Blaine blinked, his mouth open slightly. “My girlfriend?”

“Yeah, your girlfriend,” Kurt repeated. Hearing the word so many times made it feel so repetitive. Meaningless. But it wasn’t. “You’ve mentioned her at at least two of our chance encounters. She’s something besides school.”

Blaine nodded. “Um. Well, she’s great. We’re great, together.” Blaine seemed to gain confidence as he went on. “We’ve been dating for a little over four months. And, you know, no complaints.”

Kurt tried to stop his heart from sinking when he heard about Blaine’s great relationship, but he couldn’t help it. “What’s her name?” He wanted to give a name to whoever was dating this totally cute and unfortunately straight boy.

“Maia,” Blaine answered.

Maia. It’s a beautiful name. Maia and Blaine. Both of them, actually, have beautiful names. It’s only logical to think that she’s a beautiful girl, smart and funny and graceful and very, very female. Which was really a drag for Kurt. Out of masochism or a desire to keep the conversation going, he went on to ask, “How’d you meet her?”

“Uh, she was in one of my classes last year. Introductory English. Near the end of the year we were partnered together for a presentation, so that’s really how I met her. Then I saw her a few times over summer, just around town, and we started texting…one thing led to another, and we got together in early July.”

Kurt nodded, sipping his mocha. “That’s lovely,” he said finally.

Blaine hesitated before asking, “And…what about you? Are you, I mean, do you have a…boyfriend?”

Kurt laughed softly, humorlessly. “No,” he responded. “I’m single.”

“Oh, okay.” Blaine said quickly.

“It’s fine that you asked, though.” Kurt assured him. “But…no. I’ve pretty much been single since the end of my freshman year at NYADA.”

Blaine didn’t say anything, but Kurt could tell that he was waiting for the whole story. Kurt sighed. “You want to hear about it?”

“Only if you want to talk about it.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Okay.”

Kurt took a deep breath. “So, I move to New York City. I’m enraptured by everything, and it all sort of seems magical, at first. Classes are hard. I’m good at singing, and acting, but competing at a college level is different. I met a boy in my choir class. He was a bass, totally handsome, a native New Yorker. We talked in class, and then exchanged numbers. Eventually he was sweeping me off my feet, taking me to tiny Italian cafes and building tops to look at the skyline at night. I was totally in love. We dated nearly all year. Then…he made plans to go to Spain for the summer. I was willing to make it work, long distance for a few months, but he decided before he left that he didn’t want to try it. He was ready to move on, he told me. Had fallen out of love, or something. We broke up, he left for Spain. Never came back, actually. He’s still in Europe, I’m pretty sure. Probably fell deeply in love with a Spaniard on the romantic streets of Barcelona or something.” Kurt rolled his eyes. “There, now you have my sob story.”

Blaine shrugged. “That wasn’t really a sob story,” he commented. “Most of it was happy.”

“But not the ending.”

“Well, yeah.”

Kurt carefully sipped his drink. “Then again, most love stories will eventually end unhappily. Only one gets to last.”

Blaine snorted. “More than one, it seems, with the remarriage rates in this country.”

Kurt laughed at that. Why was Blaine so charming? He could so easily overshadow the uneasy feelings that always came with talking about Korey, even long after Kurt was over him. And Blaine had wanted to hear about Kurt’s past relationship, voluntarily. He cared enough to want to hear about the awful parts of Kurt’s life too. What kind of boy was he dealing with, here?

“True, but…remarriage doesn’t always mean a previous failed marriage.”

Blaine raised his eyebrow. Kurt continued. “My parents are remarried. My dad and my stepmom, I mean. Both of their previous spouses died.”

“Oh,” Blaine said softly. Kurt was used to the look on his face. The ‘oh-crap-your-mom-is-dead-I’m-so-sorry’ look.

“But Carole and my dad love eachother,” Kurt went on, trying to avoid any condolences Blaine might offer. “And I love her. I got a stepbrother out of it, too.”

Blaine nodded, smiling softly. “Tell me about your family.”

Kurt rolled his eyes slightly. “Well, my dad and Carole, obviously, live here. And my dad owns the tire shop, you know that. I actually introduced him and Carole-I knew her son, Finn, from school. They ended up getting married my junior year in high school. Carole is great. I’m really glad that-well, that if my dad was going to get married again, that it was her. And Finn, my stepbrother…well, he’s in Arizona, playing football in college. He can be obnoxious, but we do get along really well. They’ve all always been really supportive of me-well, except for when Finn picked on me before we knew eachother, but that’s irrelevant. I’m just…thankful, I guess.” Kurt chuckled. “Here I am, getting sentimental.”

Blaine was smiling as he heard about Kurt’s family. Kurt smiled back, took a sip of his drink, and then said, “Well, your turn. Tell me about your family.”

Blaine’s smile faded slightly. “Uh…you know, my parents live in Westerville. No siblings. Haven’t I told you about this already?”

Kurt shook his head. “No, you’ve told me that, but you haven’t actually told me anything about your parents. Besides where they live.”

Blaine put both his hands around his coffee cup, looking down at it. “My dad…works in Columbus. He’s a surgeon. My mom, uh…well, she’s sort of the stereotypical housewife. She’s in a book club and the boosters for like, everything at the local high school, PTA and whatnot. She’s always really busy.”

Kurt waited, but Blaine didn’t go on. “That’s all?” he asked.

Blaine’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“That’s all you have to say about them?”

“Um…” Blaine glanced at his coffee, still looking confused. “I guess. Yeah.”

Kurt pursed his lips, but decided not to pursue it. He took one last sip of his mocha, finishing it off. He noticed that Blaine still had about a third of his cup full. Even in the complexity of Blaine’s expression, Kurt couldn’t help but notice the way the lamp above their table made his skin glow with a golden tinge; the way his thick eyelashes framed amber-colored eyes; the way his styled hair was curlier at the ends, escaping the product Blaine had put in it. His strong, thick jaw cast a shadow down his neck, his collarbone peeking out above his soft, gray sweater. Blaine was beautiful. More than that, Blaine seemed truly interesting, and slightly enigmatic. Kurt wanted to unravel his mysteries, to smooth out the wrinkle between his eyebrows. Kurt hated that he thought that way about this boy who would never show interest in him, but he couldn’t help it. He was attracted to Blaine in a strange way, interested in him from the very start, quickly becoming drawn to him, despite their vast differences and the uncrossable obstacle in their relationship. Even though he knew he was only going to get hurt in the end, Kurt didn’t cut it off. He didn’t save himself from late pain. Instead, he asked, “Blaine, would you like to go for a walk?”

Blaine looked up from his coffee, still brooding. After a moment, he smiled. “Sure.”

They stood up together and left the coffee shop, Kurt leading slightly. Blaine seemed content to follow.