Ada fell asleep during the car ride and he hesitated waking her up when he pulled into the furniture store. It was obvious she slept about as much as he had this weekend, and she finally looked peaceful. A car in the parking lot had their alarm go off, so he didn't have to be the one to wake her.

Her green eyes opened drowsily. "We there?"

"Yup."

Tom stepped out of the car and walked around to open her door for her. He got a kick out of seeing her cheeks turn red from the gesture. Tom had was raised with a father who was a superb role model, telling him that all those miniscule gestures add up and make someone's day a little brighter.

Ada tucked her hair behind her ear and got out of the car, walking by his side into the store. There was little he could do to brighten her spirits, but he'd buy just about anything in this place if it distracted her from her worries.

"What's your spending limit?"

Tom shrugged. "Dunno. I guess we've reached the limit when my credit cards tell me no more."

Ada laughed. "How quickly does your credit card usually tell you 'no more'? Nevermind. Doesn't matter. Worse comes to worse, I have my card."

Tom leaned in. "I'm not taking your money, Ada."

While he wasn't chauvinistic by any means, this also wasn't her house and he wasn't about to let her spend her money on his place on anything more than a houseplant.

Ada just patted his arm like a grandmother. "We'll see what your card has to say at the end."

She scampered down an aisle, plopping down on a brown leather sofa, the kind she'd described Wednesday night. She wasn't as happy as she hoped though and sulked as she bounced a few times before discarding the sofa for another further down.

This one she leaned back in, moving around positions with a grin on her face. "Sit next to me," she ordered.

Tom did as he was told and admitted that Ada's smile was earned. "I like it." His hands felt around for the tag until he found it. "The fucking thing's twelve hundred dollars!"

Ada hit a button and her feet went up. "Yeah, but it reclines. You can't put a cost on happiness, Tom, and this couch is happiness."

"They put a cost on happiness and that price is too damn much!"

Ada looked at him, lines appearing between her eyebrows as she grimaced. "Have you been furniture shopping before?"

"Sure."

"New?"

Tom shook his head. "No."

"Please let me get you this couch."

His eyes narrowed at her. "No. You're out of your damn mind, woman. You aren't buying me a twelve hundred dollar couch."

The idea was fucking absurd to Tom. A rug, maybe. A clearance patio chair, sure. But a couch? Hell no.

"Ooh. It has a matching chair and a half!"

Ada jumped from the couch and ran over to the biggest chair he'd ever seen.

"What the hell is a chair and a half?"

"Will you stop swearing?" she scolded. "You're in a public place."

Tom rolled his eyes at her, which earned him a glare. "I'm sorry, but you seriously just said 'chair and a half' and that makes zero sense.

"I thought we were going furniture shopping. But you know what this is? It's pretentious. You got your twelve hundred dollar couches and your chair and a half." Tom pointed to the other side of the store. "You know what they got over there? A lamp made of crystallized angel tears or some shit for six grand."

Tom shook his head and dropped himself into the damn chair and a half, feeling consumerist defeat. A lengthy breath escaped his lips as the cushion hugged his body like the perfect asshole cloud from the heavens it was. "Fuck me. I'm gonna end up buying this stupid chair, aren't I?"

He watched as Ada shrugged and sat across from him on a red retro style couch.

"Isn't there a furniture store where castaway furniture goes when their selfish owners ditch them for shit like this? The furniture that needs a loving home? Like a shelter for discarded home goods?"

"There is," Ada said with a soft tone as she clasped her arms in front of her. "That's where you got the furniture we're trying to get rid of."

"You want me to get this thing, don't you?"

Ada laughed. "No, you want to get this thing, you just want to pin the idea on me so you don't have to be 'pretentious'," she finished in air quotes.

Tom put his feet up on the ottoman in front of him. "Well, this thing and that thing over there sucked up my budget, so..."

"We can always look on Craigslist and Marketplace for the rest," Ada agreed. "I can borrow my dad's truck and trailer next weekend and we'll set up some appointments when we get closer to Friday."

A salesman approached them, looking as if he was trying to find the right way to ask Tom to tone down his rant.

"You guys deliver to Ridgewood, right?"

"Yes, Sir."

Tom dropped his head in his hands. "I'll take this lying, made up chair and the matching couch over there."

"I'll ring it up. May I also interest you in the in the lamp made of crystallized angel tears?" The salesman's lips curved up in hesitant amusement.

Tom leaned back in his new chair. "Not unless you accept layaway with zero money down and zero intention of me paying for it."

***********************

Tom ordered a beer with his lunch and Ada ordered a virgin daiquiri.

He always enjoyed restaurants like this in college, up on the roof so he could watch the city streets below. It brought back some great and not so great memories, along with blacked out non-existent memories, as he was sure there were plenty of those. How he got the grades he did while partying that hard was beyond him.

It didn't take a magic ball to know what type of student Ada would have been. Knowing her, her roommate would have had to force her out of the dorm to get her to do anything fun. Sophomore year was when she'd end up coming into her own and letting loose a little.

Would have come into her own, rather.

"Crystal came over on Friday and at first everything was super depressing and then the alcohol came out and the three of us ended up getting super drunk on the pier. I spent most of yesterday laying in bed with a killer hangover."

Tom laughed at the thought of Ada being drunk and was curious what her personality was like under the influence. He had nothing to go on, but something told him drunk Ada was adorable. "You got drunk with your parents?"

Ada took a sip of her daiquiri and nodded. "It's happened a few times. My parents throw a Sunday barbecue all summer, every summer. All their friends come over and they play music in the yard and have a bonfire. A little liquor and more weed than I want to know about. I accidentally had a pot brownie last summer and just stared at the bonfire for like three hours, then ate all the cereal in the house."

"I didn't know you had it in you," Tom admitted as he crossed his arms on the table. And he really didn't.

The Ada he knew at school was straight laced and somewhat serious. Just hearing about her ridiculous mishap with a weed brownie was enough to put a smile on his face. He'd love to see her drunk or stoned. Just once. Not while she was still a student, but someday.

Ada blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I know how I come off," she began as she spun her straw around her red drink. "I know people see me as the odd duck of the popular group. And I get it, I do. I don't go to the parties and I leave halfway through the football game just so I can say I went. I get that they're only nice to me because of Britt. I'm not dumb.

"But I like to have fun, just not with them. When I let loose, I want it to be around people I trust to take care of me. Not leave me in a parking lot or put something in my drink. I like safe fun, as stupid as that sounds."

Tom gave her a long look. "That doesn't sound stupid. Weird, but not stupid."

She took another drink. "I want to have fun this summer, though. Do things I'd normally say 'no' to. I want to work a little less and enjoy this part of my life while I can."

The truth caught up with him. She was thinking about the future and the disease she may have inherited. But she was also thinking of her life now and was doing it with a smile.

Tom stopped a passing waitress and borrowed a pen, writing '5 Things' on his napkin. "All right, you're gonna come up with five things you want to do this summer, things you'd avoid or blow off or something you've always wanted to do but didn't make the time for. Five things drunk Ada would have fun doing. Doesn't have to be big things, just things."

"Oh, umm. Okay. Ah..." Ada leaned against the table, her head in her hands, and thought. "I've always wanted to go to that music festival in Hampton."

Tom wrote it down. "No problem there. My old band from college plays it every year. I can get us VIP tickets."

He didn't notice the word 'us' until after he said it. Still, Ada wouldn't be his student by that point, so there was nothing wrong with taking her to a music festival. He enjoyed hanging out with her. Enjoyed seeing her smile and relax around him. It was becoming more obvious to Tom that this was more than them hanging out and being there for her when she needed him. He was beginning a genuine friendship with her.

Ada's mouth dropped open. "You were in a band?"

"I was. Still play with them in the summer sometimes. Now come on, what's next?"

"Let's see... Ah, zip lining. That looks like so much fun, but I always found excuses not to go."

The waitress came then, and they ordered a pulled pork quesadilla appetizer, Ada ordered baked macaroni and cheese, and he ordered a burger.

"Alright. Number three."

Ada's cheeks grew even redder than before. "This will sound stupid and inappropriate."

"What? You want to hook up with a stranger or somethin'?" He wasn't sure how comfortable he was with writing something like that down, but looked forward to hearing how she phrased it.

"No. I just want one fantastic kiss. It seems stupid, but I've never had one." When Tom's eyes widened, she corrected herself. "I've been kissed, but I want a memorable kiss, you know? One that just takes over your entire body?"

Tom couldn't help but smile as he wrote that one down. "What's your fourth?"

Ada took several seconds to think, drinking her daiquiri through her straw. "Ooh, I know. Now this is something I'd do, but it would take me forever to make time for it. I want to spend a day at all those waterfalls upstate. Maybe spend the night camping.

"And number five?" he asked as he scribbled down the forth.

"I want to save that one. But it has to be very 'Devil may care'." Ada poked at her drink with her straw and passed her fingers through her hair. "Is it weird that I brought that up around you?" she questioned. "It's just that I don't know what the rules are here of if there are boundaries or whatever. I know you and I have known each other for a while and we've talked how many times, but..."

"But it's been different this week," Tom finished. "Truth is, I have no idea. The rules... I think those got shot to shit as soon as I invited you over to my apartment."

"I invited myself," she corrected as she ran her fingers through her hair again.

Tom couldn't let it slide this time. "You do that a lot, mess with your hair. Do I make you nervous or somethin'?"

Ada let her hand drop by her side, looking self-conscious. "Uh, kind of, yeah. I don't think it's you so much as this," she said, pointing back and forth between the two of them. "The whole thing. Like you said, we're breaking the rules and you know I'm not much of a rule breaker. I guess it's just a little nerve-racking."

"If you'd-"

"No." Ada cut him off. "I'm where I want to be with the person I want to be with. This friendship we're starting, it feels real, you know? I need some real that isn't so realistically depressing."

Tom nodded in agreement and put the napkin in his pocket. "I get that. I'm in the same boat. All my friends that live in town are connected to my marriage. All the ones I like, anyhow. Kind of bullshit when people you've been friends with for years avoid you.

"You and me, we're friends. And maybe that friendship isn't allowed. I'm sure it isn't. But we're not actually doing anything wrong. And you're going to be a student for what, another month? If there's nothing wrong with our friendship after that, I don't think there's anything wrong with it now."

"Agreed," she said with a satisfied grin.

"So you've never had a great kiss? Seriously?"

Ada laughed as she crossed her arms and rested them on the outdoor table before shaking her head. "Maybe my expectations are too high. I dunno. I guess I just want the kiss that fills me with a desire for the person. That makes me lose my train of thought and messes with my stomach in the best way. I want a kiss that makes me melt."

"I'm not gonna lie," Tom said after taking a gulp of his beer, "Those expectations are pretty fucking high."

"Yeah, I figured. So what would be on your list? I have a feeling it'd be more exciting than mine."

"Wouldn't count on that," Tom admitted. "I'm not real exciting."

"No?"

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "Nah. I mean when I was young my list would have been insane, but I've tamed in my golden years I guess. I'm kind of like you where my list would be just things I've blown off over time, not things I'm scared to do."

"So I'm in my golden years, huh?" Ada said with a pout on her face. "Well, that sucks."

Tom nudged her shoulder with his own. "Honestly, that's probably my favorite thing about you."

A blush crept onto Ada's cheeks and she glanced elsewhere for a time to hide her smile. "You don't think that makes me too weird?"

"We're all weird," Tom said as he leaned back in his chair. "You just don't hide it. You don't try to be a normal that doesn't exist. No one is just like everybody else, Ada. Not really. But some people try to be because they think people won't accept the weird, or whatever it is, that makes them feel different."

"That's deep," Ada teased.

Tom gave her a small, lazy glare. "Wisdom comes with age. Now that you're in your golden years, you're going to start thinking deep shit all the time."

Ada smiled and shook her head as the waitress came with their appetizer. She turned her smile toward the waitress and expressed her thanks before taking a slice of the quesadilla and placing it on the small side plate in front of her.

"Thank you for today. Really. As insane as you acted at the furniture store- remind me never to go shopping with you again, by the way- it was just what I needed."

The glare had disappeared once the waitress had arrived and now a solemn look took over Tom's face, one she'd seen him force away a few times that day. She'd spotted the long looks he'd given her over the last few hours; noticed his glances in her direction.

Tom had done his best to keep those emotions at bay. He hadn't said a damn word about it, but it'd been in the air, lingering all around them.

"And thank you for caring so much," Ada added.

Tom turned the beer bottle against the wrought-iron table, spinning it between his fingertips and becoming lost in a trance along the way. "I want you to know that you can talk to me about this."

"I know."

He nodded. "And I'm there for you, for whatever you need, whenever you need it. Doesn't matter how small or how big it is."

"That's what she said," Ada said with a smile, unable to help herself.

Tom only shook his head at her as he took his own slice of the quesadilla.

Ada took a bite of hers and took a quick sip of her daiquiri.. "You're gonna want to let that sit for a minute," she warned. She took one more sip before watching Tom take the last drink of his beer.

"You asked me why I went to you instead of Britt and I told you it was because she was too close to it." Tom nodded, so Ada continued. "I barricaded myself in my room for the last two days. Minus getting drunk on Friday, I've just been out of it.

"I thought about the last time I never wanted to leave my room and lived my life wandering around in a daze, not wanting to live in reality."

"Your freshman year," Tom finished without hesitation. "I remember."

Ada nodded before looking down at the cast iron table, focusing her eyes on the paisley design. "I barely knew you then, but you took me in, in a way. You gave me a piece of reality I could be in without feeling judged. You didn't see me as the fat girl or the weird, frumpy chick who always hung out with that pretty cheerleader. You saw me and that meant everything then. And you helped me to see myself better and what you did, even if it didn't seem like much, changed my life.

"I guess that's what I went looking for this morning. I needed that feeling back, and you gave that to me today. I mean, my reality still sucks and all and it's still scary as hell, but you know what I mean..."

"I know," Tom replied quietly.

"Graduating next month, the saddest part is that I won't be taught by you anymore. You are without a doubt the best teacher I've ever had. I know you're too humble to see that about yourself, but the way you teach makes others want to learn and want to be there."

Ada's eyes softened when she glanced up at him, his own immediately connecting with hers. He opened his mouth to speak, but it closed again when the words didn't come. "I guess now that I'm getting closer to graduating, I wanted to say thank you for being there for me and for always taking me seriously rather than treating me like my opinion didn't matter because of my age and for, well, everything, I guess. And thank you for today and for your friendship."

Ada crisscrossed her hands and jerked them in a quick motion, cutting herself off. "That's it. That's all I wanted to say. Serious time over."

A smile took over Tom's face, and he gave her arm a gentle squeeze before dropping his hand back to the table. "I don't know how much of that I earned, but thanks for that. I'd say more, but I don't think words exist yet for what that means to me."

There was a slight glisten in his eyes. The tears wouldn't fall, not so long as the conversation ended there, but hearing those words just about pushed him over the edge.

"Fuck you," she muttered before taking the first bite of her quesadilla that wasn't scolding hot. He gave her a quizzical look in return. "Just trying to lighten the mood back up, but couldn't think of anything genuine to say."

Tom's smile returned, and he clinked his empty beer bottle against her glass. "Fuck you right back, then."