We still have ten minutes left in our visit, but Kelsey is packing up.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“Oh, I need to take care of some things,” she says.

“Okay.”

There’s the awkward pause again, but then she smiles and says, “Happy sixteen-day anniversary.”

I can’t believe we’re celebrating a sixteen-day anniversary, but I say, “You too. And I’ll make it up to you. For forgetting.”

She smiles again. “Oh yeah? How?”

“It’ll be a surprise.” A surprise. Every time my dad would skip one of his custody weekends with me he’d tell me that next time he saw me he’d have a surprise for me. I never knew if he meant it’d be a gift, or something special we were doing. Because whenever I finally saw him again, he’d never bring it up.

“I like surprises,” Kelsey says, and I feel guilty when she smiles even more. She squeezes my hand. “See you tomorrow.”

She leaves, and then I hear Flora’s dad and Goldy leave, and it’s just Flora and me.

It seems so quiet in the room that I think I hear my heartbeat in my ears.

Then Flora’s phone makes a video chat ring. I hear her groan, wait a second, then say, “Hi!”

There is a bunch of giggling on the phone, and Flora says “Hi” again, and then the giggling stops and a girl says, “Flora! We thought you were dead!” Followed by more giggling.

“Wow, thanks,” Flora says, and the girls keep laughing.

“Sorry,” one of them says. “We just ate a bunch of cookie dough and are super hyper.”

“Maybe if we get sick we can come to your hospital and stay with you!”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Flora says, but the girls are laughing too hard to hear her.

“Why did you call me?”

One of the girls says, “Shut up, I can’t hear Flora! What did you say, Flora?”

But there is more giggling, and then it sounds like the phone drops, and then one of the girls says, “She put cookie dough down my shirt!”

There is some more scuffling, then it sounds like running, and the other girl says, out of breath, “Flora, we’re so happy you’re feeling better. We were going to make these cookies for you as a welcome-home present but we ate all the dough!”

Then there is screaming.

“Sorry we haven’t been able to raise you more money. I guess people aren’t interested in helping cure a new disease. Maybe because it doesn’t make your face look gross or anything.”

“Hey, can you kiss me when you get back? I want mono! I’d love to sleep for a few weeks and skip school. That sounds awesome.”

Flora sighs. “I have to go now. My doctor will be here soon.”

“Ohhh, your doctor. Is he hot?”

“That’s such a weird thing to ask. Who cares if her doctor is hot? And why do you assume her doctor is a man?”

“Fair point. But is he? She?”

Another eruption of giggles, but this time they end abruptly, and the call is over.

Flora takes a deep breath, then I see her feet on the floor by the curtain, and then she says, “Sorry, Oliver.”

“It’s okay,” I say quickly. But I don’t know why she’s apologizing. She told me being a good listener is important, that girls like that, so I say, “Do you want to talk?”

She opens the curtain. “You have no idea.”

Her hair is piled on top of her head in one of those crazy bun things that girls seem to know how to do instinctively and that seem super confusing to me. She’s in yoga pants and a hoodie and she looks … effortlessly beautiful.

I must be looking at her too closely because she plays with the zipper on her hoodie and says, “I can come back later if now isn’t a good time.”

“No, no, it is. Stay!” I pat my bed. It feels too close, too intimate, but she sits down next to me. Her leg rests against mine.

I look at our legs, feel the warmth.

Flora exhales, and her breath is on my cheek. “I’m sorry my friends are idiots.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me. I mean, it’s not your fault. I mean—”

“No, I just feel bad. They were being so loud and stupid. I wasn’t sure if you were trying to … rest or anything.”

“I’m good. Thank you, though.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Um, are you good?” I ask.

Flora exhales again, and I’m so aware of how close her mouth is to me, of her leg still pressing against mine. “Quarantine isn’t all I thought it was cracked up to be,” she finally says.

“Oh?” I say carefully.

“I thought some distance from my friends, from my family, would be good. But it’s just made everything harder, worse.” She pauses for a moment. “Oliver, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for dragging you into this.” She grabs my hand, then lets go quickly.

“You didn’t drag me into anything.”

Flora laughs. “You are a terrible liar. I one thousand percent dragged you into this. You wouldn’t be sitting here in a hospital room if it weren’t for me. If it weren’t for me …” She trails off, her eyes searing into mine. “But look, it got you a girlfriend!” She nudges my arm gently.

“Right, my girlfriend.”

It’s quiet for a few seconds. My mind is going a million directions, but I say, “Your friends aren’t idiots, they’re just clueless. There’s a difference. They’re worried about you but don’t know how to tell you, and they have no idea what you’ve gone through. My friends acted like idiots too after my dad died.”

It’s the first time I’ve talked about my dad with Flora. With anyone, actually, besides my mom.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” Flora says quietly.

“It’s okay. He was a jerk.”

Flora doesn’t say anything; she just waits for me to go on. “But I still miss him,” I say. “Isn’t that stupid?”

“No. Absolutely not. My dad is a jerk sometimes too and I still miss him.”

“He doesn’t seem like it. My dad really was a huge jerk. Like really. Like didn’t visit me or keep in touch with me kind of jerk.”

I should feel embarrassed to be telling her all this, but I don’t.

“I mean, what kind of dad doesn’t even call his own son?” I feel tears in my eyes, but I will not cry in front of Flora.

“A jerk. You’re right. But you know it’s because he’s a jerk and not because you’re a jerk, right?”

I nod, afraid that if I speak I really will cry.

“Good. Because you’re the opposite of a jerk. You’re pretty awesome, actually.”

She moves her leg away, and immediately I miss feeling her body so close to mine. My leg is warm from where she was resting against me. She called me awesome.

“Thank you,” I say carefully, not trusting my own voice. “But we were supposed to be talking about you! Isn’t that why you came over?”

“Was it? I don’t even know anymore. Maybe we should stop talking about people like my idiot friends and your jerk dad and start talking about awesome people.”

“Like me?” I say before I can stop myself.

“Works for me.” She smiles.

She thinks I’m awesome. “I bet you say that to all the boys you’re in quarantine with.”

She laughs, throws her head back, and her hair tickles my neck. “Kelsey is one lucky girl,” Flora says. She stands up suddenly. “Speaking of, since I’m the author of the handbook, I also think we should probably remind everyone on the Internet that she is your girlfriend. Just in case. Team Kelser, right?”

“Um, right, good idea.” But I think that’s the last thing I feel like doing. “How do you think we should do that?”

“We could make a video.”

“A video?”

“Just to show everyone that we’re just roommates. That Kelsey is your girlfriend. How silly Floriver is,” Flora says.

“Right. It’s silly.”

“Totally silly!”

“Right,” I say again. “So what kind of video?”

“Oh, I have to think of it?” But she’s smiling.

“Yeah, aren’t you the hashtag manager?”

She wrinkles her nose at me and I laugh, and she just looks madder and wrinkles her nose more. I want so badly to tell her how cute she is.

“So glad you’re taking this so seriously, Oliver,” she says. But then she smiles at me again. “Well, since we’re roommates, why don’t we make a video showing our room?”

“That’s deep.”

“Hey, I don’t see you coming up with anything better! Anyway, we can do it tomorrow. I’m sure you probably need to text or chat with Kelsey now. It is your sixteen-day anniversary, after all.”

“You heard that?” I say, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Flora smirks at me, and I say, “Girl handbook says to listen, not eavesdrop.”

She says, “Touché,” and closes the curtain. I hear her laughing on her side of the room. I touch the part of my leg that rested against hers. It’s still warm.