After a long round of hugs, Jess closed the door as Bastien and Ace disappeared down the stairs. The apartment felt quieter, almost too still, the laughter and warmth they’d brought fading with each footstep away. I hadn’t expected Ace to leave such a noticeable space behind.

“Kind of sucks, huh?” Jess said, leaning on the doorframe for a moment before walking into the living room.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “For someone I didn’t even know existed a few days ago, I’m gonna miss him.” The honesty surprised even me.

Jess curled onto the couch, wrapping a throw blanket around her legs. “Bastien and I should’ve told you about Ace earlier. I’m sorry. It’s… complicated.” She patted the cushion beside her.

I slid in next to her. “It’s okay. I didn’t tell you about Dean until tonight. We don’t need to know everything right away.”

Jess smiled faintly. “I’m really glad you did. He’s such an important part of your life. We should celebrate that.”

She reached into the coffee table drawer and pulled out a large tin cookie container.

“I printed these for you earlier,” she said, handing it over.

“You printed cookies?” I asked, lifting the lid.

Inside were three small picture frames. My breath caught: Dean, blowing a smoke ring into the air. Beneath it, Dean beside me on the dock in our track uniforms, both smiling. The third: the two of us under the eucalyptus tree by the lake. My hands trembled as I lifted one out. Seeing them printed, tangible, made them feel heavier somehow.

“I love your smile in these,” Jess said softly. “I’d love to see them in the apartment. Where do you want to put them?”

“I… I haven’t told Bastien about Dean yet. Wouldn’t it be weird?” I traced the edge of one frame with my thumb. I wasn’t sure how to talk to Bastien about Dean; the two of them were intertwined in my mind.

Jess leaned her head against my shoulder, tucking part of the blanket over my legs. “This is your home too. You should have things here that matter to you. It’s not weird.”

“I’m not sure what to say if Bastien asks.”

“He’ll ask,” Jess said. “You two look so close in these pictures, he’ll be too jealous not to be curious. If it makes it easier, I can be there with you.”

“Thank you. For the pictures, and for being such an amazing friend. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

Jess’s reply was quiet but firm. “I do. You mean that much to me, too.”

I glanced around the apartment. Music gear, posters, odd little knickknacks, but no photographs. None of Jess, Bastien, or Ace. “I never realized you and Bastien don’t take a lot of pictures, huh?”

Jess hesitated. “We used to. But a lot of them are put away. I guess we just… never took them back out. Why don’t I grab some and we can put them up together?”

As she stood and headed to her room, something she’d said caught in my mind. I called after her, “Why would Bastien be jealous?”

No answer.

After a moment, Jess reappeared carrying a large brown shipping box decorated with doodles and scribbled tags. She set it on the coffee table, her expression unreadable.

“Bastien’s really protective of the people he cares about,” she said finally. “You, especially.”

Jess knelt on the floor, flipping open the box. Inside were stacks of photo envelopes, a few crumpled programs from gigs, and a tangle of old wristbands from shows. She pulled out a stack of framed pictures and set them beside her.

“You two really did take a lot,” I said. In one frame, Jess, Bastien, and Ace were all in their graduation gowns, smiling like nothing could touch them.

Jess didn’t smile back at the memory. “We were kind of inseparable. All through high school, all that summer after we graduated. We thought we’d always be like that.”

I glanced at her profile, the way her eyes stayed on the photo without really looking at it. “What happened?”

Jess exhaled slowly, like she’d been expecting me to ask but still needed a moment to find her words. “Back then, Ace and I were together. Three years. This is our prom photo.” She showed me the frame; her in a lavender dress, Ace in a fitted black suit. “He was my first serious relationship. Bastien was our best friend. The three of us… we were everything to each other.”

She set down the prom photo and picked up another of the three of them on a beach promenade, Ace’s arm around her shoulders, Bastien grinning at the camera. “Then the summer after we graduated, Ace and Bastien started spending more time alone. They realized they had feelings for each other. They told me, and…” Jess’s voice faltered. “I didn’t handle it well. I was hurt. I was angry. I didn’t just lose a boyfriend; I lost my two best friends in the same breath.”

I swallowed, unsure what to say.

“We were supposed to go to Haverford together, Ace and I. He still went. I didn’t. Bastien and I still tried to live together that year, but it was… tense. Bastien moved out. And the three of us didn’t speak much for over a year.” She set the frame down gently, like it might crack. “It’s taken us a long time to get here. To be okay again.”

I turned Dean’s frame in my hands. “So… this, now, all of you together again, it’s not permanent.”

Jess met my eyes. “Nothing’s permanent, Cahn. But we’re trying. And you… you’re part of that now. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve been helping us remember why we fought to fix things in the first place.”

I felt a tightening in my chest loosen. “Ace said it’s a process.”

“It is. And a lot of honest conversations, sitting in discomfort, allowing each other room to feel. Like what we’re doing now.” Jess held a photo of her and Ace on a ferris wheel, and quietly placed it beside her. “And yes,” she added, “I noticed you got very interested when I said Bastien would be jealous.”

My voice was careful when I responded. “Maybe I just wasn’t expecting you to say it.”

Jess smiled faintly and tapped the frame in my lap. “You and Bastien need to talk. So… where should we put Dean?”