“But I didn’t even call to tell you I was coming.”

“Sister, I felt your vibes coming from two blocks away.”

Via laughed and followed her into the house. It smelled like microwave popcorn and incense inside. Like Fin. Via instantly felt calmer being in her circle. Fin had always been able to do that. Pretty much since the day they’d met one another.

“You wanna guess what happened? Or you want me to tell you?” Via asked as she sat her sweaty body down in the porch chair on Fin’s balcony. Fin did the same, lifting her wool socks up to the balcony rail and reclining like she was poolside.

“I’m tired tonight, fill me in.”

“He found out I broke up with Evan.”

Fin’s eyes snapped open. She didn’t have to ask who the he was in this scenario. Via figured that Fin had known about her feelings for Seb even longer than Via had.

“How?”

“It was at the staff meeting today. He saw me filling out a wedding invitation and RSVPing as just me.”

“And...”

“And he asked a few questions and then went to pick up his son.”

“Were there more sexy vibes? Like last week?”

“I think so. But I can never quite tell with him.”

Fin shook her head. “You must be stuffing cotton in your ears, eyes and nose not to pick up on what that man is putting out for you.”

“What’s he putting out for me?”

Fin rolled her head to one side, her hair falling into her face for a moment. “Passion.”

Via sighed and stood up, leaning forward on the balcony and looking out toward Prospect Park. The trees were stark, and in mid-November, the sun was already fully set at 6:00. A man rode by on the street six stories down, a boom box lashed to the back of his bike. A Beyoncé song.

“This is bad news for you?” Fin asked from behind Via. “That a man like Sebastian Dorner has passion for you?”

“No, it’s not bad news. But, I don’t know, it’s not quite what I’m hoping for.”

Fin laughed and nudged the back of Via’s knee with her socked foot. “I know you crave stability above all else, love. But what woman doesn’t want passion?”

Via turned around once more and wiped the sweat from her eyes. “He thinks I’m too young for him, Fin. I can tell he finds me attractive. But I want more than that. I want him to...consider me.”

“Consider you for what?”

“As a person he could really love.”

“Is that how you’re considering him?”

Via dropped her slender body back into the porch chair and huffed. “Yeah. So what? He’s incredible. And I have this, this, this—” soccer ball of hot feeling. A gravity-based, world-sucking black hole of want “—really big feeling for him. And I’m scared he’ll just look at me and think, child.”

“Violetta, you’re the most mature twenty-eight-year-old on the planet. You put yourself through college, paid off your debt in two years flat, live on your own, pay your taxes, recycle, read the news. Christ, you even get your clothes dry-cleaned. What more could the guy want?”