Via laughed, despite the panic and nausea coursing through her system.

“And second of all, fired? Grim is basically in love with you after the way you handled that whole thing with that angry dad. You’re not in danger of getting fired, even if there are salacious rumors buzzing around about you. I’m serious,” she added, her face following Via’s as she lolled it to one despairing side. “You’re single, he’s single, and as long as y’all don’t do it in the hallway, I’m pretty sure no one is gonna give two shits.”

Via somehow went completely tight with humiliation and still managed to laugh. “Let’s not put the cart before the horse, Cat. He and I have never even insinuated that we might...”

“Wanna put a baby in each other?”

“Oh my God.”

Both women were laughing now.

Cat stepped forward again, and this time she had a steely glint in her eye, her arms still crossed. “Via, I want you to leave this bathroom knowing, in your gut, two things, okay?”

“Okay...”

She held up one finger and then the other, her long brown hair tossing back over her shoulder. “One. Fuck the haters. And two. That man came here tonight to be close to you. No bones about it. And I’m pretty sure he wore a new shirt.”

CAT WENT OUT FIRST, and Via followed a few minutes later. She was still scattered and trepidatious, but she took what Cat said to heart. There were already too many obstacles in the way for her and Seb. She didn’t need to be out here creating new ones.

Fuck the haters. He came here for me.

Via pulled up short as she realized that Rachel and Greg had vacated the table and were now standing at the bar, hip to hip. The seat next to Seb was open. She ignored every nervous, whiny impulse that was rearing up inside of her and instead she plunked herself down in the seat formerly known as Rachel’s.

“Hi,” he said, obviously a little taken aback by the look in her eyes, which Via could only guess said crazy woman.

“Hi.”

“Everything all right? Cat ran after you pretty fast.”

“Oh. Yeah, totally fine. Just a misunderstanding.”

Seb’s eyes searched hers. Those gray-green beauties, like seagrass turning belly-up in the wind. Via was holding her breath because of course she was. The man was big as a house and smelled like laundry detergent. Of course she was attempting to keep that scent inside her as long as possible.

“A misunderstanding that I should know about?” he asked slowly, quietly.

A little petal opened up in Via, a bloom of surprise. He wasn’t playing coy. He wasn’t coming right out and saying anything explicitly, but he was kind of, sort of, acknowledging that she and he might be mixed up in a misunderstanding together. That wasn’t saying nothing...right?

“Well...” Via chose her words very carefully. She was alternately terrified of slamming the door closed or flinging it way too wide open. “I guess I’m not sure.”