It’s been a year to the day since I met him at a French coffee shop on Hawthorne and handed off a hasty birthday gift. I brought oddly flavored M&M’s and suggested we share them, try them together. My mouth dry, from nervousness. Just asking for something so previously mundane to us made my teeth clink together like they were made of glass. My smile hesitant and too wide, unsure he would even consider the request.