I was trying not to freak out, so I was glad Stella was also clearly in that boat. I’m sure she had a lot of nerves after her interview, so maybe she was mainly still coming down from that. I, on the other hand, was mainly freaking out about sitting across from someone I’d spent a lot of time thinking about the last few months.

I’m getting dinner with Stella and she’s really fucking cute oh my god.

“S-so,” Stella said. “What was going on with your day that had you down, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh my god,” I said. “You would not believe.” I stuffed my face with some more fries. Like a Ski Lodge always gives a hefty serving of fries. I was talking to the manager once about it and he wanted to brand it as a ‘badass amount of fries,’ which I think would be cool. “So the day before our rent is due, I wake up to find my roommate had somehow, in the dead of night apparently, completely packed up and bailed on me, the day before rent’s due.”

“Seriously?” Stella asked.

“Seriously!” I said. "Did I say the day before rent's due?"

"Once or twice in there, yeah."

"Well it bears repeating!" I said. “I have a doctorate, I don’t need this!”

I smashed more fries into the ketchup and barbecue sauce. “So I have to find some way to either scrounge up the cash by tomorrow or…I don’t even know! Just take the overdraft, I guess.”

“I didn’t expect you to be the type to live with a roommate,” Stella said.

“What’d you expect? Me living in a lab or at the school?” I asked. She wouldn’t be the first person to expect me to live in a lab.

“Kinda, yeah.”

“Some nights it feels like it,” I said. “I’m behind on some correcting because of this. Plus side, I really hated my roommate so maybe an overdraft is worth it.”

“Were they that bad?” Stella asked.

The easy answer was yes, my roommate Sare was that bad. I had to think of a way to phrase it that didn’t make me sound irrationally rage filled about her though, because I’ve been in situations where I ranted about someone so long everyone I spoke to took their side, and I didn’t want that to happen with Stella.  

“Listen, I’m somewhat of a garbage dump type person, right?” I said.

“Huh? You’re awesome though!” Stella said. “You’re like the total opposite of a garbage dump. Like a kind and loyal…puppy, that’s like adorable but also incredibly smart and has a doctorate.”

I wasn’t prepared to hear Stella of all people compliment me that way.

“Aw, god,” I said. “That’s…really nice. I meant more for like cleaning and generally keeping my life together. I’m like that, and my roommate is like a trillion times worse. Like full on ‘somehow accidentally burns down a portion of the post office and blames them for it’ bad. And I have to live with that. Just piles and piles of their garbage as in like food and et cetera garbage as well as garbage choices.”

“Wow,” Stella said. “And you didn’t even get the satisfaction of kicking them out.”

I squinted. “Oh my god, that’s it! That’s why this feels so much more stressful! I didn’t even get to throw that dumbass out onto the street!”

"How much is it?" Stella asked. "If you don't mind me asking that, either?"

This was also embarrassing so I had to be careful. I didn’t know Stella’s financial situation (outside of her telling me Rising Shards was out of her budget), but if I wrote my rent down and she laughed it off that’d make me feel pretty suckass. I got a pen out from my jumpsuit and wrote down how much I’d need to pay without Sare. I slid it over to Stella and looked away, not wanting to see her reaction.

“Hm,” Stella said.

Stella was making a look. That like ‘I could take pity on you and fix this’ look. I had too much pride for that.

“No, wait, I know that look,” I said.

“Whaaat…?” Stella said. “I’m not…making a look.”

“And now I know where Zeta gets her lying abilities from.” I smirked. I could now confirm that both Faleur sisters were innocently bad at lying; it was precious.

“Ha.” Stella said. “But…you know. I was just thinking—"

“I’m not trying to con you or anything!” I said. “I’m not asking you for money.”

“No, no! Listen, Evy!” Stella said. 

I caved.

“So if I get this job, I really don’t want to commute all the way from LE to Sky Clay every day.” Stella said.

“Uh huh.” I said, putting my burger back together after it completely fell apart from my last attempt to pick it up with ketchup and barbecue sauce covered hands.

“And I don't want to live that far from Zeta while she's at school,” Stella continued. “So I was already looking for a place while I was thinking about the Rising Shards job,” Stella said. “And I haven’t found a place yet.”

“Huh,” I said. “Oh, wait. Really?

“Yeah, so,” Stella said. “I have enough saved that…if the snowstorm was bad, I was gonna stay in a hotel tonight, so. Your place would be a step up, and would be about the same price. I can pay the roommate’s half of the rent as thank you.”

This sounded less like pity and more like mutually helping each other out, which I dug a lot more. My pride could accept this. Not only that, I’d be spending the night with Stella.

“That’s amazing! Holy crap!” I said. “You don’t have to pay—”

“Please, let me!” Stella said. “I owe you so much already. Not just with this job, but you’re so great with Zeta, she’s always full-on fangs bared beaming when she talks about you. I don’t worry as much knowing you’re there for her. If you wouldn’t mind me crashing on your couch for the night, I’d be happy to help you with your rent.”

“That’s…really great.” I said. I felt like a great weight had just been lifted from my shoulders, which fortunately had not yet been smeared with ketchup and barbecue sauce from my burger and fries. Upon saying that, I found myself lost in Stella’s gaze. Looking into her eyes was like looking out at the ocean on a beautiful sunny day. Her warm smile felt like the sun beaming down on me as well. She wasn’t saying anything either. I felt something, but I wasn’t sure if I should act on it. Of course, the lodge reminded me why a bar and grill wasn’t the best place for quiet, introspective moments between two people.

“WOW THIS ULTRA TACO SURE KICKS FIRE OUT MY BUM BUM, AND THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT—” A commercial tragically interrupted our moment with a screaming voiceover and plenty of belch, fart, and explosion sounds that made Stella jump.

“Oh hahah. That. Really scared me.” Stella adjusted on her seat. 

"Ultra Taco's ads are only getting weirder..." I said. "If I didn't run into you, I'd probably be there getting trash food. Getting the Deluxe Fire Bum Bum Spectacular sounds like how I'd deal with today, honestly."

"I wouldn't blame you," Stella said. “So. Yeah. Even just for tonight, I’d be cool with…giving you some money. Then if I don’t get the job. I dunno.”

“You’ll get it,” I said. “Then if you do, you do have a place to stay here any time for that month.” That already sounded great to say out loud.

“Oh,” Stella said. “Yes, that’s true.”

“While you look for another place, you know?” I said. That sounded less great to say out loud. But my stupid reflexes didn’t want to come on too strong, because there was a definite part of me that would beg to a pathetic degree to try and get Stella to be my roommate.

After some awkward laughs and some failed conversation starts, we got back to a less freaked out state and just enjoyed our dinner. The only interruption came from Stella’s little sister Zeta frantically calling. I could hear Zeta clearly despite the phone being across from me and the bar being pretty loud in general. “The weather site is saying it's a snow emergency, Stella,” Zeta cried. “That's what they call it when it's really bad. And you're out getting food in the middle of it?!"

Stella calmed her sister down by explaining that she found a place to stay the night in Sky Clay. She didn’t say anything about me, but she didn’t really have to. With dinner done, it was time to head home.

“I love this place, but I’m so full afterwards I don’t want to move,” I said. “But we probably should to be done with this storm for the day.”

“Yeah,” Stella said.

Stella offered to pay for dinner, but we debated that because my pride wouldn’t allow me to let her do that and help pay my rent. We ended up agreeing to split the bill. We got back to my car, which was coated in snow. I had two brushes, so Stella asked to help clean the snow off of it.

“It occurs to me right now that I could just drive you home if you want to back out now.” I said when we got back in the car, snow still falling steadily around us.

“Nah, I don’t want to make you drive any more than you have today,” Stella said. “Plus, I wanna see your place if I’m gonna be renting with you for the month.”

“Alright,” I said, my voice coming out weak and nervous. In addition to being full, I really didn’t want to fuck up here. If I blew it by being weird or showcasing all the other unlikeable character traits I possess, she could bail on this whole rent thing, and then I wouldn’t get to talk to her anymore, and her working at the library would be super awkward.

“Unless you don’t want that?” Stella said.

“No!” I said, realizing how far of a tangent I’d mentally gone on. “It’s more that I extraordinarily want that. And don’t want to seem like I’m being overt about it.”

“Well, unless your place is as garbage-y as you say, I think I’ll be alright.” Stella said. She gave a soft smile and if I was the snow outside, I’d be melting just from that alone.

“Alright, to my house we go.” I said. Normally I could come up with something a lot cooler to say there, but my stomach was full of delicious food and my brain was full of me thinking “I’m going home with Stella and she’s really fucking cute oh my god,” over and over, blocking out pretty much everything else in my head.