Mr. North smiled at me as I entered his office. "Ms. Hofferson, what can I do for you? More problems with Mrs. Coleman? Now that she knows there's an investigation underway, I can imagine she's being quite vicious."

I let out a short laugh. "She is, but that's not why I came by. I just wanted to give you this." I held out the box of chocolates I had been hiding behind my back.

"Oh?" he said, visibly pleased as he accepted the chocolates. "What did I do to deserve this?"

I shrugged and nervously fiddled with my fingernails. "You know, I was alone for a long time. While my mother was sick, my so-called friends showed me how much they really cared, so I distanced myself from them because I didn't want people like that in my life. Your pushy tutoring idea helped me not feel alone anymore."

His expression was as gentle as my father's when he looked at me. "I take it you and Mr. Haddock are getting along well?"

"Yes," I said. A smile formed on my face all on its own. "He's a lot nicer than I thought. Studying with him is actually fun." He laughed, and I couldn't help but join in.

"I'm really glad to hear that, really," he said then, and I believed him. "And thank you, for this kind gesture. I'll enjoy it."

"You're welcome." With that, I said goodbye.

❁

At home, my dad and I were just digging into our lasagna when a message popped up on my phone screen.

"Grandma texted me," I told him. "She wants to FaceTime soon."

He nodded and took a sip of his coke. "Can I join in or is this going to be a girls-only conversation?"

I texted her the question. "She says you can say hi, but she wants to talk to me alone."

"Got it."

Half an hour later, I was sitting at my desk, laptop open, waiting for my grandma's call. I was glad she understood modern technology, it meant we could stay in touch more often, especially since she didn't exactly live around the corner.

Her name popped up, along with my camera, which switched on automatically, and I hit the green button.

"Hi, Grandma," I said with a smile, waving at her.

"Hello, sweetheart," she said, a big smile on her face. "How are you doing?"

We talked for a long time. At some point, both my dad and grandpa popped into frame and interrupted us. She told me how much she was enjoying her retirement life by the beach, and I told her how well I was doing in school again. That led us to the tutoring sessions, and then to Hiccup. She started asking about him, whether he was nice to me, if he was anything like Brandon, if he liked me and I liked him or if we were just suffering through our study sessions together. I, in a moment of brilliance, mentioned that he and Stacy had broken up, which she was thrilled to hear.

"Is he still not your type now that he's single?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Grandma," I said warningly.

"What?" she asked, feigning innocence. "Do you have a picture of him? I want to see if he looks good enough for you."

I rolled my eyes. That woman would drive me insane. Of course I didn't have a photo of him, why would I? It's not like I was some weirdo taking secret pictures of him. "I'll send you his profile pic," I said eventually, grabbing my phone from the desk. His chat was right at the top since we'd just confirmed our plans to meet again tomorrow. I opened his profile picture, took a screenshot, and sent it to her.

"Oh, wait, I can't see anything," she said after she squinted at her phone. "Honey!" No answer, so she got up and shouted louder. "HONEY!"

"What?" my grandpa's voice called from somewhere behind her laptop.

"Where are my phone glasses?" she called back.

"The red ones?"

"No, those are for reading, the blue ones are for my phone!"

"What do you consider blue? There are two here!"

"Oh Lord," she muttered, disappearing from the screen. I sat there laughing on the other end. Those two were the best married couple I knew.

She came back after a minute, now wearing dark blue glasses. Honestly, I got why my grandpa was confused, that could've easily been black. "Okay, let's see. Oh, wow!"

I raised my eyebrows at her amazed expression. "What is it?"

"That's Hiccup?" she asked and I saw how she zoomed in on the picture.

"Yes?"

"Holy crap, he looks way better than that asshole ex of yours."

"Grandma!"

"What?" she said, grinning at me. "You can't tell me you disagree. Have you looked at that picture properly?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't need to, I see him every day at school and during tutoring."

"Oh, trust me," she said, still examining the photo. "It's different seeing someone in real life versus seeing a great picture of them. This angle really flatters his sharp facial features. Now look at it!"

I sighed and picked up my phone again. "Fine."

Damn it, she's right, I thought as soon as I looked at it. He was turned slightly toward the person with the camera but clearly noticed the photo being taken because he was grinning right at the lens. And he looked really good doing it.

I felt my heart skip a beat but didn't show it because my Grandma would go completely nuts. Instead, I looked back at her and jumped in fright since she was sitting too close to her laptop and watched me.

"Holy crap," I gasped. "Don't ever do that again! That was worse than in any horror movie."

She didn't even flinch but leaned back a bit. "So? Did I tell you or did I tell you?"

"He looks good, but I never denied that. I just said he's not my type."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I would like to point out that Brandon had brown hair too."

"It's not just about hair color."

"Then what? Eye color, body type, penis size?"

"Grandma, please!" She could not be serious.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a prude. I don't believe for a second that you're not into him."

I sighed deeply. "He's a good friend, nothing more. He's kind and helpful and has all the traits a good friend should have. It's nice having him just as a friend. I actually think we're better off as friends anyway."

She gave me a knowing grin. "Oh, Astrid, you just said the word friend way too many times. That's a dead giveaway."

I stared at her. "What? No, I didn't. And there's nothing to give away."

"Oh yes, you did."

"Grandma, no!"

That went on for a few more minutes until I finally gave up, exhausted, and said goodbye shortly after. She could believe whatever she wanted, Hiccup and I were just friends.

Still, that night I lay in bed staring at his profile picture again. He really did look good in it. The sunlight was playing with his features, his grin was perfect, and the spark in his eyes made my heart race. My gaze lingered on his lips for a second too long before I snapped out of it and quickly put my phone down. My grandma was seriously messing with my head.

Nevertheless, I didn't delete the picture from my gallery.

❁

The next morning, Hiccup was once again right on time at eleven o'clock. While we worked through our plan for the day, we chatted about this and that. Eventually, we landed on the topic of TV shows and movies, and I told him that I'd introduced Stranger Things to my sci-fi-loving grandparents during the holidays.

"That's the show based on Dungeons & Dragons, right?" he asked, highlighting a line from Macbeth, which we were currently reading in English class.

I immediately dropped my pen. "Does that mean you haven't watched it yet?"

He looked up from his book and shook his head. "No."

My jaw dropped. "You've never seen one of the best series of all time? Not even the first episode?"

He shook his head again. "I usually watched stuff with Stacy and she's more into romance. You have no idea how many times I had to sit through Legally Blonde with her."

The corners of my mouth twitched, but I tried to stay serious and act as outraged as possible. "You're seriously missing out."

"Oh really?"

"Oh yes."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow, just like my grandma had yesterday. Don't think about that conversation again. Which of course made me think about it, and about his profile picture on which he looks so damn good. He had the same kind of grin on his face right now and looked into my eyes with that amazing green, which I could only compare to emeralds, glistening just as beautifully.

I slapped myself mentally when I realized my eyes had drifted to his lips. Don't lose your composure or things will get weird.

"You know what?" I said suddenly, jumping to my feet, which surprised us both, but there was no turning back now. "We're watching the first episode right now."

"But we haven't finished reading the scene yet."

I waved dismissively. "Screw that, you can read it tonight before bed, like I always do. Come on, I'll even grab us some chips from the kitchen."

"You do know Netflix isn't the reason I'm here," he called after me as I walked into the living room to start up the TV.

"We studied before, it's not like we didn't do anything. We deserve a break to watch a series."

As I headed toward the kitchen, he came out of the dining room, smiling at me with amused eyes. "You're unpredictable, you know that?"

I grinned back. "I have my moments."

Five minutes later, the Netflix logo flashed across the screen. A bowl full of chips sat between us because I didn't dare sit right next to him. That felt too close. Besides, even at this distance, my heart was already pounding like crazy. What would happen if we actually touched? Would I have a heart attack?

I laughed inwardly at the ridiculous thought, but at the same time, I slowly started to realize that I was beginning to fall for him.