"So he grabbed my hand and leant in close as he was saying goodnight..." Kayla started

Jess just nodded. She was listening to Kayla, but her mind was still on Tyler's profile. She'd downloaded the OKCupid app on her iphone, and had spent the streetcar ride over to her favourite cafe looking through his pictures and memorizing his profile. 

His pictures were cute. After staring at them and going through her celebrity rolodex, Jess had decided he looked like a cross between Ryan Gosling with the dark good looks of Zayn Malik. 

As she looked around her favourite cafe, she thought about how she always thought it looked like a Parisian cafe (not that she'd ever been!). It made her think back to Tyler's question about where in the world she'd like to be. She'd always dreamed of going to Paris. Even as a little kid, when most of her friends were desperate to go to Disneyworld, Jess had longed for the Eiffel tower. She was already composing her reply to him in her head, wanting to share more. 

Kayla continued "And then he said, 'I don't like you."

That caught Jess's attention. "What do you mean," she interrupted "you guys have been joined at the hips for 2 months and he changes his mind just like that!?"

Kayla started laughing, "I know! That's what I thought too, he left me hanging for a beat before following it up with, 'I love you.' He loves teasing me like that. I couldn't believe he said it first though, I've been the one making every other first move so far"

"Wow," Jess shook her head, "Don't you think you two are moving a little fast?"

"The heart wants what it wants" smiled Kayla, with a dreamy look on her face. "If I was the only one who felt this way, I'd feel worried. But he's right there with me. We talk about each other all the time, and he has all the same feelings. It's perfect."

"I really want you two to spend more time together!" Kayla pleaded with her hands clasped after putting down her americano. "And I just want you to feel the way I feel about someone. I can't remember the last time I was this happy."

Jess rolled her eyes at her hyperbolic friend. With Kayla everything was always the best or the worst; perfect or a disaster. "Happier than when you were 'in love' with Mr. Wilson?" Jess teased her friend, invoking the name of their 6th grade French teacher. 

There were few things that made Kayla blush, but she turned crimson remembering how she had confessed her love for their teacher  - in French, as he taught them - in a note at the end of her final exam, vowing to wait for him. She dramatically acted like her life was over and her heart was broken after he took her aside to explain appropriate feelings. 

"That was different," Kayla said, jokingly throwing a piece of muffin at Jess. "I was a girl then, now I'm a woman."

It was a constant joke between the two of them, pompously declaring how grown-up they were while they both secretly knew about childhood stuffed animals that still sat in places of prominence on their beds and their saturday morning cartoon habits.