Chapter 24
The Hard Version
On Sunday night, after the final event ended, Lucy and Ben sat on the floor of the empty community room eating leftover cider doughnuts.
The festival was over.
The walls looked bare without the schedules.
Lucy had removed the last orange card from the project board.
"Monday," Ben said.
"Monday."
The fellowship deadline.
Lucy broke a doughnut in half.
"I think I'm going to accept."
Ben nodded.
Pain moved across his face so quickly she almost missed it.
He smiled anyway.
Lucy touched his arm.
"You can be unhappy about it."
"I'm not unhappy for you."
"That's not what I said."
Ben looked at her.
She waited.
Finally, he exhaled.
"I hate that you'll be gone most of the week."
Lucy nodded.
"I hate that I won't be able to stop by the library after a shift. I hate that Sunday dinners will depend on train schedules. I hate that I just found you and now we have to learn how to be together from two cities."
Lucy moved closer.
"Thank you."
Ben blinked. "For complaining?"
"For wanting something out loud."
He smiled faintly.
"I'm learning."
"Me too."
Lucy rested her head on his shoulder.
"I don't want the easy version if the easy version requires one of us to become smaller."
Ben kissed her hair.
"Then we do the hard version."
"The hard version needs a spreadsheet."
"Of course it does."
They made one.
Not immediately.
First they kissed on the community-room floor until Priya returned for her forgotten scarf and shouted, "I saw nothing," while very clearly seeing everything.
Then they made a spreadsheet.
Weekends. Train costs. Ben's shift rotations. Lucy's remote day. Carter dinners. Festival planning meetings she could join online.
It was not romantic in the conventional sense.
Lucy had never felt more loved.