This is all like nothing she's ever had before and everything she wanted, but only from one very specific person. Only from Steve. She had told Otis all this traditional romance only serves to make her uncomfortable and for the most part it had been true, but first Jackson had come through the cafeteria with a grand gesture, singing and melting her heart, and now there's Steve, who is embracing what she's asked with gusto.

And not a word of it rings false. It might be cheesy, it might be the sort of thing that scared her not so long ago, but it's real. That matters more than anything.

"Good thing I'm back," she murmurs against his mouth, her hand sliding down his back.