“Damn.” He shifts to face me slightly. “That’s incredible.”

“I was seven. It was kind of overwhelming,” I say. “But I was proud of my dad. I saw how proud my mom was of him, too. It was…I just remember this big rush of hope that they would look at me the same way someday.”

“They must, Elise. They must be proud.”

I nod. Keep right on nodding, but I don’t respond.

Tobias slides his arm along the back of my chair and when I get the courage to look up at him, he’s studying me with a rare mar between his brows. He gives me a gentle, “What?”

My shrug is jerky. “Before I was a sandwich girl, I was an entrepreneur of businesses I didn’t take the time to understand.” It takes me a moment to find my voice again, but oddly, I meet Banks’s eyes briefly across the pitch and that bolt of solidarity helps me continue, along with Tobias’s protective and encouraging arm around my shoulder. “Like I told you guys, I’m…afraid to start anything long term because it’ll go away before I reach the end, so I try and skip right to the end. Like serving turkey sandwiches in the hopes that I can charm the editor of the Gotham Times into letting me be a reporter. My parents used to support my go-getter attitude, but now I think they just…I think they’ve given up on me.”

“That’s not possible, Elise. I won’t believe that.”

“Lately, yeah.” My voice cracks a little. “I think it’s possible.”

Tobias draws me closer, his thumb beginning to brush up and down on my arm. “Have you been happy lately?” I’m not expecting the question and I don’t understand the relevance, so I turn to him with a raised eyebrow. “Parents can sense that kind of thing. When their child isn’t happy. They were proud of you when you were off trying all manner of professions, because you were happy. It wasn’t contingent on your succeeding. Maybe they just see you’re losing hope and they don’t know how to help.”

“No.” As much as I want to believe him, I shake my head adamantly. “I…”

“Hmm?”

“A week ago, I couldn’t picture myself spilling my guts to you.”

He winks at me. “Maybe it makes perfect sense. I made a living being at my most vulnerable on camera. Therefore, you probably feel safe being vulnerable with me.” His throat works through a shifting pattern of muscle, his attention dropping to my mouth and flaring. “Although, fuck me. I’m not sure I’ve been as vulnerable with anyone as I am with you, Elise.”

I gravitate closer to him, the warmth of his expensive scent making me dizzy, every nerve ending on my body sparking. “Enlisting was always in my back pocket. If I couldn’t make my parents or myself proud any other way, I could do this. I could follow in my dad’s footsteps. But I couldn’t even do that.”