Sphinx and the Spinach Smile

Maya's palms were sweating as she stepped into Jordan's basement. The gaming setup was legit—RGB everything, a couch that had definitely seen better days, and at least eight consoles stacked like some kind of tech tower.

"Yo, you made it!" Jordan grinned, fumbling with a tangled HDMI cable behind the TV. "Just need to get this working and we're golden."

Maya's heart did that annoying flutter thing whenever he looked at her. She'd been crushing on Jordan since October, and tonight was finally her chance to hang out one-on-one. Well, technically with his weird sphinx cat, Cleo, who was currently judging them from the top of the bookshelf.

"Want something to drink?" Jordan asked, finally getting the cable connected. "My mom made these smoothie things. They're actually not terrible."

"Sure," Maya said, trying to play it cool. She took the bright orange cup he handed her and took a giant gulp.

Big mistake.

It was literally just spinach and kale. No fruit. No sweetness. Just liquid garden.

Maya's face probably looked like she'd just licked a sidewalk. "It's... interesting?"

"Yeah, she's on this health kick," Jordan laughed, grabbing his own cup. "I mostly just pretend to drink it."

They settled onto the couch to play, and Maya actually started having fun. Jordan was funny and kept making terrible jokes about the game characters. Cleo the sphinx cat eventually deigned to join them, plopping dramatically onto Maya's legs like she was some kind of Egyptian royalty granting an audience.

"She likes you," Jordan said softly, and something about the way he said it made Maya's stomach flip.

They played for hours until the movie they'd put on started glitching. The cable had come loose again.

"Let me get it," Maya offered, ducking behind the TV. When she popped back up, Jordan was watching her with this expression she couldn't quite read.

"What?" she asked, suddenly self-conscious. "Do I have something—"

"Your smile," he said, and then seemed to catch himself. "I mean, you've got a little spinach in your teeth. From like, an hour ago."

Maya wanted to die. Actually die. Spinach. The vegetable equivalent of social suicide.

"But," Jordan added, "it's kinda perfect. You're the only person who'd pretend to like my mom's swamp smoothies just to be nice."

He reached over and gently brushed it away with his thumb, and Maya forgot how to breathe.

"So," he said, his voice weirdly gentle, "same time next week? Cleo would be devastated."

Maya grinned, spinach-free and feeling brave. "Only if you promise to warn me about the smoothies."

"Deal."