Summary: A video of Henry's errant jump into Lake Steadman surfaces online, which Eliza immediately catches. She thinks about whether or not she should push the video deeper into the realms of social media. What happens when Henry finds out that a video exists and it's gone viral. Big nods to 1x05 (Even Hell Has Two Bars) and 1x13 (Wishing Well); based also on this tweet and subsequent replies. Eliza is on Team Freddy and Henry is on Team Salad. I miss seeing Heliza, and I'm borrowing Emily Kapnek's characters for awhile.

Chapter 1 of 2 : I LIKE YOU

HH: "It's over ..."

ED: "Ehhhhh, it's not a big deal. I mean, I can't check, but I bet it's not even trending. So, you know, the only people who know about you jumping into a forbidden lake are your boss, his family, ... the Montecito branch of the EPA, and maybe, Lake Steadman ..."

Henry celebrated the removal of his arm cast by meeting up with the "skate guys". Eliza had expressed reservations big time, but he wasn't so stupid to try again, would he. Seemed consistently boring, perhaps. But it was also realistic, most definitely.

What was also keeping things real was their Saturday morning phone conversation.

"Hey …"

"Hey, H-Dawg, how are you?"

He heard rustling noises on the other end of the line. "I'm good, thank you. I apologize for being abrupt, but I wanted to ask …"

"Hold on a sec. Hey, those are my boots! Lady, get off me! Sorry, Henry …"

He looked down at his mobile phone. "Where are you, Eliza?"

She sounded a little winded. "I'm on the hunt at the Glendale Galleria. Got a DM on the tweets about a hella good sale on shoes. And yeah, I really did tell a suburban mom to go suck on some cheap-ass clogs …"

He laughed. "Nice. Hey, I wanted to ask a favor."

He heard nothing and thought the connection got cut. "Hello? Eliza, you still there?"

"Uh, yeah. You do realize you're going to owe me. Like, huge."

He sighed for effect. "Yes, I know. I was hoping you were going to let it go, but clearly, you are not."

"Hell, no."

"Okay, I'm having second thoughts; maybe I should reconsider …"

"Wait, wait! I'm being serious now. Ask away."

"Now that my arm cast is off, I have to go back to the skatepark."

"Henry, you promised!" After his epic fail at the skate park to end up in the hospital with a broken arm, he promised her he would never skateboard or pretend to skateboard again, ersatz lessons for Kevin Whitaker notwithstanding.

"Yes, I know I promised. And no, I'm not going out to skate. My car's in the shop for the weekend. I'm gonna take a taxi and head out one last time for a chat with the skaters. Could you please pick me up at the skatepark, say, at about 1?"

After reluctantly agreeing to her terms including trips together to Soul Cycle and (good god) a day in a mud bath at the spa of her choosing, he heard her very enthusiastic squeal before saying goodbye.

At about a quarter after one, she arrived at the skateboard park to find him in conversation with the boys. They all cast glances in her direction, and she wondered what in the world they were talking about. He said his goodbyes, and headed in her direction with a content look on his face.

She threw him a look. "What was thaaat about?"

Henry was taken aback by her question. "Excuse me?"

"You were all like, hush hush, and you kept throwing these looks in my direction. Which was weird. Were you talking smack about me?"

"What? No, of course not!"

"Okay, seriously, were you talking about me at all? Seems like you were …"

He stepped into the passenger side, and shut the door behind him. "No, it was nothing."

Eliza peered at Henry, above her sunglasses. He didn't exactly answer her question. Interesting, she thought.

"What? It was nothing."

He was a terrible liar, but unlike their phone conversation that morning, she let it go. She shrugged, and moved onto the topic of her latest find of these super cute boots she found at the Galeria. While she raved about a total shutdown of her competitive bidders, she kept her eyes on the road.

His eyes, however, were on her.

A few days later, Eliza was at home surfing the web to check the latest videos gone viral. Scrolling down the titles, she kept both mental and browser bookmarks on ones she wanted to watch. One immediately caught her eye and she clicked on the title.

It was exactly what she had long suspected.

Because there was no way a nature preserve in a park accessible to people wouldn't be monitored for man-made shenanigans. Like typically from drunk-ass dudes. In this case, one dude who was unfortunately sober. Specifically, a dude who wanted promotion above all else. More specifically, one very naked Henry Higgs.

Ok, the face and head region are coarsely pixellated, but I know that's him. Complete with his "cannonball" yell. And yelllooooo, `cuz hot dayyyyyuuuumn, the man has a fine ass. And yeah, I've seen him naked, sure, but it's not the same thing. Like the time I went totes full-frontal when I showed him the girls and curls. I wonder if he knows about this video. Knowing his boring habits, probably not.

Still, I did get him onto Twitter. But only barely, because we did agree on his username: the_henry_higgs. And even though he nuked his Facebook account, I also got him to join Instagram, and the first shot he put up was his trademark look: stunned silence. Not that he cared all that much, which duh, I know. I still wanted him to try, which he did, if hesitantly, for me. I can't tell if he's really clueless or stubborn, because he's only put up one other `gram. Even if I love that photo, even if I don't know how he managed to take a picture of me leading a sales report in one of our staff meetings. He made me look good. And he made me look smart and competent. All in the same shot. It's like, he really sees me, and sees the best in me. And I know he likes me because we're friends. But somehow I'm thinking there's something more, that maybe, he like likes me. Or something …

But this was a dangerous road to go down, and it wouldn't be very productive, either for her state of the feels or for being unable to do anything substantive about their obvious connection. What she could work on was whether she should tweet the video with a mention and `gram it up with a video-frame. Just so she could give him a like-spike and a follower-bump.

Meh, then again, I'd probably get the bulk of the numbers.

Or not. Watching the video again, she was convinced no one, not even the people at work except for Terence and Saperstein would know it was Henry. And if they somehow saw this video, she didn't think they would spill the beans. But one thing was certain: she couldn't help but embrace the one feature which she couldn't erase from her mind. And just like her own second best physical feature, Henry had a deliciously cute underbutt.

I bet I could trend the shit outta that video. Yeah, I'm gonna retweet this, but leave Henry's name out of it.

Her finger hovered over the "retweet" button.

A reluctant twitch of the nose, a twist of her lips in minor annoyance. Because that inner monologue was speaking to her in Henry's voice. The inner voice was practically shaking its fist at her.

But she shook her head, and gave in to her initial impulse.

She added a comment under the video which read: "a guy who decided to be less boring by jumping unknowingly into a forbidden lake." Some comments sided on the 'ewww', but many complimented the man on his body shape and even gave additional style points for his entry into the lake. She got the hits and clicks, but some were asking who this guy was. She told them to check out user 'the_henry_higgs' on the tweets and grams, even if he did next to nothing on social media.

(Already completed Chapter 2 to be posted here shortly)