On the walk home from MJ's apartment, Peter sends the official request to Kate to follow her on Insta. Because Kate is working, she cannot check her phone for a while longer. She gets off at 7, but Peter does not know that. He simply lies in wait, hanging out at his apartment, checking his phone anxiously every few minutes, hoping for something positive, but never getting it.
After Kate clocks out for the day, her immediate thought is to get home to her apartment. In the crazed New York evening, she does not even think about her phone until she is back home at her apartment, on the couch, watching TV, with a bowl of boxed mac and cheese in her lap. It is now that she realizes that she has a whole day's worth of notifications to catch up on from her various outlets.
She goes through her notifications, deleting a few, viewing a few. Being a member of Gen Z in 2025, she has tons of notifications to look through. Eventually, she comes across the follow request from Peter. She thinks she feels her heart stop for a split-second then continue beating. Maybe Peter really IS interested in her. There is only one way to find out. She accepts the request, then almost immediately goes to say hi to Peter.
"No, no, no," she tells herself. "Play it cool. Don't let him think you're clingy or a dork. Eh. I'm kind of a dork."
While she waits a few minutes before sending the first message, it is actually Peter who sends the first message. She checks it out and it is actually a full paragraph. It is clear to her that he started writing it the moment she accepted his request, or had it stored away just in case. Either way, the message reads:
"Look Kate heres the thing: I like you and youre pretty nice. i want to get to know u more. if that sounds too creepy or too advanced lmk. i just really like being around u, u give off good vibes. Hope u feel the same way. if not, plz lmk and we can pretend this never happened. lmk."
In Peter's apartment, his palms are sweaty and his breaths are rapid. He is anxious and uptight, but in a different way than he thought he would be; he almost hopes she says no. A part of him does not want to be with Kate, because then that feels like cheating on MJ when he loves MJ more. But he does like Kate, and maybe there is something there in a relationship between the two of them. Maybe he can grow to love her, and his love for MJ might fade.
Peter thinks to himself, "Either way, why am I doing this? Do I like Kate because she's Kate, or because she's someone? Literally anyone? Do I want a girlfriend, or just a friend? Man, I've gotta do some introspection."
Meanwhile, Kate, still wanting to seem cool, waits a minute or two before beginning to type her response. When she sends it, she thinks it is a good response, but time will tell. She replies:
"Youre not being fast. I like you too. Is it weird if I say youre charming? Thats the best word I can think of to describe you. Lets meet up somewhere soon. Maybe Saturday the 4th? In 2 days? We could go anywhere. I like you too."
Eased now that she and Peter have a correspondence and conversation has actually begun, Kate breathes a sigh of relief. She eats her dinner and remembers to give Lucky some mac and cheese, too, while she waits for Peter to respond.
When Peter sees Kate's response, he is both excited and disappointed. He is excited at the prospect of a relationship with Kate, now that he believes he can keep Peter and Spidey separate from each other. He is disappointed that now he cannot be with MJ. He knew it could never work in the first place, and he wants to keep her safe. From what he can tell, MJ could not defend herself against a Spider-Man enemy as well as Kate could. That is the thing, though: Spider-Man has no major enemies at this time. Nonetheless, Peter does not want to risk anything happening to MJ. He wants to be with someone, though, and that someone is a girl he thinks is awesome and can defend herself, or even fight, should the time come. Peter is going to do all he can, though, to keep such a time from ever occurring. He texts back:
"Great now theres pressure for me to be prince charming. that day works for me where do u want 2 meet?"
Kate gets Peter's message and literally pumps her fist in excitement. She quickly texts back:
"I dont care where we go, do you have someplace in mind?"
Peter does indeed have an idea in mind. He believes that it would be easy to let go of MJ if he went to the same place where he and she last knew each other before the spell. He could mentally say goodbye there whilst starting a new relationship with somebody else. He suggests:
"We could go see the statue of liberty. could be fun."
Kate, like everyone else, is in the dark about Peter being Spider-Man. With the events of NWH not having taken place terribly long ago, she jokes, "Im down, but first make sure theres no lizards or sand guys or electric guys trying to kill spider man lol."
When he sees the latest message, Peter panics. He thinks that maybe Kate has deciphered his identity. Out of extreme caution, he texts back:
"Why bring up spider man? lol"
He threw in the "lol" to try to sound more lighthearted than he is actually feeling.
The plan works. Kate sees this as playful banter and replies:
"Well he was there wasnt he? Hes a pretty cool dude."
Peter, still in defense mode, texts back:
"Pretty cool? Do u know him or something?"
Kate still believes this to be a pleasant conversation with the boy she likes. She responds:
"I wish. He did help me beat up some thugs once tho."
Peter breathes a sigh of relief. Kate does not know he is Spider-Man. He types back:
"That mustve been cool. hope ur doin ok since."
Kate replies:
"Yeah its all good. it takes more than a gun and a web to rattle me. i worked with hawkeye, so im all good."
One of Kate's favorite things in the world is to brag about how she worked with Hawkeye. With the Tracksuit Mafia fights still pretty recent, she has not had many opportunities. It is not like she blurts out the fact to random strangers; she does tell people close to her, though. Here, however, she sees a chance to impress Peter.
Peter sees a chance to continue conversation and further obscure his Spider-Man persona. He replies:
"hawkeye, huh? imagine working with an avenger. i could never know what that is like."
Kate giggles a little to herself when she sees Peter's most recent message. She responds:
"Its pretty cool. him and me just shoot down mafia guys with arrows. Maybe you saw it on the news?"
In fact, Peter HAS seen it in the news. Again separating himself from the Avengers, he replies:
"Yeah i have. that was u? am i the one going out with an avenger? im totally fangirling over here lol."
Kate feels proud of herself and sees a chance to suggest something that might be a good date. She responds:
"I'll bring my bow and some arrows to the statue of liberty on the 4th. I can show you some tricks. Maybe you can try some yourself. Just dont break my bow."
Peter has actually never tried archery before. He likes the idea and agrees with Kate's thought that it is a good concept for a date. He texts back:
"yeah sure its a plan! sounds like fun. how hard can it be?"
Kate immediately responds with:
"Hard. Very hard. It takes practice."
Peter replies, saying:
"might as well start now"
At this point, Kate does not know how to respond, and Peter is waiting for a response. The result is both of them staring at their phones for a few minutes, hoping the other will continue the conversation. Neither does.
After a few minutes of waiting, Peter puts his phone up and plays video games. He is hopeful that maybe he will get a text from Kate soon, though doubtful after the last few minutes. Thinking about his plan, he questions if he will really be happy. Right now, his heart is with MJ. He is hopeful Kate will steal it. But as his thoughts revert to MJ, he realizes he has still not officially broken up with her, if they can be considered together in the first place. Maybe he could spare both of their feelings by just not seeing MJ again, literally never seeing her again. But that would be dishonest, because he is not telling her why he has left her, and he cannot treat her that way. He has to find a way to say, this was fun, but we can't be together. Before that, though, he needs to find MJ. This late in the day, he decides that finding MJ can be the future's worry.
Speaking of telling people things, he wonders if he should tell Kate that he walked MJ home and kissed her. He deems that he should not tell Kate anything about MJ until he and MJ are broken up, so Kate doesn't worry that he's being unfaithful. He did go out with another girl and kiss her after hanging out with Kate. Did he cheat on Kate? He needs to find out if him and Kate are officially a thing, deciding that it is best to talk about that in-person. Either way, he cannot tell Kate about MJ until he and MJ have been broken up for a long time.
Kate is more or less not worried about the lack of sustained conversation. Does she want to keep talking? Of course. Does she have to, now that they have a plan? Not really. She puts Peter on the backburner, watching TV for the time being. She is happy she has a plan, and she is happy to be with Peter.
Elsewhere in New York, MJ makes a choice. She needs to make sure that Kate knows Peter belongs to her. Wanting to avoid another argument with a friend ("If I can even call her that," she thinks), she decides to text:
"Hey Kate whats up"
Kate gets a notification and checks it. It's MJ. This is the first time MJ has reached out since their fight. Kate texts back:
"Watching tv wbu"
MJ replies:
"Got home from work and studied. Peter walked me home."
Kate is not happy about this. She needs to know the exacts of the situation. Her reply is:
"Walked you home? What exactly do you mean?"
MJ sees her chance to assert herself as Peter's favorite. She types:
"He walked me home and we held hands and kissed so yeah, i think hes mine"
Kate is furious. In a mad scramble of typing, she responds:
"What about him and me going out do you not understand? He KISSED you? Can you people stop abandoning and ignoring me? For once?"
MJ responds simply with:
"My b"
Kate wants to try to end MJ's relationship with Peter by forcing MJ away. She texts:
"Peter and I are going out on the 4th. I think we're the thing."
Kate is concerned about the alleged kiss, though. She figures she will confront Peter about it on the date, so she can either voice her relief is there was no kiss and MJ is lying, or so she could yell at him if the kiss did happen.
MJ replies with a picture of an Uno reverse card.
Kate shuts down her phone for the night. Frustrated, not wanting to watch TV and too unfocused to study, she goes to bed but doesn't sleep. She lies there, stewing in her anger at MJ for stealing her boy and mad at Peter for allegedly kissing MJ, after she and Peter had gone about BEFORE MJ entered the dating scene. Instead of rage-texting Peter, she thinks it is best to wait to talk to Peter in-person, so there are no misunderstandings. Besides, she wants to yell it him it this is the truth.
Meanwhile, MJ is proud of herself for confronting Kate. She believes Peter to be hers. If he kissed her, he surely would not go around kissing other girls. She trusts him too much too quickly. Something about him makes her feel at home, protected, and safe. She knows this might just be her painting her own picture of Peter, hoping him to be the perfect boy, but she ignores her thoughts about her thoughts. She really thinks Peter is hers.
Meanwhile, Peter is obviously oblivious to all that. His only thought is to keep him and MJ a secret from Kate until he can break up with MJ officially and be away from MJ for long enough, that the tale of him and MJ being together would not hurt Kate. It would be a thing of the past. Well, at that point, Peter and MJ would be a thing of the past twice. Because he loves MJ, Peter knows he needs to keep her as far away from him as possible.
He puts in his Airpods and listens to "Let Her Go" by Passenger.
The next day, which is Friday, the day before Peter and Kate's date, no one even interacts with another of the love triangle. Peter does some work as Spider-Man, Kate works, and MJ works, all turning over their own thoughts in their mind, only becoming more resolved in their positions.
It is that night, however, when interaction resumes. But not the first interaction that may cross your mind.