I found Peter sitting on the curb in front of the house, taking deep breaths of the cool autumn air. His arms were wrapped around himself, but I couldn't tell if it was because of the cold or as a means of comfort.

"Peter?" I asked, and he wheeled around immediately, looking distraught.

"I'm sorry, Jessa," he rambled. "But I can't go back in there." His fingers twitched nervously. "I should have just stayed home."

"No!" I said, sitting down next to him. "It was good you came. Now that we have all the parts hashed out, you can do the rest from home."

My stomach churned with guilt as Peter breathed rapidly. In any other circumstance, I wouldn't have insisted he come. The only reason he was here was because I hadn't wanted to be a third wheel—and because once Lana evaporated back into the Underworld, I knew he would be a good partner to have on this project. I was using him, and now he was having a full-blown panic attack.

I sat there with him in silence, waiting until his breaths were no longer jagged.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled under his breath, his eyes locked on the gravel.

"Don't be sorry. I'm sorry for asking you to come," I said, rubbing my hand on my thigh and looking back at the house. "Does... does this all have something to do with Sam?"

Immediately I regretted asking the question. Peter's face blanched and he shook his head frantically, as if trying to launch his skull into the street. "No," he said quickly. "Wh-why do you think that?"

"Because every time she's around, it looks like you want to jump out of your skin."

He shook his head, refusing to say anything for a full minute. But finally, after wringing his hands like a towel, he whispered, "I have a crush on her, okay? And I just... can't be around her. It makes me too anxious." He rubbed his elbows. "That's why I can't be here. Because she's here."

I blinked; I had not expected that answer. Sam was just so... Sam. It was hard to imagine anyone liking her.

And, for some reason, I had overlooked the fact that Peter could fall in love. He wasn't just a nerd with a fear of leaving the house. He had wants, needs, and desires like the rest of us.

"Are you going to ask her to the dance next week?"

Peter looked absolutely horrified. "No way! I'm not going to that. I would die."

I had to agree with him; I think the act would literally tilt him into cardiac arrest.

"Forget I said anything, please Jessa?" he pleaded. "I'll be fine. I just need to make it a few more months without fainting around her, and then she'll be far away at Yale or Stanford or wherever she gets in."

"I won't say anything," I promised. "That said... we're here for another seven months. So, you know, there's still plenty of time for you to ask her out on a date some day."

He laughed, something short and dry that sounded more like a cough. "I doubt it," he said. "Not anytime soon."

"Fair," I said, wondering how, yet again, I—a girl whose only kiss had been during a game of spin the bottle—had found myself playing matchmaker.

Peter interrupted my thoughts with an exhale. "Do you think they'll mind if I just... go home? I already know what part of the paper I have to work on. I just don't think I can go back in there." His eyes were pleading.

I nodded. "I'm sure that's fine. Do you need a ride home? I could borrow the keys from Billy..."

He cut me off with a gesture. "I live four houses down. A blessing and a curse." He laughed darkly and stood up. "Thanks Jessa. I really appreciate that you came out here to see that I was okay."

"No problem," I said, giving him a smile.

And without another word, Peter stood up and started to make his way down the street, eventually disappearing around the gentle bend of the road.

When I re-entered the family room, Lana was gathering up her papers and Billy was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where is he?" I whispered.

Lana gestured up the stairs. "Showering. He has this volunteer thing to go to." She looked at me. "Is Peter okay?"

I was genuinely surprised that she asked about Peter. "Yeah, he's fine. Just went home." I stared at her as she slipped her papers into her backpack. I couldn't read her face. What had happened while I was outside?

I opened my mouth to ask her, but she interrupted me with a quick, "Outside first." So after grabbing our bags, we made our hasty exit.

I could tell Lana didn't want to speak to me until we were good and far from the Stevens household. Luckily for her, it would take about an hour to walk from Billy's house to mine, so we had plenty of time to discuss what had happened. She waited a good ten minutes, and it was only once we had cleared out of his development and were walking alongside a busy street that she started talking.

"Jessa," she said, letting out a big, wide grin, "he is absolutely perfect."

I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath until I let it all in one giant sigh of relief. "Really?"

She nodded. "This is definitely what this deal was meant for. He's just the perfect man... boy?" She paused. "How old is he again? To be honest, the whole concept of age baffles me."

"Seventeen," I explained. "I think his birthday is in February."

Lana clearly wasn't interested in the human tradition of celebrating our personal transits around the sun. "When you ran outside," she said, diving back into her tale, "he was so concerned about Peter. They're not even close friends but he wanted to make sure he was okay! I assured him that you could handle it, and then we just... kept talking." Her eyes looked dreamy. "We talked about the project for a bit, but then it sort of drifted to other things. He started asking me questions about myself because... well, he doesn't really know me. So I told him that I used to live in Colorado and that my dad moved us here when I was 11 and I attended Seeton Middle School..."

She trailed off when she caught me giving her a look, and then she rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, what did you want me to say? That I moved to town last week after an extended stay in the Underworld? Also, I'm so old that your puny human brain would explode just trying to comprehend the number?"

"I just think it would have been nice if you had actually talked about something truthful. Maybe not the bit about the Underworld, but like, your interests and stuff."

Lana stared at me. "Interests?"

I blinked at her. "Please tell me that you have a hobby in the Underworld."

"Does making deals count?"

I chewed my cheek. "You know, I think you should just start telling people that you're going to major in business next year. It seems like the best fit for you."

"Hey!" Lana said, giving me a playful slap on the shoulder.

I laughed. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "I just want him to know the real you... or at least, the real you minus the supernatural details. If you want this to work, you need to be vulnerable. Relationships can't be based on lies."

"I'll work on it," Lana said, then let out a loud sigh. "It's just hard considering the supernatural details are kind of important. And also probably the biggest barrier to me ever meeting someone and having anything more than a one-time fling." She fiddled with her bracelet. "That said, I think I did all right for my first real one-on-one with him. Apparently he likes my sense of humor." She grinned. "And time really went by quickly, because at some point he looked at the clock and realized he needed to go upstairs and shower. Because—you're not going to believe this—he volunteers almost every day of the week at the hospital! He wants to be a doctor!"

"Oooh," I said approvingly. "A guy with ambition. Look at you go."

She smiled. "I just like being around him. He's a genuinely nice guy. I like that about him. I like him."

Suddenly she took my hand. I was startled by the move, but her hand was warm and soft and there was a look in her eye that I hadn't seen before.

"Jessa," she said, "I know this whole thing must be super weird for you. But I'm just... for the first time in a long time, I feel excited about something. I can't stop grinning. And it's all because of you. So... thank you."

Thank you.

My jaw dropped. "You just thanked me."

She nodded, letting go of my hand. "I know. It's not something I usually say. But..." She shrugged. "I'm trying to be better, okay? If all of this is going to work out, I need to work on myself. I need to be as good as Billy is."

"That sounds like a good goal," I said, looking down at my hand, where her touch lingered.

She sighed, clearly wrapped up in her moment and her thoughts of Billy, and I let her stay in that warm fog of a new crush as we walked home.