Part- 396:

  James felt his chest tighten, his brain buzzing with a thousand thoughts at ono pressure. But he could feel it—the weight of the word she’d used, the way it had hung in the air, shifting the atmosphere between them. He g her again, his heart pounding a little harder now. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to face the possibility of anything giweeheir friendship meant a lot to him, and he didn’t want to do anything to ruin that. But as he walked beside her, every actal brush of her hand, the way her voice softened when she spoke to him, made him wonder what else there might be between them. Was he reading too muto this? Or was there something more? Something that her of them had fully aowledged yet?

  “Well, I—” he hesitated, words failing him for a moment. He hadn’t expected this. He hadn’t prepared for it. “I didn’t think it felt like a date. But…” His words trailed off as he tried to figure out how to say what was going through his head without sounding pletely clueless. “But I mean, it *has* been nice. Really nice,” he added quietly.

  Mili nodded, her eyes softening as she g him. “Yeah. I’m gd.” She was silent for a moment, and then, almost teasingly, she added, “But no kissing or anything, alright?”

  James chuckled, the tension in his chest easing a little, though a flutter of something still stirred in his stomach at her words. “Wai— What!, no kissing of course.,” he agreed, his voice lighter than it had been. “I think we’re good with just... walking for now.”

  For now, they walked in silence again, but it was no lohe same fortable silence as before. Now, there was aric charge between them, a knowing that lingered in the space between words. James wasn’t sure where it would go from here, but for once, he didn’t feel the o rush or force it. There was something unfolding, something just out of reach, but he could feel it, waiting to be discovered.

  And for the first time, he was okay with the uainty.

  “James…” Her voice was low, almost like she was testing the air, uain about what she was about to ask. She took a moment before tinuing, her gaze fixed on something distant, something beyond him. “ I ask you something?”

  James gnced over at her, notig the way her brow furrowed slightly as she spoke, her lips pressed together as if brag herself. His curiosity piqued, he nodded. “Of course.”

  There was another brief pause before Mili finally spoke again, her voieasured this time. “Do you have any… feelings for Toya?”

  The question hit James like a spsh of cold water. It wasn’t the kind of question he had expected from Mili, not after hours of casual versation. His mind paused for a split sed as he searched her expression, trying to figure out why she was asking. There was nothing overtly unfortable in her face, but there was a certain tension in her posture, a quiet ahat he hadn’t noticed before.