They would have the chance to grow old together, year by year. They would be friends until they both finally acknowledged the truth. And they would have everything that other couples had—the arguments and the hand-holding in the market and the gradual exploration of their bodies and the birthday celebrations and the journeys to new cities and the living as one and sharing a bed and the gradual sense of melting into each other. Their names would be entwined—Roman and Iris or Winnow and Kitt because could you truly have one without the other?—
Wait, what. She couldn't even treat Roman like a friend and now she thinks this? Iris has no idea how he even feels about her. In her mind, he just wanted someone to compete against and trade words with. How did she go from clueless to suddenly all-in without even knowing he loves her, let alone that she feels anything like that for him...?
Big jump there. A scene to grow intimacy in her POV, where she suspects his feelings, would have eased that.
