The HDMI Cable Handshake

Maya's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her jeans—third time in five minutes—while Jordan scrolled through his phone, completely oblivious to her internal chaos.

"Dude, you got an HDMI cable?" Jordan asked, finally looking up. "My setup's ghosting."

"Yeah, think so," Maya managed, trying to sound chill instead of like her heart was doing jumping jacks. "In my bag."

This was it. The moment. They'd been assigned as partners for the multimedia project two weeks ago, and somehow Maya had spent approximately 87% of that time overanalyzing every interaction. Was this a friend situation? Was Jordan just being nice? Was she reading too much into literally everything?

Her cat, Mittens, would be disappointed in her. Mittens, queen of boundless confidence, would've just flopped down and demanded attention. Maya envied that energy.

She dug through her backpack while Jordan leaned against the wall, casual in that way popular kids mastered by seventh grade. The cable was tangled around a half-eaten granola bar and three pens.

"Sorry," she muttered, extracting it like it was precious cargo. "It's seen better days."

Jordan laughed. "No worries, this thing's lived through more drama than my cousin's situationship."

Their fingers brushed as she handed it over. Maya's palms went nuclear again.

"So," Jordan said, not pulling away immediately. "After we finish this project, you wanna—"

The bell cut them off.

"Never mind," Jordan winced. "Text me?"

"Yeah," Maya said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Yeah, totally."

Jordan's number was already in her phone from project coordination. Had been for weeks. But as they walked out together—actually together, not just leaving at the same time—Maya realized something that made her stomach do that fluttery thing she hated and loved simultaneously.

The HDMI cable had connected their presentation to the projector. But somewhere between granola-bar tangles and sweaty palms and a shared joke about dramatic technology, something else had connected too.

Her phone buzzed.

jordan: same time tomorrow?

Maya smiled, palms finally dry, and typed back the longest three letters of her life.

yeah