"We did not," he says, grinning. "What time would be good?"

"Tonight after some magic lessons? I can drive us if your dad will let me borrow his car. We could get seafood."

"It might amuse you to know that I had decided to ask you out on the first of March if nothing relevant had changed for the worse by then."

"... That is interesting!" he agrees. "Why the first of March? Just a set date, in general?"

"I considered the first of April, actually, but that had obvious problems. The first of something seemed like a nice bright line and I didn't care to wait until May."

Darren laughs, a little. "Makes sense. Savannah nagged me about it after the trip to Seattle. As I mentioned - traumatizing. She is very supportive of us, by the way."

"That is nice of her. In its way. Did she say why?"

"Apparently we are cute. Together."

"Or so she speculates. Perhaps she'll be horrified by the reality."

"Maybe, in which case, we'll have to stop sitting with her at lunch. I'll have to avoid her at home, too."

"What, really?"

He snorts with laughter. "No. Pretty sure she's not going to be horrified at all."

"I don't really expect her to be either."

"Which is good. I imagine it would be inconvenient if you had to avoid her."

"Very. She's my twin, we share a room."

"Sharing a room sounds awful."

"In some cases, but it's okay. I mean, annoying sometimes, but I'm kind of used to it by now."

Bella decides to just look at her serenely.

"... Well? Oh come on, did you at least take pity on him?"

At this Bella actually laughs.