Dusk falls, followed by a cool, still evening. The cherry trees that line Kent’s backyard barely shift at all, and the candles he put out don’t even flicker, but burn with a steady glow. After a dinner that was impressive even by Kent’s standards, we all moved to sit outside. Kent pulled his foldout table from the garage and settled it with a linen tablecloth, pinned down by our wine glasses, Aiden’s cup of iced tea, and a dusty bottle containing a red vintage that I can’t imagine how long Kent’s been holding onto. Ellen has been sent up to bed.

The last hour or so of post-dinner conversation has passed by in a pleasant trance borne of delicious food and fragrant summer air and the peaceful chirping of crickets. Occasionally disturbed by a burst of laughter from the group.

“So there I am,” Gabby is saying, swirling her wine, “At the reelection campaign event. The regular office staff wasn’t supposed to be there, we can’t participate in campaign stuff, but hell, we helped coordinate the thing. We didn’t want to miss it!”

“Why should you? That’s a stupid rule,” I answer.

“It’s a whole thing about keeping the work of the actual political office separate from the campaign work, but we figured, hey. Who would notice us in the crowd? We were wearing the same campaign t-shirts as everybody else, we were just walking around enjoying ourselves. Then I get a call from Betty, our chief of staff, and she’s going: I’m watching the event on TV right now and I see you and Maggie in campaign t-shirts in the background! Get off camera before someone else notices!”

“Oh, no,” Kent says.

“Obviously, we panicked and scrambled. What was the result? A clip of someone from the campaign being interviewed on live TV, and then suddenly Maggie and me throwing our hands up to hide our faces and rushing off-screen in the background.”

Everyone laughs, and Gabby groans, like it still pains her.

“Did anyone notice?” Aiden asks.

“Only Betty, thankfully. She gave us a lot of shit about panicking on air. Told us that we needed to develop some sangfroid if we were going to stay in the field, blah blah, a whole long lecture. At the end, she burst out laughing and told us that we’d looked like idiots.” Gabby takes another sip of wine. “Luckily that was early in my career, and it was a super small-time campaign. It could have been bad.” She looks to Kent, smiling. “Kent, I have to say, that dinner was something special.”

“Not too rich?” he asks, folding his elbows onto the table.

“No such thing!” Gabby insists. “Especially after so long on the road, hitting Wendy’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And this wine.”

“I thought about going in for some champagne,” he says, twisting his hand around his glass, “But I didn’t know if you were a fan.”

“Oh, of course.” She leans back in her seat, a warm look on her face. “I love champagne. It’s romantic, all that subtlety and finesse that goes into creating it. Another of life’s blessings to take gratefully.” She tips her glass at Kent. “Plus, you can imagine you’re on the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay.”

“Naturellement,” Kent says, and Gabby laughs. Aiden and I exchange a glance across the table. Aiden is clearly suppressing a grin. I’m not sure what to make of this night anymore. I thought maybe Gabby wasn’t interested, but the way they keep looking at each other... I can’t help but think that I was wrong.

Kent seems to have shed the nerves that were plaguing him at the beginning of the evening. He’s watching Gabby and listening to her with rapt attention, matching her jokes and her references to things I’ve never even heard of, like the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay, whatever that is. I thought that smooth, heartthrob-of-high-school Kent was in retirement, but I was wrong.

“You two better watch out with that line of conversation, or Ellen is gonna want to sample some champagne, too,” Aiden warns.

“That’s true,” Gabby says, turning her attention to Aiden. “But curiosity is good for kids. She’s clearly a very bright child, absorbs things like a sponge! I get the impression that she would taste the champagne and end up conducting her own vendange.”

“If only I could get her to put that kind of instant fascination towards school,” Kent says, running a hand over his beard. “We’ve been at war about this summer reading list, and her teachers weren’t exactly happy with her performance last year, either. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but…”

Gabby looks surprised.

“Does she not like her teachers?”

“I think it’s more that the teachers are frustrated with her.” Kent frowns. “They tell me she’s disruptive, but when I press them on it, they just say she asks too many questions. Even when she’s trying, it doesn’t seem to go well. They gave her a report to do about space for her science class, and for once she was excited about it. I thought she did stellar. She did some research, and she worked really hard. Her teacher failed her on it because it wasn’t in the right format, then asked me if she had plagiarised it, because it was better than all of her other work. She was so hurt. I’ve barely been able to get her to do anything since.”

Gabby clicks her tongue.

“Sounds like she has the wrong teachers. Who can do good work without a good teacher?”

“Is that it, though?” Kent peers into his wine glass, suddenly embarrassed. “Our public schools in Ketterbridge are pretty well-ranked, at least within the state. The teachers have to do a ton of certification programs.”

“True, but a good teacher isn’t defined by their certifications.” Gabby leans forward, and I can tell from the shift in her low voice that this is something she’s passionate about. “A good teacher is generous, and actually cares about the topic they teach. They don’t punish children for being different. Believe me, I should know.”

“Have you been a teacher?” Aiden asks.

“No.” Gabby’s eyes flit to him. “I was just… different.” She clears her throat and takes a sip of wine. “The point is, Ellen is clearly eager for answers, and that’s not a bad thing. Far from it. If she doesn’t learn like other children, well - that doesn’t diminish her intelligence. Sounds to me like she’s an ocean, and they want to turn her into something more manageable, like a swimming pool. Maybe it gets her bad grades, but I think it’s good that she won’t let them.”

Kent glows. Compliments directed at him are basically nothing, but say something nice about Ellen…

“It’s getting a little dark out here,” Aiden says. “I think I have another candle upstairs.”

I see where he’s going with this.

“I’ll help you find it,” I tell him, getting to my feet. We head together for the stairs to Aiden’s apartment, leaving Kent and Gabby alone at the table. I wait until he shuts the sliding glass door after us to say anything. “Jesus. The eyes those two are making at each other. Should we have left, though? If Gabby wants us both there?”

“Eh, let’s give them at least a little bit of time together.” Aiden starts shifting things around on the old desk, looking for the candle. He extracts it from under a pile of work papers and dusts it off. “Got a lighter?”

“Kent’s is on the table.”

We step outside and find that voices are drifting up to us.

“We’ll have to do this again sometime,” Gabby is saying. “We did a nice dinner, now we’ll have to go get the kind of takeout that’s so greasy the bag tears. Then eat it in the parking lot.”

Kent’s laugh sounds warm and relaxed.

“You’re on,” he says. “Maybe next time it can be just the two of us.”

Aiden, who had been about to descend the steps, stops and swings around, looking at me with his eyebrows raised. We both hesitate.

“That… sounds like you’re asking me on a date,” Gabby says.

Aiden points to his door, then to downstairs, and I hold my palms out in an I-don’t-know way.

“Would that be a bad thing?” Kent asks. “If I was?”

There’s a long pause, during which Aiden and I stand frozen. I’m just starting to wince when Gabby speaks again.

“Kent… there’s a reason I wanted Jamie and Aiden here tonight. It’s because I didn’t want you to think that this was a date.”

Oh, no, I mouth at Aiden, who is cringing so hard that his entire face is screwed up.

“Oh,” Kent says.

“I’ve gotta get down there and save him,” I whisper, moving to push past Aiden, but he grabs me by the arm and shakes his head.

“Have I been misunderstanding things?” Kent’s deep voice is steady, but I can only imagine what’s going on in his brain right now. “Should I not have asked you out?”

“Not at all,” Gabby replies. “I was… hoping you might, actually.” I hear a movement, something like Kent shifting in his chair, and she continues quickly. “But there’s a conversation I always have with people before I’ll go on a date with them. Mostly because I don’t like wasting my time.”

“Okay. I’ve got all night. What do you want to talk about?”

There’s a pause.

“You don’t remember me from high school, do you?”

Another pause, this one longer than the first.

“Gabby, I’m so sorry. I wanted to say something about it, but I’m so fucking embarrassed. I have a pretty good memory, and I just don’t understand how I could ever have known you and forgotten you. We didn’t even have that big of a class-”

“Kent, it’s okay. Really. I’m not mad about it. I didn’t even expect you to, and I mean that, but it does relate to what I want to talk about.”

“It’s been eating me up,” Kent admits. “I told the guys when you first came back, Soto sounded familiar, but not Gabrielle Soto. But I realized I was thinking of somebody else, a guy in our year, he also had that last name."

“Oh.” Gabby’s voice grows softer. “So you do remember me.”

The third pause is the longest yet.

“I... figured you two might be related,” Kent finally says.

“There is no two, only me. I don’t go by that name anymore, obviously.” I hear what sounds like someone setting down their wine glass. “I thought you might figure it out on your own. I know I look different, but-”

“No, it’s not how you look. I mean - of course you look different, but it’s not that. It’s just - you were so quiet and shy, before. I don’t think I remember you saying more than five words to me, all of high school. That’s so not you, now. I didn't make the connection.”

“Mmm, that’s true,” Gabby hums. “I wasn’t exactly at the height of my confidence at the time. When I figured out why that was, I did a lot of research, and what I turned up scared me. It’s not an easy world out there, for trans women. I decided to keep my head down, so that no one would notice I had started. I didn’t feel like I owed an explanation to anyone in high school, and frankly, I didn’t care to hear what anybody had to say about it. I worked my ass off to graduate early so that I could start working on a political campaign that was promising to make things better for people like me.” She pauses. “Also I - may or may not have had a crush on you, at the time. So. That didn’t help.”

Kent doesn’t answer for a moment, and Gabby adds: “This is usually the point in the conversation where the other person starts talking about how well I pass, but that’s not actually the compliment they think it is.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. I was going to say thank you, for telling me. And…”

“And?” Gabby prompts.

“And I’m a little bit tickled, honestly, to hear that you liked me in high school.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Gabby laughs.

“What!”

“Seriously, I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to think whether someone as brilliant as you could ever be interested in me. But you already have been! That makes me happy, I’m not gonna pretend it doesn’t.”

“Kent!” Gabby sputters, and starts laughing again. This time Kent laughs, too.

“Was that everything you wanted to tell me?” I can hear the smile in his voice. “Before I can ask you on a date?”

“Well - yes.”

“Excellent. Do you want to go on a date?”

“Well - yes.”

Aiden whips around to look at me, and we both break out into a silent, spontaneous victory dance on the stairs.

“I can’t wait,” Kent says. “And Gabby... thanks again, for trusting me. Do you want me to keep it to myself?”

“Mmm. It’s not exactly a secret, but I do prefer to tell people on my own, if I feel like sharing it at all. I’m going to tell Jamie and Aiden when they come back down.”

“We heard!” I call, and leap past Aiden, taking the stairs at a fast clip. Aiden gallops down behind me, and we crash to a stop at the bottom, grinning like idiots. Gabby and Kent both startle and sit up in their seats; at some point, Kent moved into the chair closer to her. They’re - oh my fucking god - holding hands. “Ahhhhh!” I holler, pointing at their intertwined fingers. “Stop it! Love you guys together.”

“Can you not be weird about it, Jamie?” Kent groans, but he doesn’t let go of Gabby’s hand. “We haven’t even gone on a date yet.”

“Aiden, what do you think? Are they the cutest couple in Ketterbridge?”

“In the state,” Aiden agrees immediately.

“That’s enough from you two,” Kent warns, but Gabby is grinning, too.

“Did you guys hear all of that? I don’t particularly feel like saying all of it again.”

“Yes,” Aiden answers, beaming.

“Can I give you a hug?” I ask. Gabby rolls her eyes, gets her feet, and opens her arms. Aiden and I both step forward and grab her into a tight three-way hug. “Kent, get in on this!” I insist, reaching for him.

“Gladly!” A fourth set of arms joins our huddle, squeezing all of us together.

“What’re you guys doing?” asks a sleepy voice. We turn as a group to find Ellen standing in the doorway, in her pajamas.

“Honestly, I don’t even know,” Gabby laughs, as we all break apart.

“Everything okay, baby?” Kent rumbles, and Ellen fidgets.

“I had a nightmare. Can I sleep in your bed? Are you coming?”

“Oh, Kent, you’re needed.” Gabby retrieves her purse from the table. “I should be leaving, anyways. It’s late.” She floats over to Ellen and touches her cheek gently. “I hope you sleep better this time, cariño.”

“I’m gonna walk Gabby out, and then I’ll be right up,” Kent tells Ellen. “Go upstairs. I’ll post Jamie and Aiden at the bottom, they’ll keep you safe from the nightmares until I come.”

Aiden and I say goodnight to Gabby, then dutifully take up our places in front of the stairs. One does not break promises to a nine-year-old. Ellen disappears up into Kent’s bedroom, leaving us alone.

“I can’t believe that all worked out,” Aiden says, taking a seat on the bottom step. “So nice, when that happens.”

He looks up at me, and I feel suspended in his warm gaze, knocked off my feet by how well he wears that smile. My heart lifts almost to my mouth.

Maybe there’s a chance that things will go right. Maybe it’s not impossible.

“It is nice,” I agree. “Hey... are you definitely coming to the Fling Thing?”

“The end-of-summer party you told me about? Yeah, I am. Why?”

A plan begins to form in my mind. A certainty.

“No reason.”