Jesse clearly wasn’t having the topic change, watching her gathering up the letters and acting like this wasn’t some kind of big deal. He could see the pink on one of them, the sort that came when you were the opposite of on top of things, and a few of them definitely had red lettering on them that emphasize past due amounts, though he couldn’t tell whether they were from previous months or recently from here.

Ignoring her approval of his idea, he went to lean over and place a hand on her arm to stop her from grabbing the other letters. “No.” He puts the letter he’d taken down on the rest of the pile before resting the fingers of his free hand against the pink letter in particular. “You’re not.”

There’s a level of irritation to his voice, but he does his best to keep it even as he can. While he didn’t worry much about money, he did worry about her, and the way these kinds of bills could impact a person. His parents had been business people, ones who taught him about credit, and finances, and stock even if they hadn’t taught him about things like recessions given that they’d never really impacted them.

“Don’t lie to me. How much?”