Outside, in the small garden.
Claire Shawcross toyed with a bougainvillea, teasing, "Things are moving pretty fast, huh?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Stella Sterling's focus wavered. "We're just friends. There's nothing 'moving' or 'not moving'."
"Are you sure?" Claire grinned, her eyes crinkling with meaning.
Stella avoided her gaze and silently plucked at flower petals.
In the blink of an eye, the ground was littered with torn petals.
Unable to watch any longer, Claire slapped her hand lightly. "Let go. You're going to pluck it bald."
Stella, her mind heavy with thoughts, looked down and fidgeted with her fingers. "He and I..."
"I get it~" Claire, far more experienced in love than Stella, knew exactly what was going on just by looking at her.
"There are six stages to a relationship: The hazy stage, the ambiguous stage, the honeymoon stage, the stable stage, the fighting stage, and the breakup stage. You're currently somewhere between hazy and ambiguous, right?"
