Senior year arrived with the particular bittersweet urgency of genuine, significant transition — Ivy and Lex both approaching graduation from their respective colleges, the accumulated momentum of their entire remarkable journey now pressing toward decisions about what actual, adult life would concretely look like once the protective structure of formal education finally concluded.
"We should probably start actually planning this wedding properly," Lex said, during one of their regular weekend visits, now considerably easier to arrange given both of them entering their final undergraduate year with somewhat more flexible scheduling than earlier, more demanding semesters had allowed. "Not immediately, obviously — I think we both still want some genuine time to settle into whatever comes af
