Riley and Lucas made it to their reservation just on time, and as Lucas spoke to the hostess, Riley glanced around at the atmosphere. She had turned down her hearing aid in advance, expecting the place to be loud and not wanting all the ambient noise, but this place seemed quiet. There was a pianist playing off to the side on a raised platform, and most of the people seemed to be simply enjoying the music. She reached up and adjusted her hearing aid up, hoping to get some more ambient noise.

"Right this way, sir," the hostess said, and Lucas touched Riley's arm, motioning to her to follow the hostess, and she smiled, taking Lucas's elbow as they headed to a table near the back of the dining room.

The hostess handed them two menus and smiled, saying something with raised eyebrows, but with the slightly dim atmosphere Riley didn't quite catch all of the words.

After the waitress left, Lucas signed, 'She said she would give us some time to look over the menu.'

'Your signing has improved so much,' Riley noted, smiling a little as she thought about the boy she had met just a few months earlier, who wanted to learn how to say 'nice to meet you', and had to use a notepad (and Maya) to converse with her.

'I practice a lot,' Lucas explained. 'And I practice with you. The more time I spend with you-'

'The better you'll get,' Riley finished. She met eyes with him and felt her smile grow unconsciously. 'Your lips aren't moving either.'

'We're alone,' Lucas pointed out. 'Why would I need to talk out loud?'

It was such a small gesture, but it made Riley feel so happy for some reason. Like Lucas was purposefully putting himself into her world.

It made all the difference as they looked over their menus, Riley's hand finding Lucas's across the table as they squeezed each other's fingers, simply happy to have the comfort of the touch.

Maya was desperate to tell Riley how excited she was - and how much it meant to her that Riley endorsed her relationship with Josh. But she knew Riley would be out on her own date until late, and as much as she was dying to talk to her, she didn't want to interrupt Riley's special night with Lucas.

So, to kill time, Maya unpacked her duffle bag from the weekend trip, setting her candle on her dresser to remind herself to give it to her mom. She shoved dirty clothes into her hamper and dumped her toiletries into the drawers in her bathroom, then paused as she caught sight of herself in the mirror, mind racing to think about tomorrow evening and what she would wear. She would need to ask to borrow Riley's makeup too; she didn't own any of her own.

Going back into her bedroom, she opened her closet and looked through her clothing, chewing on her lip. Suddenly, she was nervous about this.

She had spent so many years building this moment up in her mind, that she was terrified it wouldn't be all she had imagined. She liked Josh, a lot, and he had said he liked her. But what if she ruined it all now? She really wanted this to work out.

Maybe this was too fast.

As if he had been reading her mind, her phone lit up with a text message from Josh, and she opened it, her heart pounding.

I was thinking something casual, no pressure, nothing fancy for tomorrow. Maybe get some dinner and a movie? On me, of course.

Maya smiled, feeling relief uncoiling her stomach.

That sounds perfect. What should I wear?

Bubbles appeared as Josh typed.

Whatever you're comfortable in. Just being with you will make it special for me.

It seemed like he always knew just what to say.

Sounds good. Can't wait!

Lucas ordered dessert for them to share - Maya had told him that Riley's favorite was chocolate lava cake, and the chocolate lava cake at this place looked delicious and big enough to share - and swallowed nervously. He had waited for dessert because he was nervous for what he wanted to say.

Before he could start, though, Riley picked up the little bag she had been carrying around and handed it across the table to him, signing, 'Merry Christmas, Lucas.'

He pulled out the tissue paper and lifted the jar from the bag, reading the fancy label that said 'Riley' in calligraphy. He opened it, and, realizing it was a candle, breathed in the scent that, somehow, smelled exactly like Riley.

'It's perfect,' Lucas signed, beaming. 'Now I can have your essence,' he fingerspelled, not knowing the sign, 'in my room.'

'If you want my essence in your room,' Riley joked, 'you could have just asked me to come over.'

'Really?' Lucas asked, and Riley's face flushed.

'I was kidding,' she assured him, adding, 'unless you want me to?'

'I'd love for you to come over,' Lucas admitted. 'Which actually brings me into my next thing.' He reached into the pocket of his coat which was draped around the chair behind him, pulling out the little box and sliding it across the table to her. 'Merry Christmas.'

Riley untied the ribbon and lifted the top of the box off to view the silver necklace with the tiny pendant of a hand with the thumb, pointer finger and pinkie raised - the casual sign for 'I love you' in ASL. Her face broke into a wide smile. 'It's perfect,' she signed, pulling it from the box to clasp it around her neck. 'I'll never take it off.'

'That's good, because it shouldn't tarnish,' Lucas assured her with a smile. 'And it's also good because,' he took a deep breath, 'I wanted to ask if you'd be my girlfriend.'

Riley's eyes widened at the question, but she only took a moment before she nodded, her smile growing wide again. 'I'd love to.'

A/N: What if we dated, haha jk. Unless?

I posted chapters to 3 stories today because the other two stories can be controversial so if you don't want to read them, you'll still have Anecdoche! You're welcome my lovely readers. (Please don't spew hate on the other stories, if you want to give constructive criticism great, otherwise keep it to yourself and enjoy the stories you do like instead!)

Yay for Riley and Lucas finally being officially girlfriend/boyfriend! I've got some future scenes already written for them that are very fluffy and I think you'll enjoy them. Joshaya I'm still working on, but their dates will be very fluffy too, don't worry! I hope this chapter gave you guys some preview on the Joshaya plotline :)

I'm sorry I've been MIA, we finally had a (masked) memorial for my mom so I had a lot to deal with around that, and I was behind on homework, got a cold, and just yesterday got the second COVID vaccine! There was a lot going on :)

Kisses,

C