“Hey, you snob,” I responded, knocking her knee with mine underneath the table. “I’ll have you know, lessons are very lucrative.”

“Is that right?” she asked in mock disbelief.

My grin spread ear to ear. She was impossible. I liked the way her eyes glimmered when we were sparring like this. She seemed so uptight on the outside, yet something about her made me feel like she didn’t take herself too seriously. She was a riddle I hadn’t quite figured out.

“Tell me,” I continued. “Why was your week so bad aside from the obvious?”

She sighed, slumping her shoulders. “The obvious obviously being me losing my job.”

“Obviously.”

She smiled at that. “Well, let’s see.” She held a finger up. “To start, I haven’t found a single job listing that I’m actually interested in.”

My brow furrowed. “I thought you said you had dozens to apply to.”

“I do.”

I searched her face. The chatter in the restaurant had grown louder as the bar quickly became standing room only, but I found myself only focused on Frankie. “I don’t get it,” I finally said.

She sighed. “I need a job, Oliver. What’s there to understand? It’d be nice if it was at a company I was interested in with a job description I found compelling, but that’s not how the world works. I’ll apply to everything, and I’ll take whatever I can get.”

I winced. “That sounds absolutely brutal. I could never do that.” I couldn’t relate to anything less. I’d gone out of my way to make sure every job I’d done in my adult life had been something I was passionate about.

“Some of us don’t have a choice,” she said, her tone more defeated than it was a second ago. The teasing had been sucked away and replaced with some level of despair. Was that my doing?

“I didn’t mean to bum you out.” I stared at her, willing her to look back up at me.

“It’s not you,” she said in a tone that didn’t convince me at all. She glanced at me and then back down at the table. “Like I said, I’m just having a hard time.”

I paused, taking her in. “And being in a place as beautiful as this doesn’t help?” I pointed outside the window, where the snow glowed underneath the moonlight. It was only 5:30, but it was completely dark. I loved that about the winter—the evening sky overtaking everything so early. There was something magical about a winter night.

“It’s hard to focus on anything except what a failure I am, if I’m being honest,” she muttered, refusing to make eye contact with me.

Damn. That tugged right at my chest. Hearing her call herself a failure gutted me. We sat in silence for a moment, the clinking of silverware echoing in my ears. Something in me desperately needed to fix the hopelessness written all over her face.

“You want to know who my brother is?” I finally asked.