It was a bit surreal, to be honest. I tried to convince myself that I had misheard her, but I knew I hadn't.

A few weeks later, after the Christmas break, we were talking about boundaries, and how she knows she is crossing some of them. I made a joke about how all boundaries have been shattered at this point, and she laughed. Then, without specifying what I was talking about, I said, "You know, I walked away telling myself that you hadn't just said that." And she replied, "I did say it. I said I love you." She told me that it just sort of slipped out during our hug, but that she really does love me.

Before that she had been saying things like, "I love that about you," and, "What's not to love about you?" But it's very different to hear the words "I love you", somehow. Or maybe that's just me.

What scares me is how much I love her.