When She Didn't Get It
"Really? Just … ice cream?"
Caitlin looked up from her tablet, propped on her pajama-clad knees. "Why? What do you want to do?"
"Something bigger." Cisco sat cross-legged on her bed, still in his glasses and the Incredible Hulk boxers he'd worn to sleep in. "Cuz, you know. It's a milestone."
"It - what?" She looked at the date, just to make sure she hadn't missed some anniversary. Not unless five weeks was a thing, and last she'd checked it wasn't. Besides which, when she'd mentioned in passing last week that it had been a month since their first date, he'd said, "Oh, yeah, I guess. Hey, pass me that seven-eighths hex nut, would you?"
But now he sat blinking at her as if she had suddenly professed herself unable to give him the square root of 1764. "Um. Yeah. It's gonna be our tenth date."
"Really?" She counted on her fingers. "Are you counting when we discovered that place with the raspberry pancakes?"
"The Blue Moon Diner?" He flapped a hand. "Continuation of date number five."
"By that logic, date number five lasted for thirty-six hours."
"Mmm. That was a good date."
She agreed, but kept herself focused on the question at hand. "Okay. So yeah, whatever we do tonight is date number ten, but what am I missing? What does it mean to you?"
"Ten. Double digits. Y'know." He shrugged one shoulder. "It means - relationship."
She blinked slowly. "What?"
"When your number of dates is still in the single digits, you're just dating. Seeing each other. When it turns over to double digits, it's a capital-R relationship." He considered. "Unless the number of weeks since the first date equals or exceeds the number of total dates. In that case, you'd have to determine whether you're just, like, FWBs or casual or hanging out or what. But that's not us because our average is two dates per week, so we beat that … easy… . " He trailed off.
Her mouth had been hanging open for at least a minute.
He shifted, ducking his head and pushing his hair behind his ears. "Unless. Is this going to be a really, really awkward conversation right now?"
"Cisco," she said, baffled. "You didn't - ?"
"Um."
"Cisco, we spend ninety-five percent of our time together. We know more about each other than I think I know about my own family. You've spent the night here four times and I've slept at your place twice and we've been sexually exclusive from the beginning. When we're not together, I can't go to sleep until you text me and in the morning, I send you a text before I've even gotten out of bed. I've been considering this a capital-R relationship for awhile now."
"You have? You do?"
"I had no idea you didn't." She went hot all over. "Do you do all that with every person you date?" He was such a warm and giving person, she thought with sudden horror. What if that really was par for the course?
He pulled off his glasses and started fiddling with the earpieces. "Just the ones I really wanna get to the tenth date with."
She stared at the top of his bent head. After a moment, he looked up, his eyes wide and frank. Whatever he saw in her eyes made his shoulders relax.
Of course he didn't. Of course this was more for him. She knew that. She'd seen him date before. A guy named Darren when he'd first moved here. Then - what had been her name? Lydia? - for about a month before the explosion. He'd never been like this with either of them.
"So," she said.
"So," he said.
She chewed her lip. "I think. I think we're in the same place, here."
"I think we've been in the same place, we've just called it different things."
She put her tablet aside and crawled across the bed until she could settle in the cradle of his legs. His arms came around her. She put her hands up to his face and kissed him, the kind of kiss you gave your boyfriend on a Saturday morning, in your sun-washed bedroom, in your unmade bed, while you were still in your pajamas.
That kind of kiss.
When it ended, he rested his forehead against hers and smiled. She couldn't actually see his mouth, because they were so close, but she could see the crinkles around his eyes and feel the way his cheeks rounded under her hands. She smiled back.
"Okay," she said. "Okay. For our first capital-R relationship date, what do you think we should do? If not ice cream."
"I was actually thinking county fair."
"County … fair."
"Yeah, it'll be awesome! We'll eat fried things, we'll make out on the ferris wheel, I'll win stuffed animals for you in impressive demonstrations of skill."
She hugged him, burying her giggles in his neck. However they defined their relationship, he was still Cisco.