Stanford is Stanford."

“Then why don't you sound so sure?”

I couldn't read Zofi's face right away. She stared off with a model-esque blankness for about a minute. But then with an enigmatic smile, she turned, leaned into me, and gave me a very sweet, very tender kiss.

At first, I was prepared for something sweet and Light, and that she'd pull away a few seconds later the way she'd done throughout the day.

But this time she flowed into me, and I wrapped my arms around her automatically. She hummed and pressed even closer, parting my Lips with her tongue until we were full-on making out on a park bench. She pivoted to slide sideways into my lap, holding me close while we kissed and kissed and kissed. And only when I felt my Lungs screaming for oxygen did she finally disengage and pant for breath herself, grinning goofily.

"I Love you, Matty," she stated sincerely, a world of wonder in her eyes. "I'm not in love with you, not Like some of the others. But I cherish our relationship. And other than Sam, if I did leave to go to school all the way across the country, I'd miss you the most.”

That took me a little by surprise, but rather than try to put my feelings into words, I simply brushed her hair back behind one ear and murmured, "I love you, too." And then I kissed her again.

Eventually, we sat there with our foreheads pressed together, each catching our breath. I realized the moment was getting a little heavier than either of us really wanted, so thinking back to my script for our date, I picked my head up and said brightly, “Okay, time for each of us to think of something we've never done before and get it accomplished by the end of the day."

Zofi immediately gave me a skeptical Look and asked, "You mean besides the obvious?"

I blushed, held up both hands, and stammered, “I- I- I was going with the scenes from the movie! I didn't mean-—"

“Relax, darling," she cut me off by leaning into me and giving me a sweet kiss. "We're not there yet, but we will be by tonight."

My heart in my throat, I pulled her close and kissed her again.

Immediately after, Zofi told me she'd never walked through a waterfall before. So after getting me to take off my shoes with her, we hopped into the pond at the base of the falls and splashed around for a little bit. The air was cool and my feet were freezing, but Zofi was having such a good time I felt Like I could walk on air.

It was my turn, and I told her, "Well, I've never gotten a blowjob next to a waterfall before." I gave her an exaggerated overly-hopeful expression.

Zofi rolled her eyes and immediately smacked me.

I chuckled and nodded, feeling much better now that the mood wasn't so somber anymore. More seriously, I explained, “Believe it or not, I've never been inside MOMA before." I pointed to the nearby San Francisco

Museum of Modern Art and then held up two tickets.

“Me, neither," Zofi replied, wrapping both of her arms around my elbow

“So that's a ‘something I've never done before’ for both of us!"

Gesturing with my head, I asked, “Shall we?"

She didn't answer verbally. She just gave me another kiss, sighed happily, and said, "I really love kissing you, Matty."

"I really love kissing you. And to think this all started when we got caught kissing so long ago."

Zofi beamed and kissed me again. She was so joyously happy that she bounced on her feet. And with a sudden thought, I slid away from her so that we were no Longer pressed together, although I still held her hand in mine.

“You know, I've never skipped down the sidewalk with a beautiful girl holding my hand.”

Zofi grinned and we started skipping.