Page 44 of See You at the Sunset

Jia laughed. “Yeah, it’s a totally different life than back in New York.”

“It really is. I thought I’d feel stifled by the heat and the slowness. But there’s something really calming about it.”

Jia nodded, knowing he probably couldn’t see her. But he’d nailed it. That was exactly how it felt out here. Calming. Though, she’d probably add that it was magical too. The area. The people. Everything. She’d known this even as a kid.

She knew it even more now. She just didn’t know how she could hold on to it.

“Are you staying here much longer?” he asked.

She stiffened at the question, like Henry was reading her mind. Maybe surprisingly, no one at Sunset Hills had asked her that question. As nosy and gossipy as the crowd could be, they were experienced in life enough to have a live-and-let-live attitude toward each other.

But there was always a countdown clock over Jia’s head. And it was getting perilously close to the end.

She didn't want to think about it. Sure, it tried to make its way to the forefront of her mind. She’d always just pushed it to the back and wouldn't worry that her stay had an expiration date.

But her parents were getting more impatient. And life,whatever that meant, was waiting to be resumed. Jia didn’t have a job. She didn’t have an apartment. And she would no longer have a life of her own. She’d be moving to Florida to live with her parents, to work at their job, to do what they wanted her to do.

She worried about all the activities she’d started up for the residents here. She fretted about the relationships she’d fostered. She couldn’t just leave them, could she?

“Unclear,” she replied. “You?”

“I leave next week,” he said.

“Important lawyer stuff to get back to,” she said.

He let out a huff. “Something like that.”

“Did you always want to be a lawyer? Did you go to middle school with a suit and tie and sign your name withFuture Esq?”

“You got something against lawyers?” Henry teased.

“Something like that,” she echoed. He probably thought she’d meant because of him. What he didn’t know was she’d had an aversion to lawyers long before she’d ever worked and been fired from a job. It had all started in the home. “My parents are lawyers.”

“Ahhh, I see. Well, the answer isyes, I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. I like... order. And rules. And accountability.”

“Life isn’t always that black-and-white, though,” she replied. “Sometimes life needs to have some color. Freedom to evolve, figure things out.” This was something she was realizing for herself more and more.

Henry visibly cringed at her words.

She barked out a laugh. “Allergic to the freedom to evolve?”

“My parents are free spirits,” he answered.

She twisted her mouth, nodding, understanding.

“We probably make our therapists a lot of money.”

“Since I was twelve,” he answered.

She raised her eyebrows as she turned to get a good look at him. “Impressive. Sixteen for me.” She really liked a man in therapy. “Therapy is sexy, ya know?” She nudged him with her shoulder.

“Yeah? OCD, ADHD, anxiety, and panic attacks do it for you?”

“Talk dirty to me,” she teased. But she wasn’t kidding. She liked a man who’d been diagnosed. First step in learning how to manage it all.

“I’m serious, though. I think a man in therapy is sexy,” Jia reiterated.

Henry didn’t look her way. In fact, he didn’t even move an inch. He either didn’t hear her or she’d shocked the shit out of him. Unclear.