appeared on the Dean's List together. He'd looked at that list and felt something he hadn't expected. Pride. The particular kind that comes from watching someone you care about become more than you'd imagined.
He'd never told her that.
Now he pulled up outside Fiona's building and wa
