Happy Thanksgiving to people in the U.S. who are into that.

When Florence entered the garage, and after the formalities of a greeting, she and Walter stood a good twenty feet apart for a good twenty seconds before moving or speaking. Florence moved to break the ice first. "Hey. So."

"Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Oh, yes, I mean, mostly. "

"Awkward conversation, mostly alright…" Walter tipped his head to the side.

"Yes. But we are friends, right?"

"Of course."

"And you're the most like me. So for matters like this...I feel I should be speaking with you."

"Seems…complicated. But is this something for me, or something you should be talking to Sylvester about, or, you know…" anyone else?

"It's funny you should mention him. Because…I've been thinking about that."

"I am not the best judge, but that doesn't sound good. What did you do?"

She looked offended. "Why are you assuming that I did something?"

"I mean no offense. But that, well, you're…you're a lot like me. And it is usually my fault when something goes wrong with me and Paige, so…so I just assumed…" He cleared his throat. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"You…said you had something awkward to ask me."

"Yes." She shifted her weight. He knew that body language. He had it often. She was uncomfortable. "Sylvester has been married."

"Yes." Walter cocked his head.

"Marriage is a serious thing."

"Y – yes."

"Did…did your sister have any relationships before Sylvester?"

"Not really. I'm sure she had brief, fleeting feelings for people. Much like y – ah, well, anyway, she never really had any serious thoughts, though to be fair I'm not sure she would have shared with me if she did. She got sick when she was very young."

"So they were each other's first loves, really."

"Yes. That I can say absolutely. Are you…" he cocked his head. "Are you jealous of my sister?"

Was she? Florence didn't think that was the right word. She also wasn't sure it would be appropriate to be jealous of a dead woman, though some would probably argue jealousy in and of itself wasn't usually appropriate. "I'm not jealous of her, no. Are…are you jealous of Paige's former partners?"

"No. The one she had since we knew each other, absolutely. I had just come to terms with the fact that I loved her and it was difficult, to say the least, to watch her with someone else. But during our relationship I never felt that way about people she was with before."

Florence nodded. "And she had more previous relationship experience than you."

"Oh yes. Extensively."

"Did…that bother you?"

"Ah." Walter gave a slow nod. "I believe I have figured out what is upsetting you in regards to Sylvester."

"Well. I don't think I was exactly trying to hide it."

"You have, I assume, no experience in relationships and you are worried that you will not measure up to him. But no fear. He has had one relationship that can be measured in months. Not – not to diminish his feelings for my sister," he added quickly. "I'm only saying that you cannot let the word married scare you. He and Megan built up a lot of history in their short time together. But they still did not have to discuss things like…children. Jealousy. They didn't have to worry about finances or physical incompatibility. They…"

"Physical incompatibility," Florence said. "Excellent. Another thing for me to stress about."

"My point," Walter said, "is you may have not had to navigate those things. But neither has he. Hell, neither have I or Paige, on some levels. We haven't discussed if we're ever going to have children together, and physical incompatibility, well, let's just say that is very much not a probl – "

"I don't want details!" she held up her hands.

"I was not going to give them." Walter shrugged. "With me and Paige, despite her being the only one of our original group to have never been married, I let my fears over not being good enough for her keep us apart longer than we should have been. In a way, those fears contributed to our breakup. What ended up getting us to a starting point – both times, as a matter of fact – was we knew we loved each other, and the need that that put forth overcame any anxieties we had. Love alone isn't enough to keep a relationship together, that I've come to learn. But it is a start. It is something you do have to have, at least eventually."

"How did you know that you were in love with Paige?"

Walter hesitated. "Really, it was when she dated someone else. She flaunted him a bit, if I may be completely honest. But I almost asked her out, and then I chickened out and basically set her up on a romantic weekend away with this other person. It happened that way because I was afraid, both that she would say no and that she would say yes and then I would mess it up and it would ruin the relationship we had in the first place. After they left for this trip, I realized I was feeling the way I was feeling because I loved her. I started picturing her with him. In all kinds of situations. I realized I wanted that to be me because of the way she made me feel when I was around her, and the way I wanted her to feel around me. And I felt like the biggest idiot in the world for letting her go."

"But you got her back."

"Twice, now." Walter folded his arms, drumming the fingers on his right hand against his left bicep.

"You and she, you were in love before you got together. Just like Happy and Toby. But I'm…"

"Most relationships don't start with such declarations…" he trailed off again. "You aren't in love with Sly like he is with you."

"I'm not. It's not that I don't think I can be. I love spending time with him. He makes me feel…" she stopped, her cheeks turning pink.

"I don't want details either," Walter said quickly.

"Oh, no, I wasn't, I just mean…" she held up her hands. "I mean like those butterflies you get. Looking at him and knowing I can hold his hand, knowing that he isn't repulsed by my touch. Even knowing he has these strong feelings for me, it feels good but it also makes me worried I'm not going to be enough for him."

"I used to think I wasn't enough for Paige. But just like I'm the only one who gets to decide if she's what I want, she's the only one who gets to decide if I'm what she wants."

"But she…" Florence stopped, but not quickly enough. "I mean…"

"But she said I wasn't what she wanted." Walter's eyes drifted slightly to the left. They were in the room where it happened. He looked back at the chemist. "But that isn't true anymore. She says it wasn't even true at the time." Giving Florence a small smile, he shrugged. "See? Every relationship is complicated like that. But the point stands. If Sylvester says you're enough for him, then you are."

"We're just so romantically unbalanced," Florence said quietly, looking down.

"Then take matters into your own hands. Figure out how to make it more balanced."

She shifted her weight again. "Can I ask another potentially awkward question?"

He didn't say no, so she continued before she could chicken out. "Before Paige, how experienced were you…in the whole…like the…intimacy…department?"

He shrugged again. "Not terribly. I had a bit. I'd gone through the motions a time or two. I knew where everything was. Even if your experience is extensive, there's always a learning curve with a new person. I knew it was important to communicate what you needed and to ask if you weren't sure. I also knew – thankfully, we both did – that practice makes perfect, or pretty damn close to it." He stopped. "I'm sorry. This is a little awkward."

"I know. I don't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You are quite likely more experienced in that department than Sylvester. Just don't make him feel like it's a make or break for the relationship, at least not right away."

Florence did not even consider telling Walter the truth in that regard.

"And don't let numbers be intimidating, for either of you. Paige's is three times mine, though neither of ours is particularly high - oh, I probably shouldn't have told you that. Keep it to this conversation?"

She blinked. "I cannot imagine another conversation coming up where that would add anything to it."

He chuckled. "This is definitely the most awkward conversation I think we've had."

"You think this is more awkward then when I said tha…" she cocked her head. "Actually no, you know what? I'm gonna take it."

Walter met Paige within paces of the door the following morning, handing her a small stack of crisp papers secured with a staple perfectly centered in the upper left corner.

"Morning," she said, leaning in to brush her lips against his. "What's this?"

"Florence came over last night," he said. "She wanted to talk about some things."

"…okay."

"Yes, so. In the interest of being honest…here." He handed her the stapled papers. "The minutes."

Paige gave him an odd look as she took them, then her eyes turned down to the front page. "What…" she trailed off, scanning and then flipping to the second, mumbling to herself. Then she looked up at Walter in alarm. "Walter!"

She didn't appear pleased. This threw him off. "Y – yes?"

"Walter, this is private stuff she's telling you."

"Yes. I want to emphasize that I did not encourage…" He stopped when she held up a hand. "What am I missing?"

She handed back the papers. "Walter, I really appreciate you letting me know she was over here. But you don't need to share every detail. Especially when from what I gathered, she told you things in confidence."

"Oh. Should I tell her now about this?"

She put a hand on his chest. "How about you just take it one lesson at a time, okay?"

"Okay. I just…I just want to be friends with her. But I don't want you to be scared. Are you? Upset, I mean."

Paige sighed. "I mean…she liked you not that long ago. My insecurities over her were a large part of our breakup. That doesn't go away quickly or easily. But I know nothing is going on between you, so that's just something that I have to figure out how to get over. I'm not upset with you. Or with her."

Walter held the papers back out. "You should at least look…" he paged through them. "Look here. I say some things about how I feel about you. You like hearing those things."

Paige's eyes moved left to right, reading the paragraph where he talked about how he had known he loved her. "Aw, Walter," she said, smiling. Her eyes trailed farther down, then shot up to his face.

"W…what?"

"You told her my number?" She said incredulously.

"I realized as soon as I said so it was a mistake. And she doesn't know the exact number. I apologize. And see? I brought it up in the minutes I gave to you, so I am not hiding it."

Paige shrugged, tossing the papers to the side. "Fair enough. Mama's got game; can't be embarrassed about that."

"Well. I would not call six people 'game'."

"Hey now. I rocked six worlds. It's all relative, anyway."

"Whatever you say," he said teasingly. "You really think it was six worlds, though?"

"Teenage boys all suck at sex. But they think all teenage girls are good at it. I guarantee you I was terrible but the only person who didn't have to think so didn't think so." She lifted an eyebrow suggestively, her fingers playing at one of the buttons on his shirt. "I like to think I've gotten considerably better at it."

"Mmmm, I would say so."

"Yeah? You would?"

Walter took a small step backward as she took one closer, preventing their bodies from touching. She gave him a curious look. "Paige, the others will be here in…"

She smirked, making up the step and tugged, opening his shirt and running a hand over his chest, trailing it tantalizingly down to his navel before moving back upward. He exhaled slowly through his nose. "Walter, we just got back together, let's not be unrealistic about where either of our stamina is at right now." She looked at her phone. "Happy and Toby have visitation with Tad. You know Cabe will be in line at the coffeehouse. We can hear the pipes when Florence gets out of the shower and we know Sly's bus schedule. Walter. We have at least seventeen minutes."

Walter gave himself a mental once over. "Yeah, you're right."

"Doable?"

"Totally doable."