The Riddle of Leo's Smile

My cat Luna is basically my only real friend. She doesn't care that I'm socially awkward or that my anxiety spikes like I've chugged three espressos whenever cute boys are near. She just demands food and occasionally judges me from across the room.

Then there's Leo.

Leo is a walking sphinx of mystery—all intense eyes and impossible-to-read expressions. He sits behind me in history, and I've spent entire periods constructing elaborate fantasies where we actually talk, while simultaneously having the attention span of a goldfish whenever he speaks to me. His voice goes in, my brain short-circuits, and suddenly I'm nodding along to whatever he said like a total NPC.

"Hey, Maya."

I jumped, dropping my phone. Luna, who'd been draped across my legs like a furry existential crisis, bolted upright with tail flicking judgment.

"Leo? What are you... how?" I looked around the coffee shop, confused. I'd been working here for months without running into anyone from school.

"Live right around the corner." He slid into the booth opposite me, and suddenly my cat was the least nerve-wracking thing about this situation. "You always come here after school. I see you through the window."

Wait. He'd NOTICED me?

"You're like watching a sphinx," he continued, and I almost laughed at the irony. "All quiet and mysterious. I've been trying to figure you out."

Luna chose that moment to dramatically leap from my lap to the table, walk across my laptop, and begin aggressively head-butting Leo's hand.

"That's... a strong personality," Leo said, scratching behind her ears.

"She has better social skills than I do," I muttered, then immediately wanted to die.

Leo's smile was real and warm and not sphinx-like at all. "Good thing she's training you. You doing anything later?"

My goldfish brain processed this for approximately forever before I managed, "I—what?"

"Coffee? With me?" His expression turned slightly vulnerable. "I've been planning how to talk to you for like, two weeks."

The sphinx had been solving his own riddles this whole time.

"Yes," I said, and Luna purred like she'd known it all along.