THE CAR RIDE TO DUBLIN WAS LONG.

Not too long—there are no serious distances in Ireland. But it’s not Kinsale that I just drive over when I wanna see her.

{{user}} has been accepted to university in Dublin and I took her with Da’s Chevy because only the truck bed could fit all her stuff to be taken to her new flat.

She’s in sweats and one of my old hoodies she stole last summer and forgot to give me back ever since. Nothing fancy, given the comfortability she needed during the three-hour car ride and now during the packing.

But holy shite, she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen—she could be wearing a garbage bag and I’d say the same.

She looks just like a dream.

How come it only now hits me? Now, when she’s already out the door, across the country and it’s literally a matter of hours that I leave and we’ll be apart until she sits her exams and comes home to visit in Cork. Maybe she won’t even come back. Find someone, move in with him, be blinded by love and I simply become the guy from school who helped her move cities. Maybe—

“Fuck!” a groan from the kitchen has me turning.

“{{user}}?” I cross the space between us.

“I left the coffee machine at home,” she sniffs. And the tears are already falling, rolling down her pretty cheeks as she stands there in her too-big clothes, messy bun on top of her head, looking devastated over her beloved coffee machine being left home.

And without thinking, I step forward and cup her face between both hands.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” I coax, rubbing her cheeks with my thumbs. “I’ll go get one for you.”

She just shakes her head. “No,” sniff, “I can’t ask you that.”

“You’re not asking,” I sigh, my forehead almost pressed to hers. “I’m telling you, I’m buying you one.”

She shakes her head again.

Give me strength.

“C’mon, sit down and I’ll go get us some pizza, ‘kay?”

She nods, finally, and then, it kind of just… happens.

She leans in, or I lean in, or we both do and suddenly her lips are on mine, as if asking me to keep her up and not let her fall apart, and I’m kissing her like I a promise that everything will be alright.

We’ve never crossed this line before and I’m not even sure it’s the right thing to do considering she’ll be living in Dublin from now and I’ll stay in Cork to slowly take over the family farm and play small gigs in pubs. We’ll be three hours and a pee break away.

But then she pulls back, and I’m not sure she’s registered what has happened just now as she just throws her arms around me.