“He got him down the steps,” she said after a moment. “Better than the rest of us have ever done.” She walked back into the room and sat down on the bed. “How long do you think we have to wait before we’re allowed to go downstairs?”

Erin laughed and sat down next to her. “We’re allowed  to go down whenever, because we’re adults and he’s a kid. He can’t tell us what to do.” Says the woman who gets bossed around by this kid daily.

“ You’re  an adult. I’m a semi-functioning twenty-two-year-old. Plus, I don’t want to get yelled at.”

Erin ignored the comment about her age, because she didn’t want to think about that right now. “Are you telling me you’re scared of a three-year-old?”

“Hell yeah. That kid can get very sassy.”

“Oh, I know. He totally gets that from his aunt, not me.”

“ Sure ,” Blair said sarcastically. After a moment, her face became more serious. “Your family is awesome by the way.

“They really are. Well, when they’re not trying to convince me to move back home, they are.” Or trying to talk to me about the feelings I may or may not have for a certain babysitter.

Blair studied Erin’s face for a long time as though she were trying to find something there. “And where would home be?”

“About three hours from here in Middle-of-Nowhere Pennsylvania.”

“Yikes. I can see why you wouldn’t want to go back there.”

“Right?” Erin slapped the bed, because it felt so good to hear someone agree with her for once. “I have no interest in moving back to a town that still thinks people who use the bathroom that aligns with their gender are sexual predators.”

“I agree. I couldn’t imagine. If I lived in a town like that, I don’t know if I would’ve ever come out.”

“That’s probably why it took me until my last year in college to do it.”

Blair’s eyes went wide. “Oh, wow. You should probably go back and experience it as an out-and-proud lesbian. Being out in college was ah-mazing.” She lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling wistfully. “Gay girls. Straight girls. Questioning girls. They’re all into it.”

Erin swallowed hard. “Yeah, I wouldn’t know anything about that. My ex was also my only.”

“Holy shit.” Blair shot back up into a sitting position. “Even since?”

Erin laughed. It was kind of adorable that Blair would think she actually found time to date over the past year. “Definitely not. My whole life is work and Nolan. That’s why my family wants me to move home so badly—to give me the extra help.”

Blair put her hand on Erin’s knee and squeezed, a simple touch that Erin felt throughout her whole body. “Well, now you have me. No need for small-minded hometowns.”