The room was dim, lit only by the soft glow of the desk lamp. Rain tapped gently against the dorm window like a lullaby. Michelle sat cross-legged on her bed, wrapped in a blanket, while Steve leaned against her desk chair, slowly spinning it side to side.
They had been quiet for a while—comfortable, warm silence. The kind that didn't ask for words but didn't run from them either.
Then Steve spoke.
"I've been thinking," he said quietly, staring at the floor. "About… us."
Michelle's heart gave a tiny thud. "Me too."
He looked up, eyes soft. "I didn't plan any of this. You weren't… part of some grand design. But now, when I imagine anything ahead of me, it's like your name is just… there. In everything."
She swallowed. "I know what you mean. You kind of slipped into my life… and now I don't know how to picture it without you."
He stood up and came closer, sitting on the edge of her bed.
"I'm not perfect, Michelle," he said. "Sometimes I get quiet. Or I hide how I feel because I'm scared. I've done it with you, and I hated myself for it."
"You don't have to be perfect," she whispered. "You just have to be real. And honest. With me."
Steve reached for her hand, holding it gently in his.
"I'm trying," he said. "Every time I show up for you, I'm trying."
Michelle looked at their fingers intertwined and then up into his eyes.
"Sometimes I'm scared too," she admitted. "Of falling too fast. Of wanting more than maybe you're ready for. But then you do something like today—like the bag with the little things—and I realize… you already give me more than I know how to ask for."
Silence again, but it wasn't heavy. It was full.
Steve brushed a strand of hair from her face and said, "You feel like home. Even when I don't know what I'm doing."
Michelle leaned her forehead against his.
"I want to keep choosing you," she whispered.
He closed his eyes, heart racing. "Even when it gets hard?"
"Especially then."
And for the first time, the words left him—softly, carefully, honestly.
"I love you."
Michelle didn't flinch. She didn't gasp. She simply smiled with tears in her eyes, as if she'd been waiting for them all along.
"I love you too."
They didn't kiss.They didn't need to.
The way their hands held on, the way their eyes met in the quiet—that was everything.