"I have wine and beer. Whiskey too, if you want something a little stronger."

A smile played against Hermione's lips. "You have beer in your fridge? Hiram Lodge is some plebeian beer drinker now? I thought beer was only for when there's nothing else to drink at a kegger?"

Hiram looked at her over the door of his fridge and smiled. "I never said that. I like the occasional beer. Wine then?"

"What kind?"

He pulled two bottles out of his fridge. "A merlot and a chardonnay. Both gifts, so they probably cost more than you want to know."

"And what do you have to mix with the whiskey?"

"Good whiskey isn't meant to be watered down with anything."

"You can just say you don't drink soda, you snob." Her words were playful, filled with affection, but Hiram felt a twang of pain in his chest anyway. He shook it away.

"So red or white?"

Hermione tilted her head. "A shot of whiskey to warm me up, then a glass of the red."

"Anything for my lady." He reached into an upper cabinet to grab glasses, catching his slip. "The lady. Anything for the lady."

"You're doing a shot with me, Lodge, and I won't take no for an answer. We're celebrating tonight."

Hiram bit his lip as he pulled down a wine glass and two shot glasses. He tucked the bottle of wine under one arm and the whiskey in the other as he joined Hermione on the couch. Her eyes were directed at the view outside.

"Where are we again? The upper west side?"

Hiram poured the shots, eyes darting to her. "You know where we are. Don't act like you don't know Manhattan."

"I don't know Manhattan like you know Manhattan." She smiled at the view. "Hiram Lodge on the upper west side," she whispered. "The uptown Lodges. It just sounds so right, you know? Rolls off the tongue. Like you were always meant to be here."

"Well you know what they say." He held out the shot to her as she finally broke her stare from the window. "All road lead to Manhattan."

She pressed her lips together, holding in her grin. "I don't think that's quite right, but I'll give you that one."

Hiram winked and held up his shot to her. "So what are we celebrating, Hermione?"

She clinked her glass against his and downed her shot, pulling a face as it went down. Hiram held on to his.

"You know what doesn't roll off the tongue, Hiram?" She held out her glass and raised her eyebrows. He poured again. "Hermione Reyes of Riverdale. Of the Elm Street Reyes'." She downed her second shot, grimace less obvious this time. "Go ahead. Toss Riverdale after any family name and it sounds like shit. Even the Riverdale Lodge's doesn't sound all that respectful."

"I don't know." Hiram took the shot glass out of her hand as she held it back out to him. "The Riverdale Reyes' doesn't sound terrible. The alliteration is nice."

"Trust me, it sounds bad. Oh!" She gestured wildly with her hands and he was glad he'd taken her glass. "Speaking of pristine Riverdale families - do you know Clifford Blossom?" She cleared her throat. "Of the Riverdale Blossoms? Maple syrup empire and all that jazz?" Hiram opened his mouth. "Of course you do. Well, he just got married and you'll never believe to who."

Hiram bit the inside of his cheek to stop his smile. There was the gossipy Hermione he knew so well. "I'm sure I don't know."

"You do know her though! Quite well." She put her hands on his knee and shook it. "Come on guess." He opened his mouth and she cut him off again. "A clue! They look like a matching set. Like creepily so."

He raised his eyebrow. "So another redhead? God, I know it's not Mary."

"Penelope!" Hermione shrieked. "Penelope married Clifford Blossom!"

"Penelope?" Hiram asked with a chuckle. He was glad he wasn't drinking anything; he might have spit it out. "Penelope Bennett? That prude? Jesus. Clifford will probably have to pry her knees apart with a -"

"Prudish Penelope was not as innocent as you think, trust me." Hermione reached past him and picked up her shot glass. "The stories I've heard about Penelope would turn your hair white. Or maybe turn you on." She winked at him. "Some stories were pretty wild."

"Now, don't go around spreading misinformation," Hiram teased. "You might sully Penelope's squeaky clean reputation. And she must have one if she married into the Blossoms."

"Closet slut. That's all I'll say. Penelope is a big old closet slut and all I ever had to do to find that out was make eyes at some brainless Baxter High quarterback one night." Hermione pressed her lips shut and folded her hands in her lap. "But I'm sure you don't care. Small town gossip is probably such a bore to you now anyway. You have college drama to worry about now."

"College drama is nothing compared to small town gossip." He put his hand on her knee and squeezed, just slightly leaning in to her. He felt 15 again; grinning ear to ear and hanging on to every word that came out of the mouth of the prettiest girl in school. "Tell me. Is a closet slut someone who gets slutty in a closet or someone who's in the closet about being a slut?"

Hermione pressed her lips together, holding in a smile. "I'll never tell."

"You tease, you."

Her cheeks rounded as she smirked. "Big old tease, that's me. Now pour me another shot."

He handed her his untouched drink. "Last one, okay? You never did say what we were celebrating."

She downed her third shot. "Explain to me why you have beer in your fridge first."

He shrugged. "I'm a college student?"

"You're Mr. Ivy League in an uptown apartment that probably cost more in rent than my parent's mortgage."

He took the empty glass from her put it on the coffee table. He took both of her hands in his. "I'm a college student. Most of my friends are college students. College students tend to have cheap taste. You don't think I'm offering 15 year old bottle of booze to just anyone, do you?" He rubbed his thumb against her palm. "Look, Hermione. It's not that I'm not thrilled to see you -"

"Bet you offer that wine to any girl that comes in here though." Hermione laughed and tossed her head back. "God, you're so predictable."

"Hermione." He squeezed her hands until she looked back up at him. "What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't stop by to visit an old boyfriend? An old friend? You said I had an open invitation to come to New York and see you."

"And you do. I just think I have the right to question it when you show up in the rain at 11 PM on a Tuesday."

She pressed her lips together. "I was getting out of work and I noticed there was a 5:45 bus to New York. Seemed like fate, so I bought a ticket and hopped on. Spur of the moment."

"You have two suitcases with you."

"I'm always prepared. You know that."

"And it's only a two hour drive. What were you doing the rest of the time?"

"Trying to navigate public transportation."

"You should have called me. I would have taken a cab to Port Authority to get you."

"No, no." Her eyes fell to her lap. "It was good. Me figuring out something new all on my own. It was exciting. Until it started raining."

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Sure I did. It was a spur of the moment thing."

Hiram pulled one of his hands away from hers and placed it on her cheek, turning her face back towards him. Her eyes were wide, just a hint of fear behind them. "What are you really doing here, Hermione?"

She pressed her lips together. "I missed you."

"Something else."

She stared at him, almost daring him to step down, but he refused to break her gaze. She finally let out a long sigh as she blinked. She rubbed one of her eyes.

"I should have come to New York with you when you asked. I made a mistake."

"Don't say that."

"But I did, Hiram. I've spent the last year questioning myself and you know that's not something I do often." She turned her hands over in his so she could lace her fingers through his. "You asked me to move to New York with you after graduation and I said no. What's worse, I never even gave you a good reason why."

"Hey, I was never mad at you over it. I know you couldn't just give up your whole life to follow me. You had a job, school, your family."

"Oh please. Working at my dad's store and going to community college? Not exactly living it up."

"That's what you wanted."

She shook her head. "That's not what I wanted. I was - I was afraid, Hiram. Not a lot of things scare me, but running away to New York with you terrified me."

"So why are you here now?"

She exhaled. "God, I don't even know how to tell you without sounding ridiculous. It's all so silly."

"Try me."

"Well, you know what happened with Alice and Hal, right?"

Hiram hadn't talked to Hal since the last summer, when they'd both left Riverdale for their respective schools. "Sure."

Hermione narrowed his eyes. "Do you?"

"Well, what specifically about them? They went to Boston. They're in Boston."

She nodded and pulled her hands out of his grip. "Yes, and?"

"And, well, maybe I haven't spoke to Hal in a while."

"What's a while?"

Hiram thought back. "I got a Christmas card from them last year. But I guess the last time we spoke was before we all left Riverdale."

Hermione smacked the back of his arm. "Hiram! How could you? You two were best friends!"

"I know, I know." Hiram sighed. "I've been busy. College is tough. And I'm sure he's busy too. It's not big deal. Why? What happened with them?"

"Well, Hal's parents cut them off. Found out they were renting an apartment together instead of living in the dorms. They were livid. The two of them didn't even come home for the summer. It's been months and my mom says Mrs. Cooper is still wailing over how that girl ruined her little boy."

"Oh god. Sounds like her." Hiram leaned back into the couch and, to his surprise, Hermione followed suit and leaned into him. "So what's going on with them?"

"Well, now they're both working full time and taking classes, trying to make ends meet. Refusing to drop out and all that. Last I talked to Mary - still a doll, she calls me at least every other week to check in - she said Alice had a pregnancy scare last month. But like through it all, Hal never went to his parents. He's refusing to apologize to them for living his life and choosing Alice and going away to college over staying in shithole Riverdale and running some mediocre newspaper for the rest of his life and marrying some townie and being miserable."

She let out a huge sigh and let her head fall against Hiram's shoulder. On reflex, he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Instead of pulling away, she let out a noise something like a purr.

"I missed this," she whispered. He looked down and saw her eyes were closed. "I missed you. I forgot what this was like."

"Hey," he said softly. He pulled a few strands of hair out of her face and her eyes popped open. "So that sucks about Alice and Hal, but you really didn't explain -"

"Small towns breed small people, Hiram." Her voice was firm and much louder than it had been a few moments earlier. "I used to think if I came here with you, I'd give up the whole life I worked for in Riverdale. I was a big fish in a small pond. In Manhattan, I'd be a small fish in the fucking ocean. How could I? But I realized I was all wrong. It doesn't matter how big of a fish you are in a place like Riverdale. You never stop being small there. Fuck Riverdale and fuck small towns. I want more. I want anything else. Everything else."

She pulled herself away from Hiram and pulled her knees onto the couch, sitting up on them.

"Do you know almost our entire class left Riverdale? The class of '93 is all but extinct there."

Hiram put a hand on her shoulder to get her to sit back down, but she merely leaned in closer to him. He could smell the whiskey on her breath.

'They'll be back. A lot of people just go away for college."

"Are you ever coming back?"

Hiram pressed his lips together and shook his head. "Wasn't planning on it."

"You didn't even come home for Christmas last year. Or at all this summer."

"My parents and I went away for Christmas. They wanted to be somewhere warm for once. And I was so settled -"

She held up her hand to stop him. "Don't. You don't owe me an explanation. I broke up with you -"

"It was a mutual break up."

"- and you were allowed to do whatever you wanted to. It doesn't matter. I'm just now realizing how dumb I was to let you get away. God, who am I?" She let out a shrill giggle, much louder than her normal one. The boozes were hitting her quick. "Hermione Reyes, chasing after a boy for once."

"Never thought I'd see the day." He placed his hands back on her shoulders and slowly pressed back until she sat back down. She didn't resist this time.

Hermione looked him in the eye and bit her lip. "Fred's still in Riverdale, you know. It feels like we were the only two that didn't leave. Some days -"

"You said it yourself, Hermione. We don't owe each other any explanation."

"Some days," she repeated, "we would just hang out for hours talking about the old days. High school. Everyone who left. Mary in Chicago, Alice and Hal in Boston, FP off god-knows-where in the army, you in New York. And we'd sit at Pops and go through more platters off disco fries than I care to admit." She looked back out the window. "And we'd just get so fucking sad. That's depressing isn't it?"

"I think that's normal."

She shook her head. "It's not. And a few times, I thought about it, about me and Fred. Could I do it? Live this small life in this small town with him?"

Hiram gulped, glad Hermione was too distracted by the view to notice. "You and Fred start dating again?"

Her head snapped back at him. "Oh god no. He's still with Mary."

Hiram scoffed. "Mary's a ten hour drive away."

"And Fred makes the trip every damn month to go see her." Hermione waved her finger in his face. "We will not put down Fred tonight. He's the only thing that kept me sane this past year."

"Right." Hiram shook his head and gulped again. "Right. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make any accusations."

Hermione pursed her lips, but smiled. "You were though. So rest assured, Fred and I might get dinner at Pops or see the occasionally movie together, but our relationship is entirely platonic. He's head over heels for Mary." Her eyes wandered out the window again. "That being said…"

Hiram exhaled. "You've thought about - about rekindling?"

"Maybe," she said softly. She shook her head slightly and looked back to him. "But I could never do that to Mary. And Fred would never. But if they ever broke up and opportunity arose… I don't know what I'd do." She tilted her head and regarded Hiram. "I don't think I could ever feel with Fred what I feel here with you right now."

"What do you feel?"

"I feel," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I feel I could wake up next to you everyday for the rest of my life and never know what was coming." She opened her eyes again. "In a good way of course. A life with Fred - or a life with anyone in Riverdale really - would be safe, complacent. But it'd never be satisfying. I feel more free, happier right now than I have since graduation. It's not about being in this huge apartment on the Upper West Side, okay? It's about being here with you. Boys like Fred? Salt of the earth. He's going to be so happy doing the same thing for the rest of his life. I mean, the boy's biggest dream is to become mayor of that dinky little town someday. Which, that's fine, that's great, but that's never going to be for me, you know? I want to grow. I want to be a big fish in the ocean and I need to be with someone who wants the same thing. I know those three years you spent in Riverdale were the longest three years of your life."

"Of course they weren't." He took her hand and squeezed. "I met some great people. You helped the years fly by."

"Hiram, what I'm asking is," she squeezed his hand back, "will you take me back? Can I stay?"

He laughed. "God Hermione. Of course you can stay."

She bit her lip. "Yeah?"

"Yes, of course." He nodded. "Yes, yes, yes. I want you here. It's like," he reached out and took her chin, "you're what I've been waiting for. I mean, New York is great. I love going to Columbia, but -"

"But it's not enough, right?"

He nodded. "It's never enough. New York girls are nice, but my heart still belongs to some small town girl in Riverdale."

She reached out and put a finger on his nose. Despite the slur in her voice, her hand eye coordination still seemed alright. "Don't you dare call me a small town girl, Hiram Lodge. Big fish, big town. City. Ocean. Whatever."

He removed her hand gently from his face and held it. "My apologies, Ms. Reyes. My heart belongs to a big fish from Riverdale. Is that more romantic?"

"It is actually." She leaned back towards him, sitting up on her knees again. "You have no idea how I've missed you." She slung one leg over his body so she was straddling him. His hand was still holding hers and she grabbed his other wrist. "Lets pick up right from where we left off."

Her lips - plump, luscious, coated in a dark lipstick - met his in an instant. He felt her tongue coax his mouth open and the whiskey hit him all all once. He pulled back.

"What?" Hermione asked, eyes wide. "What did I -?"

"You're drunk."

She scoffed. "As if. I hardly drank any more than you."

"You drank my shot," he laughed. "Look, you're tipsy at least. Really tipsy. We don't need to do this tonight. You're here. That's what matter."

Hermione pouted, sticking her lips out as far as they'd go. "I came all this way. It's not like you don't want to." She giggled and began grinding her hips against his. "It's starting to feel an awful lot like you want to."

He took her hips and moved her back a few inches, earning him an eye roll. "I will offer you one better. You hungry?"

"I could eat," she admit. "I got a soft pretzel when I got off the bus, but that's all I've eaten since lunch."

"Lets go get something in your stomach. I'll show you some real New York spots. We have a million options."

"It's nearly midnight. What, is there a diner around?"

He laughed. "Hermione, this is the city that never sleeps. Whatever you want, we can get."

"Honestly? You'll laugh if I tell you what I want."

"Don't say sex."

She squatted his arm and he caught her hand. "Jerk. Just don't laugh at me." She wrinkled her nose. "You know nothing tastes better than a cheeseburger and chocolate shake after you've just done a bunch of shots on an empty stomach."

"You came all the way to New York and you want a cheeseburger?"

"I do." She nodded. "God, my taste is garbage, but my mouth is watering right now."

He took her face in his hands. "This is what we're going to do. You're going to go to my room and change into some dry clothes. And then I am going to get you the best damn cheeseburger you have ever had."

"Milkshake too?"

"The milkshake will be second best to Pop Tate's, but still pretty damn good. Deal?"

She nodded, dark hair bobbing up and down. "Deal."

He gave her a quick kiss right before she jumped off his lap. She picked up the larger of the two suitcases before turning back to him. "Don't you have class in the morning though?"

"Don't worry about that. I've gotten by on less sleep."

She took a few steps before taking off at a run towards the bedroom. "All I need is five minutes!" She slammed the door to his bedroom behind her.

Hiram resisted pinching his leg. Could it be real? Did Hermione Reyes really take a bus over a hundred miles just to get him back? How did he get so lucky?

Maybe Hal had it right all along in school. He always told him he tried too hard. If he just left Hermione alone, stopped bugging her all the time, if she really, really wanted him - she'd find her way back to him.

He never dreamed after all this time, she'd chase him to New York though.

He waited five minutes. Then another ten. The clock struck midnight before he softly knocked on the door of his bedroom.

"Hermione?" he asked as he let the door creak open. "You okay?"

The lights were still on. Hermione's suitcase was open on his bed and she was curled up right next to it, her shoes discarded on the floor. He could almost laugh.

Hiram closed the suitcase and laid it on the floor. He gently turned Hermione so her head was on the pillow, and pulled a blanket over her body.

He considered climbing into bed right next to her - she had literally just thrown herself at him back there on the couch after all - but it didn't feel right. Some drunk confession of love didn't necessarily mean they were back together. He'd sleep on the couch tonight. After all, they had tomorrow morning to figure out where their relationship was. And the rest of their lives to figure out everything else.