What the fuck does that mean?

Principal Grim started the staff meeting and Sebastian swallowed down his growl of frustration. His mind was in about eight different places all at once, and he’d never in his life felt more aware of another person as he was of Via DeRosa. She crossed one leg over the other, and Seb held his breath. When she tapped her capped pen on the back of the hot pink invitation, Seb felt insane, like she was trying to tap out a message to him. And when she leaned forward to whisper something in Shelly’s ear, he caught that scent again. Almond and rosemary.

So many things hit him at once. He hadn’t realized quite how constrained he’d felt that she’d had a boyfriend. He’d convinced himself that it didn’t matter either way. But here he was, considering the fact that he could now flirt with her, guilt-free, and the idea was swelling up like a piece of ripening fruit.

She was single. She was available. She was free.

He held back a groan.

She was single and free. Which meant she was probably going to get on Tinder like everyone else her age. She was going to date and hook up and party. She was free, but that didn’t mean she was available to Seb and all the baggage that came with him.

She was in her twenties. Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow. She was single, and it changed so much.

But it didn’t change everything.

Fuck.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“SO,” GRACE SAID matter-of-factly as she heated up leftovers in the microwave. “You broke up with your man?”

The penny finally dropped. Via had been utterly bemused after the staff meeting to find Grace and Shelly practically zipping her into her coat and dragging her back to Grace’s house. Grace only lived a few blocks away from Via, so it wasn’t a huge imposition. But Via had had no idea why she’d been ushered into an unexpected dinner of leftovers in Grace’s snug little one-bedroom on Eighty-first Street.

“We couldn’t help overhearing at the meeting,” Shelly said with just the slightest bit of pink on her cheeks.

Via wondered with chagrin exactly what else they’d overheard over the last few weeks. She knew that her feelings for Sebastian couldn’t exactly have been considered covert.

“Oh. Yes. Evan and I broke up.”

“What a shame,” Grace said as she took out the container of chicken stew from the microwave, stirred it and put it back in. “Shell, would you mind slicing that bread? Via, are you the kind of girl that requires a salad at every meal?”

“Um.” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“If you are, go ahead and fix yourself one.”

Via laughed at the judgment in Grace’s tone, as if eating salad at dinner was something she wanted very little to do with. “I’ll be fine with whatever we’re having. Uh, thank you for inviting me for dinner.”

She was really stretching the meaning of the word invite, considering they’d basically frog-marched her to the house.