“We’re both happy for you. And maybe all’s not lost for us either. I just picked up another freelance assignment, and if I miraculously land the staff position at Tea—”

“Unless it pays upward of six figures, it won’t make a difference,” Mom said. “We have to move.”

I stilled, gripping my wineglass like a vise. It was a conversation I didn’t expect to have in front of an audience, even one as close as family…and Finn.

From the seat next to me, he patted my back in a show of sympathy.

Talking about such personal information with a virtual stranger was weird yet not. Maybe because Finn already knew about the rent hike, but I suspected it was because the last time he had felt like a stranger was the day we met, minus his irksome penchant to withhold information about himself. Our arms brushed together, not for the first time, and a delicious jolt of electricity ran through me. Logically, I knew the frequent grazing was because I was right-handed and he was left-handed, but neither of us acknowledged it or increased our own personal space to prevent its recurrence.

Mom continued. “We can’t swing the four thousand dollars a month it will cost, minimum, to stay in this apartment, even if you get the job at Tea.”

Even though I knew it was coming, hearing the words felt like someone was scooping out my insides. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ll figure it out. I’ll find a one-bedroom, hopefully around here. You’ll move in with a roommate or rent a studio somewhere.”

“You must stay in the neighborhood,” Tesibelle said, her voice stern. “We have traditions to hold up. Christmas and Easter at our house. Passover and Rosh Hashanah at yours.”

I half listened to Charles echo his wife’s sentiment and Mom promise she’d do her best. I was struck by her calm demeanor in the face of all these changes. Why wasn’t she angry about losing our home? Or sad we wouldn’t live together anymore? My armpits dampened. Was she happy about it? Relieved? Had her patience with me getting my own place been an act?

She reached for my hand across the table. “Don’t stress. We have time. And you have an open invitation on the couch. I promise you will always have a place to stay as long as I’m alive.”

Finn stared at my mother with a distant look in his eyes.

A heavy, leaden feeling overcame me. Was he thinking about when his father had been unable to say the same to him and his sister?

As if sensing me watching him, he blinked himself back to normal and stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.”

Less than a second later, Tesibelle whisper-shouted, “He’s adorable.”

“When’s the wedding?” Charles joked.