Danny stabbed at his salad with all the aggression of a man on the brink of a full-blown existential crisis.

“This is stupid,” he muttered, jabbing a cherry tomato so hard it shot off his plate and onto the café table.

Across from him, Sophie McAllister—the patron saint of zero tolerance for Danny’s nonsense—sighed heavily and picked it up, dropping it back onto his plate like she was dealing with a particularly dumb toddler.

“You’re stupid,” she corrected, stirring her iced coffee with slow, deliberate movements. “And also pathetic.”

Danny huffed. “I don’t need this kind of negativity in my life.”

“Oh, but you do.” She leveled him with a pointed look over the rim of her cup. “You called me, remember? I was having a perfectly good day until you started whining about your tragic, unrequited love story—again.”

Danny groaned and dropped his fork, slumping forward dramatically. “It’s not tragic—”

“It is, actually,” Sophie interrupted. “And not even in a Romeo and Juliet kind of way. This is, like, a straight-to-streaming, low-budget rom-com where the audience is screaming at the main character to just get their shit together kind of tragic.”

Danny lifted his head just enough to glare at her. “I hate that you’re right.”

“I know.” She smirked, pleased with herself. “Now, please, for the love of all things holy, just tell Jake how you feel.”

Danny choked on his sip of water.

“Are you out of your mind?” he wheezed. “That is not happening.”

Sophie rolled her eyes so hard it was a wonder they didn’t get stuck. “Why? Because of what happened in high school?”

“Yes, because of what happened in high school!” Danny threw his hands up. “I confessed, and he hit me with the most lukewarm, ‘Oh, I’m flattered, bro’ rejection in the history of humanity!”

Sophie cringed. “Yeah, okay, that was pretty brutal.”

“Exactly!” Danny pointed a dramatic finger at her. “Do you really think I’m gonna put myself through that again? No, thanks. I’d rather throw myself into oncoming traffic.”

Sophie tapped her fingers against her cup. “But you’re not in high school anymore.”

Danny blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She shrugged. “People change. Maybe he’s changed.”

Danny snorted. “Jake? Change? This is the same man who refuses to update his phone because ‘the old one still works fine’ and insists on using ‘bro’ in every other sentence like he’s contractually obligated.”

Sophie smirked. “And yet, you’re in love with him.”

Danny groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Sophie took a long sip of her drink, watching him over the rim of her cup with a knowing glint in her eyes. “So, what’s your plan? Just… pining forever?”

Danny scowled. “It’s not pining.”

“It’s so pining,” she countered. “You wrote his name on your Econ notes the other day.”

Danny nearly choked again. “That was an accident!”

“Sure, Jan.”

Danny groaned and ran a hand down his face. “This is your fault, by the way.”

“My fault?” Sophie repeated, amused. “Oh, please, I’ve been telling you to move on for years.”

Danny made a dramatic show of flopping back against his seat. “Yeah, well, you’re the one who told me to tell him in the first place.”

Sophie scoffed. “Okay, first of all, that was four years ago. Second of all, I assumed he had more emotional depth than a kiddie pool. That’s on me.”

Danny snorted, but the humor faded almost instantly as he sighed, picking at his salad again.

Sophie softened. “Look, Danny. You can’t keep living like this. It’s exhausting just watching you.”

Danny sighed. “I know.”

“Then why are you making this so hard for yourself?” She tilted her head. “You could stop being a coward and just go for it.”

Danny flinched.

Sophie sighed. “Danny. What if he’s not as straight as you think?”

Danny’s stomach twisted.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it before—of course, he had. How could he not, when Jake did things that weren’t normal best friend things?

Like stealing his hoodies.

Like sleeping in his bed on random nights.

Like getting weirdly territorial whenever Danny went on dates.

Like kissing his forehead that one time when Danny was sick, then brushing it off like it was nothing.

Danny had tried to convince himself it was just Jake being Jake. That he was reading too much into things.

But was he?

The problem was, Jake wasn’t the kind of person to question himself too much. He just existed, floating through life with all the ease and confidence of someone who had never spent hours overanalyzing every interaction the way Danny had.

And if he had ever questioned his sexuality, he certainly wasn’t talking about it.

Danny shook his head. “Sophie. I can’t— I can’t just risk it again.”

“Why not?”

Danny shot her a flat look. “Do you want me to die of embarrassment?”

She waved a hand. “You’re dramatic. You’ll survive.”

Danny huffed. “Not if Jake starts acting weird after.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “Jake’s been acting weird for months.”

Danny hated how true that was.

Still, the idea of opening himself up again, of making a move, made his stomach turn.

He just couldn’t.

But he also… couldn’t keep doing this.

Sophie must have sensed his internal war, because she sighed and changed tactics. “Fine. If you’re not gonna go for it, then you have to move on.”

Danny frowned. “I’m trying.”

“No, you’re not.” She jabbed a finger at him. “You’re just sitting in your apartment, drowning in pining and pretending to hate it when Jake steals your stuff.”

Danny crossed his arms. “You think I should just… go out and date someone else?”

“Yes!” Sophie threw her hands up. “Literally anyone else. Make out with a stranger, get on a dating app, go flirt with some guy at a party—anything!”

Danny stared down at his untouched salad, heart hammering.

Moving on.

Could he?

Hadn’t he already tried?

Hadn’t he spent years trying?

And yet, sitting across from Sophie, hearing her say it so plainly, something inside him twisted.

Because maybe she was right.

Maybe it was time.

Danny sighed. “Fine. I’ll—” He swallowed. “I’ll try.”

Sophie brightened. “Good! I’ll help.”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

She grinned, already pulling out her phone. “Don’t worry about it.”

Danny very much worried about it.

Because somehow, he had the feeling that agreeing to this was going to end in absolute disaster.