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She smiled at him and he smiled back. Outside the window, orange and gold leaves skittered along the sidewalk in the evening breeze.

Noah finished making dinner and they ate together.

“Were you planning to go home for Thanksgiving?” he asked her.

She looked down. “Probably not. I don’t know.”

“Well, I would love it if you went to Mom and Dad’s with me for the weekend. She’s already asked if you’re coming.”

“I’d love to. Our first holiday together. How serious.”

He reached for her hand across the table. “It is, isn’t it?”

After dinner, Claire rinsed their plates and loaded the dishwasher while Noah put away the leftovers. They cleaned the kitchen together without discussing who should do what.

They weren’t officially living together. But for the first time, Claire realized that whatever they were building belonged to both of them.

Later, Claire walked back across the hall. She unlocked her apartment and stepped inside.

It was quiet.

She walked to her bedroom before realizing she left her phone charger in Noah’s apartment.

Again.

She laughed. Locked her apartment. Walked back across the hall.

She didn’t even knock.

She used her key.

Noah looked up from his spot on the couch. “Forget something?”

“My phone charger.”

He grinned. “I think you should probably just leave it here.”

Claire smiled. “I think you’re right.”

She plugged in her phone and walked over and sat beside him. Biscuit immediately curled against her legs. Noah handed her the TV remote without asking.

She took it, without a word, and put on Gilmore Girls.

“I probably should sleep in my apartment tonight,” she said, curling up against him.

“Probably.” He glanced at her. “But you’re not going to, are you?”

“No.”

Noah smiled, looking far too pleased by her answer.

Apparently, another night sacrificing circulation in his arm sounded perfectly acceptable to him.

He had never once complained about staying on the couch with her, even when he woke up with a dead arm the next morning.

Claire looked up at him. “You ever think it’s funny we made the decision not to get in bed together, and now we fall asleep on the couch together more nights than we probably should?”

“Yes, but you’ve gotten pretty clingy, princess. At this point, I don’t think we have much of a choice.”