She’d gotten booted from that home when two of the other girls became convinced that she was stealing from them. She hadn’t been, but it hadn’t mattered. Within months of arriving, she’d been on the doorstep of a new foster home, her permanent one at that point. Jetty’s home. Fin’s home. But she’d learned her lesson.

Blend in. No waves. No drama.

In her mind, life was a car, speeding down the highway with a blindfolded driver. Everyone crashed at some point. Whether you survived or not just depended on what kind of car you had.

She’d spent every minute since she left Jetty’s house making sure she had the safest model of car she could find. A good education. A good job. A little money in the bank. A lease on a nice apartment. Every day that she worked hard was like one more seat belt over her chest, keeping her safe.

The idea of Evan quitting his job was essentially inconceivable to Via. Like unbuckling his seat belt on the highway.

“You want me to just stay there? Where there’s no respect for my time or my skills?”

Via rose to clear their dinner dishes. “No, of course not. But if you quit, that’s it. Kaput. No more paychecks.”

“That’s the general idea.”

She bit back on her frustration. She was trying her absolute hardest to understand this from his perspective. Just because it was a good job, with good benefits, didn’t mean he had to stay there. Especially not if it made him miserable. “I’m just saying that if you give two weeks’ notice, which is standard, you can leave guilt-free, get paid for another two weeks and possibly find something else in the meantime.”

“Yeah, and I’d have to work there for another two weeks, which you’re conveniently glossing over.”

“I’m not—” She broke off and pinched the bridge of her nose as she leaned over the sink. She loved Evan, she really did, but conversations like this often spiraled off into arguments. And even more so lately, since she’d become busy with her new job. Evan didn’t quite understand how stressful life transitions were for Via. How much she needed her focus to be in one place right now. Not to mention the fact that a public quitting scene, like the one Evan was dead-set on, made Via’s chest tighten with anxiety.

She knew she couldn’t out-and-out tell him he shouldn’t do it. He took any disagreement very personally. Via could do this. She was a trained counselor, for God’s sake. She changed tack. “It scares me to think of you without a job, Evan. You know how sink or swim New York is.”

He knows it theoretically, a small voice said in her mind. Via, on the other hand, knew it quite personally.

“Well, good thing I have a damned good flotation device for a girlfriend.”

She turned to him, and he was smiling at her up from under his hair in that way that made her knees weak. He gestured her over, and she went to him. He pulled her in between his legs and took her hands.