Zeke looked up from his Biochem textbook, not sure he'd heard correctly. At least, he hoped he hadn't heard correctly.

Across his dining room table, Clio, who also had her biochem book open, was using the eraser end of her pencil to punch numbers on her calculator. She looked at the results and carefully filled in part of the chart she was making on her graph paper.

Both were premed at Columbia, and while Clio seemed to have a pretty good handle on the class, it was kicking Zeke's ass, and he was glad that Clio, who at eighteen was the youngest in his year, was able to help him.

It was late spring, and the windows were open, letting the warm air blow in. They only had a couple weeks of class left before they finished with their freshman year, and this hateful biochem class would finally be over.

"He is?" Zeke carefully kept his face and voice neutral, as if the news weren't earth shattering, as if his world weren't in danger of spinning off its axis.

Clio nodded, putting her pencil in her mouth lengthwise like a dog with a bone so she could really go to town with her calculator. She did this sometimes, when she had a lot of numbers to punch very quickly. She, like Zeke, had a super fancy scientific calculator, bigger and heavier than a regular calculator, in many ways more like a miniature computer than a calculator. Zeke loved to watch her work it rapid fire like this.

First, she positioned the fingers of her right hand over the keys, hovering over the middle of the keyboard as she looked at her graph. Then she zeroed in on the numbers she wanted to check. Then she started pushing the numbers, almost faster than Zeke could see, eyes darting quickly, lips moving a little as she read them to herself. Because she'd played the piano since she was a baby practically, Clio could do this faster than anyone in the whole class, almost like a machine. It was amazing.

Clio finally punched in the last number, hit enter, and checked the results, eyes flicking back and forth between the display and her paper. She nodded slightly, satisfied with the results, as she cleared out the calculator.

She took the pencil out of her mouth and looked up at Zeke.

"Why? It's not a problem, is it? Archie moving to New York, I mean?"

Zeke shook his head.

Clio smiled, making her dimple pop, making Zeke feel like he was melting onto his mother's dining room carpet.

"You know, Zeke, I think you'll like him if you just give him a chance. Archie's really interesting. He's traveled all over the world, and seen so many things. He's very smart, and funny."

Zeke smiled, running his hand through his brown curls, which were short and close to his head. "But I already know you, Clio," he pointed out. "You're all those things. How many interesting, smart, funny people does one person need to know?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Z, you can never have too many fun friends," Clio said, grabbing a green gummy bear from the bowl between them and tossing it at Zeke's face.

Zeke caught it with his mouth and ate it, smiling at her. "Thanks," he said.

They worked in silence for a few more minutes, though Zeke did sneak a few looks at Clio from time to time. He loved watching her work, how her hair hung over her shoulder, even though she kept shoving it back, how her earrings swung back and forth when she turned her head, and how he caught a whiff of her perfume or shampoo or something whenever she reached for her water bottle.

Whenever Zeke prayed to god, whenever he went to Temple with his parents, for as long as he could remember, the first thing he thanked him for was always Cliona Rose Santangelo. He could remember being in kindergarten and laboriously printing her whole name on the special valentine's card he bought for her at Duane Read, and how long it took him to write. His mother had tried to convince him that just writing her first name, "Clio," would be enough; after all, that was all he'd written for all his other classmates, wasn't it?

But Zeke had been obstinate, shaking his head, gamely finishing her middle name, which he'd written in red crayon (because Rose), and going to work on the dauntingly long "Santangelo."

And she'd just given him a regular origami valentine, exactly the same as the one she'd given to Wayne Saunders, in fact, with a home made Rice Krispies treat attached.

But Zeke didn't care.

And Clio didn't know it, but Zeke still had that origami Valentine, in an old shoe box in his closet.

Zeke used to hope that Clio might return his feelings someday, but then she'd transferred to Hamilton Academy in seventh grade, and he didn't get to see her every day anymore. He'd worried endlessly that she might meet someone there, some musical genius like her who would sweep her off her feet and take her away from him. That hadn't happened, but then she'd gone off to UCLA for a semester, and there she'd met Archie Spencer, and Zeke had known, from the first time she mentioned him casually in a text, that he, Zeke, was sunk.

Even now, watching that small, secret smile play across her lips, Zeke knew she wasn't thinking about biochem. That smile was intended for Archie Spencer, good-looking, interesting, funny, brother to a rock star Archie, who would be coming here to live.

Great.

Clio, for her part, was beyond joyful. The biochem book in front of her blurred and disappeared as she thought about the fall, when Archie would come to New York, and she could finally spend time with the boy she knew she was in love with. She daydreamed about walking around Central Park, Chinatown, going to see a play, or just kicking around the East Village with Archie, and how much fun it would be, and smiled to herself.

Zeke's voice cut into her daydreams. "How long have you known?"

Clio looked at Zeke, trying not to feel guilty. "Um, since March."

"What's he going to do here?" Zeke asked, giving up on his biochem for the moment and giving Clio his full attention.

"That's the coolest part," Clio said, smiling again. "He's a total animal lover and wants to be a veterinarian, so he's coming to Columbia as pre-med, too!"

Zeke stared at Clio. "Really? Aren't there schools with really good pre-vet programs? Like UC Davis? In California? Where he already lives?"

"Yeah, but he wants to live in New York, and he wanted to go to an Ivy League school, so Columbia was the logical choice, you know?" Clio's eyes were shining, Zeke noted with a sinking feeling in his heart.

"Zeke." Clio's voice was soft. "I've always been honest with you, haven't I? I mean, I've always tried to be."

Zeke nodded.

"If us being friends isn't enough for you, maybe we shouldn't see each other anymore." Clio looked at him, brown eyes serious.

Zeke shook his head. "No. Don't say that. I love being your friend."

"And I love being yours, so much, Z. I'd hate to give it up. But I will if I have to, okay?"

"You don't have to. I'm fine with Archie coming here. I'm even looking forward to meeting him. We'll have great times studying together and hanging out."

Clio bit her lip, closing her book finally.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm finished, and it's getting late. I should get home. Unless you need help with something? You need me to stay?"

Zeke shook his head. "No, I'm fine. You're right, you should get home. I'll walk you." He rose. "Let me get my coat."

"No, I'll be fine, I've got Della with me, remember?"

"Yeah, Della will protect you." Zeke laughed. "That dog wouldn't hurt anyone."

"She can be ferocious if she thinks one of us is being threatened," Clio answered indignantly. "Besides, it's how she looks that matters. People think she's dangerous, that's what's important.

"Della, here girl!" she called. Della, who was watching TV with Zeke's parents, rose and trotted to her mistress, shaking herself and stretching for the four blocks' walk home.

"Clio, you leaving?" Zeke's mother called. "You want one of us to drive you? Or is Zeke going to walk you, at least?"

"No, Ms. Steiner, Della and I will be okay," Clio answered. "It's not even ten o'clock."

She called out her good nights, hugged Zeke and left over his protests.

"And don't follow me," she admonished.

Zeke made a face. "I'm going to take a shower," he promised.

Clio and Della headed south on Church Street toward her apartment, stopping frequently so people could pet Della and answering questions about her gigantic dog. Contrary to popular opinion, she'd always found New Yorkers to be polite and friendly, and she couldn't understand where their reputation for being brusque and rude came from.

While she walked, her mind again wandered to Archie, and how much fun it would be when he came. She hadn't seen him in months, not since he'd been in the city with his family while his brother and sister-in-law had been on their tour last January. He was watching his adorable twin nieces as their nanny while their parents were touring, and there had been an incredible amount of drama. Archie, Kiki, Lulu and even their dog, Wookie, had ended up staying at the Santangelo's apartment for a few days, and it had been so fun.

Clio had her first kiss from Archie while he had been visiting, in the Holland Tunnel, of all places, and Clio cherished the memory, holding it to her and reliving it over and over during the long months she was separated from Archie.

(AN: The above two paragraphs refer to things that happen in the sequel to The PA, called Another Slice of Cake, which comes out on Amazon on July 31st. I cannot post it on Wattpad, I'm sorry, against the rules. I'll post the link to preorder in the comments to the right of this paragraph if anyone wants to order it.👉 I believe it's $4.99.)

She couldn't wait to see him and kiss him again.

On a whim, she pulled out her phone and sent him a text.

"I can't wait until you come, so we can have our second kiss."

A return text came almost immediately:

"Who in the hell is this?"

"Very funny, Mr. Spencer. When are you coming, officially?"

"Officially, I'll be there in August, probably, so I have time to look for an apartment before classes start. Will you help me look?"

"That depends. Will I get a commission? Will there be room for me in the apartment?"

"A commission possibly. Room to visit, definitely. But just platonically visit."

"Then yeah, I'll help."

They'd gone around and around about this topic, actually. Clio knew that Archie had what he euphemistically referred to as a "colorful" past. He wanted to take things slow with Clio so as not to "bollocks things up," as he put it.

Clio, on the other hand, felt that being an eighteen year old virgin was laughable, and wanted to change this state of affairs immediately. If not sooner.

They had mutually agreed to revisit this topic when Archie arrived in New York.

Clio could hardly wait.