Page 8 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

I love you.

Just like that.

No buildup. No grand speech. No warning. It just dropped into the space between screens, like it had been waiting there.

I should’ve questioned it, because two weeks wasn’t enough to earn that sentence. It wasn’t long enough to test it. It wasn’t long enough to even define what we were doing.

But for once, I didn’t analyze it. I didn’t measure it. I didn’t INTJ it to death.

That was the moment the eternal cynic stepped aside, and the hopeless romantic—who had been pacing quietly in the background for years—finally got the stage.

Then I remembered mouthing, “I love you,” back at my screen like an absolute fool.

Because he was watching.

Because it felt cinematic.

Because it felt good to be chosen.

My memory shifted again.

The drag bar.

Lights flashing red, yellow, blue. Bass vibrating through the floor. Glitter suspended in the air like it had nowhere else to land. Queens performing like heartbreak was an Olympic sport.

But even with the noise, even with the crowd pressed shoulder to shoulder, I remembered how he looked at me.

Victor’s eyes locked onto mine across the chaos. Not distracted. Not scanning for better options. Just… there.

Longing.

Intentional.

He gazed like I was the only thing in the room.

And in those momentous seconds, where the time seemed to stop, the music blurred, and the world narrowed—I fell for him.

Stupid as that.

Simple as that.

A car horn blared somewhere down the street.

I blinked.

Lost Books returned behind me. The green walls. The iced frappe sweating onto the table. The book opened in my hands, unread.

And there it was, that sharp, familiar pinch in my chest. Not overwhelming. Not roaring. Just enough to remind me that memory was a dangerous place to visit alone.

I exhaled loudly.

This was exactly why I kept myself busy.

Work. Friends. Gym. Content. Noise.

Because if I stayed still too long, my mind replayed moments like evidence in a case I kept losing.

I looked down at my drink and took another sip.