Vitamin Water and Sweaty Palms

My palms were sweating so much I could practically water plants with them. Classic first-date-move nerves, except this wasn't a date. Not technically. But when Alex Marin invites you over to watch Netflix, you don't ask questions. You just show up with your heart doing gymnastics in your chest.

"You want some vitamin water?" Alex asked, kicking aside a cable that had somehow escaped the tangle behind his TV. "My mom's going through this health phase. Everything in the fridge is fortified or organic or both."

"Sure." I sat on his couch, trying to look casual. Like my best friend Sarah hadn't spent three hours helping me pick this outfit. Like I didn't check my reflection in every window I passed on the way here.

His cat—a fat orange tabby named Cheese—jumped onto my lap and immediately started purring like a tiny motor. "He likes you," Alex said, handing me a bright yellow bottle. "That's rare. Cheese hates everyone except me. And my friend Jordan, but Jordan's basically family."

Friend. The word landed heavy in the room. Was that all this was? Friends watching Netflix together? Friends who spent way too long choosing what to wear?

But then Alex sat next to me—close enough that our shoulders brushed—and started the movie. And somewhere between the cable box glitching and Cheese deciding my lap was his new throne, Alex's hand found mine. His fingers laced through mine, palm against palm.

"Is this okay?" he whispered, and I could feel his breath against my cheek.

I nodded, unable to form words. Cheese purred louder. The movie played on, forgotten. Outside, summer crickets created their own soundtrack.

"So," Alex said, his thumb tracing circles on my hand. "Tomorrow, want to come with me to get bubble tea? My friend works at this place—"

"I'd love that," I said.

He grinned. "Cool. It's a date then."

A date. He said it. Actually said it. My heart did this full-on celebration routine, and I thought: yeah. This is happening. This is real.

Later, Sarah would want all the details. Every single one. She'd analyze the vitamin water moment, the cable incident, the cat intervention like they were clues in some mystery she was solving. And she'd probably be right about everything.

But right now, with Alex's thumb still drawing circles on my hand and Cheese purring like he'd personally orchestrated this moment, I just wanted to stay here. In this weird, perfect, sweaty-palm moment that felt like the beginning of something.