The moment I open the door, I can tell that something is seriously different about Ralph.

He definitely got a huge dose of good sleep, real rest. It shows. It brightens up his sage-colored eyes, makes him look less pale and wrung out, takes the exhaustion out of his movements. His skin is saturated with a healthy glow, even more obvious from up close.

That's not it, though. Something else has changed, too.

It’s as if some massive lead weight has disintegrated and left Ralph breathing easier, more deeply, more comfortable in his own skin. He’s standing to his full height, his jaw not so tense as it usually is. His hands are stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, but his shoulders are relaxed. He still has that serious, sharp, wolflike stare, but - it’s not as closed off and defensive as I remember it being.

The very air around Ralph feels different, less churned up with stormy, unpredictable energy.

Jesus Christ, what happened? I almost ask.

"Hey," I say instead, stepping back to let Ralph and Calla inside. "I'm glad you're here! We were just starting to worry about you guys."

"We overslept," Ralph explains, running a hand through his tousled blonde hair.

He and Calla both stop to gaze around at our living room as I close the door behind them. Luna hops down from the armchair, stretches, and comes over to investigate our guests.

“Oh, hello,” Calla coos softly. She drops to a crouch, holds out her fingers out for Luna to sniff. “I didn’t know you guys got a cat, Jamie.”

“The cat - kind of got us,” I answer, as Luna gives Calla’s knuckles a close inspection, then brushes her furry face against them.

Ralph looks down at me, and I try not to stare at him. I’m still startled by the change in him. The signs are incredibly subtle, but - somehow it feels like something about Ralph is drastically different, today.

“Where’s Aiden?” he asks, as Calla straightens up with Luna bundled in her arms.

I turn and toss my head at the kitchen, then lead Ralph and Calla through the house. I feel their eyes traveling over the walls with the mismatched windows. The houseplants of mine, all spread out, with room to breathe. Not clustered into one singular pool of direct sunlight, like they were at my old place.

The secret cabinets hidden in the corners, the deep windowsills, the multicolored walls.

“I like it,” Calla says suddenly, and at the same time, Ralph says - “Place looks like you guys.”

They glance at each other, then at me. I hastily turn away, smiling to myself, and lead everyone into the kitchen.

Aiden has already pushed the garden window open, and a rainy breeze is softly drifting in, carrying the rich, earthy scent of the garden. It mixes in the air with the smell of the coffee that Aiden just put on, and with the gentle woodsmoke smell of the fireplace in the other room.

Aiden has four mugs out on the counter. He nudges two of them towards Ralph and Calla, then does a double-take, staring at Ralph.

I should have known that Aiden would pick up on it, too. He’s known Ralph way longer and way better than I have. His blue eyes flick to me, and we exchange a swift, meaningful, we’re so talking about this later look as I stop beside the kitchen counter.

“Hey.” Aiden nods at Ralph and Calla, leaning one huge hand on the counter. “You two look like you slept as long as we did.”

“Don’t think any of us can be blamed for that,” Ralph answers, as Calla gently sets Luna down. “Last night was a lot.”

“Yeah, it fucking was.” Calla straightens up, then stares at me and Aiden. She shakes her head, wide-eyed. “You two, honestly! What happened?”

“We warned you,” I remind her, holding out my mug so Aiden can pour some coffee into it.

“We agreed on a little lunacy, boys. A little. Next thing I know Jamie is sprinting circles through the showcase fountain, getting chased by security, condoms flying out of his pockets, and Aiden is covered in glitter and frosting - and do not get me started on the cubes, you two should never be allowed someplace fancy, never - and did I see Jamie in handcuffs, at one point?”

“The stripper that Brent ordered tried to give him a lapdance.” Ralph breaks into a grin, clearly fighting down a laugh. “Wish you guys could’ve seen Jamie’s face. She slapped that cuff on his wrist and he looked at me like she was about to put the other one on an electric fence.”

“Okay,” I groan, pressing my fingers to my burning cheeks. “I did not - listen, I’m happy to hug or snuggle girls, but I draw the line at a fucking lap dance! I’m not, um - not equipped for that, so-”

I break off as Calla suddenly throws her arms around me and pulls me into a tight hug. I stare down at her, startled, then look up at Aiden with perplexed eyes. He looks equally taken aback, stopped with the coffee pot halfway out to his mug. 

“Jamie,” Calla says hoarsely, her voice muffled against my chest. “Thank you for taking a dive for me and Ralph. I mean literally, right into the fountain. Pretty sure you saved us.”

“Oh.” Still startled, I begin to return her hug, but she quickly lets me go and steps back. “No problem.”

Ralph leans back against the kitchen wall and folds his arms over his chest. I glance at him, and he catches my eyes with his. He very slightly tips his head to the side, then gives me a small, singular nod.

Surprise after surprise, this afternoon, because - it felt like that was Ralph’s oblique way of thanking me, too.

“And Aiden,” Calla groans, turning to face him. “Oh, god. I’m so sorry that you had to go into a glitter war zone, or whatever. Thank you for braving that.”

“It’s okay.” Aiden gazes over the top of her head with a very dramatic, solemn, thousand-yard stare. “I’ve seen things I’ll never forget, though. Things that are gonna stay with me.”

Calla lets out a ragged laugh, then swats his arm. I can see how relieved she is to have us all here, together, accounted for. She was definitely shaken up last night, and I think I know why. There’s a serious danger-loving side to her, but she usually only ever risks herself. Last night was not that. Last night was four people on the line, and one with a lot more to lose than the rest of us.

I wonder if that's why she wanted to stay at his place last night. The reassurance of having him close by, of knowing that he got away safe.

“So you're not mad that it was a mess?” I ask Calla, just to be sure.

“No." She shakes her head, reaching for one of the coffee mugs that Aiden filled up. “Just - thank you for doing it.”

She looks at Ralph over her shoulder. “All of you.”

Ralph, half in the shadows, gives her a small smile.

"Okay." Calla takes a long sip of her coffee, then a deep, steadying breath. “Let’s talk.”

Aiden and I go first, filling in Ralph and Calla on what they missed when we were split up.

"How'd you guys find the key?" Ralph asks.

"A totally normal way," I answer.

"We don't want to talk about it," Aiden says, at the same time.

Ralph and Calla stare at us with raised eyebrows.

"What-?" Ralph begins, and Calla flaps a hand at him.

"You know what? I don't even want to know. Move on, please."

We do, and when we're done with our explanation, Calla tells us about the safe room.

“It was tiny. And the managers had to be in there with us, so we were all crammed into it.”

“But somehow she just did it,” Ralph says quietly, admiring eyes on Calla. “Made the switch. It was so fast. Fuckin’ blink of an eye, I swear. The managers didn’t see anything.”

“So - no loose ends?” I ask hopefully, and Calla shakes her head.

“Nope. Ralph and I burned the file last night, too. We’re clean.”

There’s a silence, and then everyone in the kitchen lets out a collective breath.

“Guess the only thing left to deal with is our cars,” I tell Calla.

“Speaking of.” Ralph pushes up off of the wall, looking down at his phone. “They should be here soon. Gave them this address, hope that’s alright.”

Aiden and I exchange another startled look.

Hope that’s alright? Aiden mouths at me, his eyebrows arched.

Who even is this? I’m about to answer, but Ralph lifts his head and looks at us before I can.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Aiden tells him.

“Cool. I should go meet them. Back in a minute.”

Ralph slips his phone into his pocket and turns to leave the kitchen. Then he stops, his gaze caught on the kitchen shelf by the door.

I look at it, too, and see what he's staring at. It's the bottle of hot sauce that Ralph left for Aiden on his birthday, all that time ago.

Aiden said that the hot sauce was related to an inside joke between him and Ralph. He recognized it instantly when we found it on the porch after his birthday party. But we couldn’t think why Ralph would have left it there, given the way things were between him and Aiden.

Aiden hasn’t opened the bottle, but he did bring it when we moved. He’s the one who unpacked the kitchen and put it out on the shelf.

Ralph’s grey-green eyes linger on it. He very quickly glances at Aiden over his shoulder, then slips out into the living room.

Aiden is distracted, so he doesn't notice. He's taken his snapback off, and he's trying to adjust the back of it.

“This is definitely breaking. I’m gonna go get a different one.”

I tap his nose with my fingertip. “I’ll get it."

Aiden smiles at me. “Can you get my favorite one?”

“Mhm.”

“Can I come, too, Jamie?” Calla sets down her coffee. “I want to see what your strange house looks like upstairs.”

“Okay,” I laugh, setting off for the living room. “Sounds good.”

Calla follows me up the curved, winding stairs to our bedroom, where her eyebrows fly up at the sight of the branch reaching in through the window.

“Um.” She points to it, catches my eye. “May have skipped your attention, but-”

“We’re not getting rid of it,” I say firmly, heading over to the dresser to grab Aiden’s bi pride snapback.

Calla lets out a soft laugh, shakes her head, and drifts over to the windows that face the front garden. She stops there, looking out through them.

I follow her gaze and see three guys waiting just inside the green gate. Ralph is crossing the garden to meet them. He reaches their little cluster, lights up a cigarette, and leans in to talk to them in a low, confidential voice.

Suddenly he’s back in big boss mode. Ralph and the guys are all roughly the same height, but somehow they all seem to be looking up at him. I get the impression that they’re giving him some kind of report. He smokes slowly, listening in intent, serious silence.

I look up at Calla. She's watching Ralph through the window.

“So,” I say tentatively. “Did you overhear what Ralph said to me last night? I thought I saw you awake at the end.”

“Mhm, I did.” Calla starts slowly walking along the wall, looking out through all of the different windows. “That’s why I wanted to sleep at his place. Seemed like he needed someone. I can see that he's going through something.”

I hesitate, then quickly ask: “Is that the only reason?”

Calla looks down at Ralph in silence for a moment. He’s just sent his guys off with a dismissed gesture of his head. They all nod at him, then file out through the gate. Calla watches as he puts his cigarette out and strides back towards the house, his head down against the gusts of rain. It dampens his blonde hair, sends a strand falling over his eyes.

“I…” Calla bites her lip, then looks over at me. “My last long-term relationship ended really, um... I’m just - really sensitive about being lied to, now. And it’s not easy for me to trust people.”

I stare at her, stunned that she would share that with me. Maybe it’s that we’ve done two heists together, or the remarkably good mood both she and Ralph are in this morning, or that I ran through a fountain to help her yesterday, but - still.

Calla puts her back to the windows, her hazel eyes on my face.

“That, last night, with Ralph,” she says softly, “That was... you don’t often find guys who can be so vulnerable and real, and honest. Not like that, anyways.”

I hesitate, caught off-guard, fidgeting with Aiden’s snapback. I don’t know what to say. Honesty and vulnerability are actually not what I would describe as Ralph's greatest strengths, and part of me wonders if I should warn Calla of that. Especially knowing that she's been hurt before.

But Ralph has only been honest with her, so far. He deserves the chance to keep that up.

“Have you told Ralph any of that, Calla?" I finally answer. "About your last relationship?”

Calla shakes her head, and I nibble my lip.

“Well,” I say slowly, “I think, if you two hang out again - you should tell him. You should really tell him.”

Calla looks at me thoughtfully. Then she turns away, leads us back to the door. Still thinking hard, I can tell.

She wants to check on her car, so we part ways at the bottom of the stairs. I go back to the kitchen and find it empty, the back door left open to the garden. The rain is stirring the treetops outside, making all the leaves shiver. But Aiden and Ralph must be standing together beneath the roof overhang, because I don’t hear them moving to come back inside. Their mugs of coffee are both gone from the countertop.

Their voices drift into the kitchen as I add some milk to my coffee.

“-all kinds of different,” Aiden is saying, his deep voice cutting through the rain. “I barely recognize you, Ralph. And I heard that you and Jamie talked? Wow.”

“Please don’t tell me that he ran off and told you everything I said to him last night, man.”

“No. Only that you haven’t really been able to sleep. Except for last night, I guess.”

There’s a long silence before Ralph answers.

“Got guilty thoughts running through my mind all night, A,” he says, in a rough voice. “Every time I close my eyes. How’m I supposed to sleep?”

I stop still, caught by surprise. Aiden must be, too, because there’s another, longer silence before I hear the rumble of his softspoken voice again.

“I mean,” he says slowly, “Yeah. I’ve been there. Feels fucking awful, right? And the worst part is you know that you deserve to feel that bad.”

Ralph lets out a heavy breath which almost forms into a pained, humorless laugh.

“But,” Aiden continues, “Beyond a certain point… the guilt becomes a pit trap. It’ll swallow you up, if you let yourself stay stuck in there. Make you self-destruct. And then you can’t try to make things better for the people you did wrong."

Ralph hesitates for a second. "You - think that's something I can do?"

"Maybe, yeah. You probably can’t make good with everyone, but you can try, and trying - makes it easier to sleep. Trying can lead to good things.”

There’s a short silence, and then Aiden adds -“It’s what led me to Jamie.”

I’m suddenly holding my mug very tightly, my heart glowing with love for my Companion Plant.

“And don’t do anything that’s gonna add more guilt to the pile,” Aiden pins on. “Try doing the opposite of what you were up to before. You used to hurt people, so - do the opposite of that.”

“Just how the hell do I do the opposite of that to someone?”

“I don’t know, man. Take care of them, protect them, make them happy. Listen to them, be honest with them - love them." Aiden pauses. "Think you can do that?”

Silence falls for another moment, and then -

“Yeah,” Ralph says quietly. “Think I can.”