Via smiled at Sadie’s outrage. “Not a Christmas fan?”

Sadie shrugged. “Rae is Muslim and I don’t celebrate anything really. My family was never big on Christmas. We’re more of a Thanksgiving group of folks.”

Via laughed at the snarl on Sadie’s face. “I can see from your expression just how much you love the holidays.”

Sadie waved her hand through the air and then almost gave the waiter a heart attack with that smile of hers when he set down their food in front of them. “I used to love Thanksgiving, but ever since I came out of the closet, it’s just become the one day a year where my extended family either completely ignores who I am or they try to pretend that they’re totally cool with it by talking to me about Will & Grace. Either way, it gets old.”

“Is your immediate family like that, too?”

“No. Not really. I’m lucky in that way. My mom says she always knew and, honestly, I think my dad was kind of relieved that I wouldn’t be dating men. Not that that means it didn’t take them a long time to truly get on board with my life and choices and what it actually means for me to be gay. In practice, not just in theory. But they did well enough.” Sadie took a gigantic bite of her four-inch-tall burger and crossed her eyes in ecstasy. “What are the holidays like in your family?”

Via’s much more modest bite of her much more modest burger froze in her mouth. She made herself chew and swallow, reminding herself that this didn’t have to be a big deal. “It’s very small. But nice. My foster sister and I have some traditions we try to keep up every year.”

She let that word foster out of its cage and watched it do its magic. It was a special word, one that Via knew meant different things to different people. Over the years, she’d learned to let it do the explaining for her. She’d also learned that she could find out a lot about a person based on their reaction to it.

“Oh.” Sadie cocked her head to one side, her mouth still filled with burger. “I didn’t realize that your family was nontraditional.” She rolled her eyes at herself. “Stupid assumption, I guess.”

Via nodded. Something about Sadie’s reaction disarmed her a little bit. There was curiosity there, but not judgment. “Yeah. My parents passed when I was young and I went into the foster system. My sister and I are on our own now ever since her aunt, Jetty, passed away. She was my foster mom and Fin’s guardian.”

“Wow.” Sadie was quiet for a minute and swallowed down her bite before she spoke again. “You’ve had a lot of loss in your life.”

That drafty feeling opened up inside of Via with such a swiftness that it nearly took her breath away. It was like too much wind was rushing up to greet her and there was nowhere for her exhale to go. She’d thought it was important to share this with Sadie because that’s what friends did, real friends. They shared things about their lives, even the hard, messy stuff. And Sadie had made it look so easy, talking about coming out to her family with humor and honesty. Via didn’t want to be the closed-off weirdo who was fine being a friend-droid. She wanted friends! Real ones! Was that too much to ask?