"Yeah, I might have come back and been with Forrest, but he left almost as soon as I got back to town. He asked me to come with him. Instead, I stayed in Roswell." Alex turned toward Michael, cupping his neck with one hand, thumb running along his jaw. "If you believe anything, believe that I still love you. If ten years away couldn't change that, Forrest didn't have a chance. Kyle hasn't changed it. He just showed me I could love someone in addition to you. But never instead of."

"I got a job offer. For Deep Sky. Turns out Deep Sky is Kyle's uncle. Not that I knew that at first. I just knew that he gave me a puzzle to solve and I couldn't help myself. I was interested. And that puzzle eventually brought me back into your orbit. And we did what we always do when we're together. But there was a difference this time. We were ready - both of us - to not screw it up."

Not that there hadn't been a few stumbles. But the important thing was that the stumbles hadn't brought things to a jerking halt like they had in the past.

"And as for why I kissed you... You were gone, Michael. One day I just wake up and you're not there. I don't care if you remember the city or not. I don't even care if we were together or not. I lose someone I love, I lose you and then you show up again, you're getting kissed."