My Romance Life System

The next morning, the apartment felt dead quiet. Kofi stood in the kitchen making toast, focusing hard on getting it just right, like perfect toast would somehow fix everything. He hadn't slept. His brain kept replaying the bonfire confession over and over, each time worse than the last.

He heard a soft click from down the hall and tensed up. Thea appeared in the doorway, already dressed in a clean t-shirt and jeans, looking from the toaster to his face with that unreadable expression she always had.

"Good morning."

"Morning."

She walked over and poured herself water from the tap without looking at him.

'So this is how it's gonna be. Two people pretending the other one doesn't exist in the same apartment.'

The toast popped up, the sound too loud in the quiet kitchen. He put both slices on a plate and pushed it across the counter toward her.

"Here."

She looked at the toast, then at him. "Thank you."

She took the plate to the dining table, eating in that slow, careful way she always did. He leaned against the counter, not hungry at all.

He was about to say something, anything to break the awful silence, when his phone buzzed on the counter. He'd turned it back on this morning, finally. It was Nina.

His chest tightened. He picked it up, thumb hovering over the notification.

Nina: We need to talk. Meet me at our corner.

Not a question. An order.

He typed back one word.

Kofi: Okay.

He looked at Thea, still eating her toast like nothing was happening.

"I have to go out for a bit. I'll be back soon."

She nodded without looking up from her plate.

He grabbed his keys and left, the door clicking shut behind him. The air outside was cool and gray, matching exactly how he felt.

Nina was already there, leaning against the familiar brick wall with her arms crossed, wearing sunglasses even though there was no sun. She looked like she hadn't slept either.

He stopped a few feet away.

"Hey."

"Hey."

The silence stretched between them, thick and uncomfortable.

"Look." She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, and her eyes looked tired. "Last night was a lot. And I've been thinking."

'Here we go. This is where she tells me I'm a creep and we can't be friends anymore.'

"I think we should just pretend it never happened."

He stared at her. "Pretend what never happened? The part where I made things weird, or the part where all our friends think I'm in love with you?"

"All of it. The bonfire, the game, the whole thing. We hit reset. Go back to being friends. The dumbass and his pillar. That's it. No more weird complicated stuff. Not now."

He looked at her, at the determined set of her jaw, and he got it. This wasn't about him. She was overwhelmed, trying to put everything back in a box where it made sense. He remembered what she'd said after they almost kissed in the hallway. 'I'm not ready for it. Not yet.'

She still wasn't ready. And he'd just thrown a grenade into her carefully built peace.

"Okay. If that's what you want."

Relief washed over her face, her shoulders dropping. "It is. Things are just too much right now. With Thea, and school, and everything. I need normal. For a while."

"I get it." And he did. He felt the same way.

"So we're good? Back to just friends?"

"Yeah. We're good. Just friends."

It was a truce, a fragile agreement to ignore the massive emotional mess sitting in the middle of their friendship. Not a solution, but a start.

"Good. Because I wasn't looking forward to emotionally supporting you through some existential crisis. My pillar duties have limits."

The familiar teasing was back, and the air between them finally felt like something they could breathe.

"So." She bumped his shoulder with hers. "Now that we've returned to blissful ignorance, what's the plan? Helping Jake with another doomed Ruby strategy?"

"I'm retired from being a wingman. My last plan was a disaster."

"It wasn't a complete disaster. He talked to her about maps. That's progress. I'd call it a partial success."

They started walking, their steps falling into that easy rhythm they'd always had. The morning's heavy silence had turned into the comfortable quiet of two people who'd decided to just let things be for now.

They walked past the park, the same one where he'd sat a few days ago feeling lost. It looked different now, just a normal park on a gray Sunday morning.

A flash of bright pink caught his eye at the entrance. An old woman in a familiar tracksuit was fighting with a leash and a small fluffy dog that kept trying to escape.

"Mrs. Kaiti?"

The old woman looked up, her frustrated face brightening when she saw him.

"Kofi, dear! Thank goodness. This little monster won't cooperate."

Nina looked from the old woman to Kofi, smiling curiously. "You know her?"

"She's my neighbor." He walked over to the struggling pair and knelt down slowly. "Here, let me try."

The little Pomeranian, mostly fluff and attitude, immediately stopped squirming and started licking his hand. He clipped the leash on with an easy click.

"There you go." He handed the leash to Mrs. Kaiti.

"Oh, thank you dear. You're a lifesaver." She looked at Nina, eyes twinkling. "Is this your girlfriend, Kofi? She's very pretty."

Nina's face went from amused to horrified in half a second, turning red all over. Kofi's face burned hot.

"No! We're just friends!"

"She's my sister!"

They both said it at exactly the same time, then froze, staring at each other in mutual horror.

Mrs. Kaiti blinked at them, completely lost. "Your sister?"

The lie had just fallen out, a desperate attempt to dodge the girlfriend comment that somehow made everything a thousand times worse.

"It's a long story," Kofi mumbled, wishing he could disappear.

"I see." Mrs. Kaiti's expression made it clear she didn't see at all. She patted her dog's head. "Well, you two have a lovely day."

She walked away, leaving them standing there in the most awkward silence they'd ever shared.

Nina spoke first, her voice strangled. "Your sister? That was your brilliant move? Telling her I'm your sister?"

"I panicked! What was I supposed to say?"

"You could've just said we're friends! Like a normal person!"

"You said it at the same time! It was confusing!"

They stared at each other, the complete absurdity of it finally hitting them. A small laugh escaped Nina, choked and surprised. Then another.

Kofi felt a grin spreading across his face.

"She probably thinks we're in some weird cult now."

Nina was really laughing now, leaning against a tree for support. "Oh god, we can never walk down this street again. We have to move. Change our names and leave the country."

He was laughing too, a real laugh that made his ribs hurt. The tension from the bonfire, from their whole weird complicated friendship, just broke. Replaced by the simple fact that they were two complete idiots who'd just made everything a hundred times more awkward for no reason.

And it was the funniest thing in the world.

When they finally stopped laughing, Nina wiped tears from her eyes. "Okay. New rule. You're not allowed to talk to neighbors anymore. Anyone's neighbors. You've lost neighbor-talking privileges."

"Deal. But for the record, you're a terrible sister."

She punched his arm. "Shut up, idiot."

The truce was sealed. Not with some serious conversation, but with a moment of complete, ridiculous stupidity. And somehow that felt more real than anything else could have.

They kept walking, the awkwardness from the bonfire already feeling like something from another lifetime. Nina pulled out her phone, scrolling through messages.

"Jake's been texting me all morning. Twenty messages about whether we're okay and if you're having a breakdown."

"Tell him I'm fine."

"I'm telling him you cried for three hours while listening to sad music."

"Nina!"

"What? He'll believe it. You're very emotional."

They walked through the neighborhood, trading jokes and insults like nothing had changed. But something had changed, sitting quiet underneath their banter. They both knew the conversation wasn't over, just postponed. The feelings were still there, waiting.

'Not now,' Kofi thought, watching Nina laugh at something on her phone. 'But someday.'

For now, this was enough. Walking with his friend on a gray Sunday morning, both of them pretending things were simple when they weren't. Both of them okay with that, at least for today.

When they got back to his apartment building, Nina stopped at the entrance.

"I should head home. Mom's making a big Sunday lunch and she'll kill me if I'm late."

"Yeah, okay."

She hesitated, then reached out and squeezed his hand quickly. "We're good, right? Really good?"

"Yeah. We're good."

She smiled, that real smile that made her whole face light up, then turned and walked away. He watched her go, then headed up to his apartment.

Thea was still at the dining table, but she'd finished her toast and was reading one of the books she'd gotten from the library. She looked up when he came in.

"Everything okay?"

The question surprised him. She rarely asked about anything.

"Yeah. Everything's okay."

She nodded and went back to her book. He went to the kitchen and finally made himself some toast, suddenly hungry. The apartment didn't feel like a tomb anymore. It felt like home again, quiet but not empty.

'We're all just pretending,' he thought, butter melting on the warm bread. 'But maybe that's okay for now.'