Between Nina's full-time job and Max's new YouTube channel, their schedules became swamped by the last week of October. Still, they made time to hang out almost every evening in their living room. There seemed to be an unspoken understanding between them to congregate on the couch after dinner. Max always found an excuse to seek out Nina if she didn't come to him first.

Once they were both settled on the couch, Max would bust out his laptop and headphones and start editing more videos. In the past, Axel and Avon's editor handled all of the Wilder Ones videos. Now, without Raj in his corner, Max had to teach himself how to do everything. He learned how to sync up the perfect sound effects and voice-overs to a particular clip. He figured out how to add extra cut scenes and transitions for comedic effect. Sometimes, a four-minute clip would take him more than four hours to edit, but Max didn't mind. He wanted everything to be perfect.

Beside him, Nina would be working on her laptop as well. Her slim fingers flew across the keyboard in a blur while answering countless of emails and reviewing an eye-crossing array of financial reports and spreadsheets.

Max and Nina sat in silence, mostly, but it was a sweet and comfortable sort of lull, one where they would occasionally glance up from their screens, lock eyes, and then make a series of stupid-ass faces at one another until one of them "lost" the game and burst into laughter before returning to their tasks at hand.

On weekends, Nina went skateboarding and came home with the gnarliest battle scars to show for it, but she seemed much less troubled about her past than before. At least, that was what Max believed until Nina told him that she had started going to therapy.

"Therapy?" Max had repeated in a worried tone. "Like... for couples and shit? You still hung up on that asshole?"

The asshole he was referring to, of course, was Ethan.

Nina shook her head. "No, it's more like... grief counseling."

Max's eyebrows lifted upwards. "Grief counseling?"

"For my grandpa," she explained.

Max felt more than a little out of his element, but he tried his best to empathize. He thought of his mom. As much as she grated on his nerves, Max knew that he would probably be devastated if anything ever happened to her. His dad was long gone. His mom was the only family he had left.

"I can't imagine how hard it must be to miss him all the time..."

She nodded and lowered her gaze. "Yeah, it's been over two years since he passed, but I still feel pretty... stuck. Like... there's a weight in my chest that won't go away."

Max winced. "Oh, shit."

Nina shrugged. "Shalani convinced me to give it a try. We'll see how it goes."

"How do you like it so far?"

"So far? Um, I mean, it's fine, I guess? I like my therapist. Dr. Wyland isn't overbearing or clinical at all, which was kind of my fear before I scheduled my first session with her, so I'm glad that she's approachable. Sometimes, I talk to her about my dad as well. It's nice to get someone else's perspective on stuff that I've been struggling with for years."

This struck a chord with Max due to his own fatherless childhood. He gazed at her curiously. "So... you talked to her about your dad? What did you guys chat about?"

Nina hesitated. "Just how... he wasn't around that much when I was younger. I always thought that I was strong enough to not care. That I'd already forgiven him because he had so much of his own shit to deal with back then. But, now, I think I'm beginning to realize that... I actually resent him more than I should. Because I never confronted him about our past."

"I don't blame you, Nina. I think you have every right to feel pissed at him," Max grumbled heatedly. "If I ever saw my dad again, then I'd probably punch him in the face for abandoning my mom and me the way he did."

"If your dad ever shows up in your life again, then I'll punch him in the face for you. No man should ever turn his back on his own son or the mother of his child. You guys deserved so much better from him, Max."

She turned to him and smiled her wobbly smile. Her liquid brown eyes brimmed with the affinity and pain of a fellow survivor drifting on the same turbulent waters. The Sea of Shitty Dads. It made Max's heart lurch even while their connection soothed him.

"If I ever become a dad," Max said to Nina in all seriousness, "then I'd move mountains and cross deserts to stay in my kid's life. Even if his mom and I are on bad terms."

The conviction behind his words seemed to strengthen Nina's wobbly smile into a more solid one. "Then you're more of a man than both our dads combined, Max. I find that to be extremely admirable."

Her eyes shone brightly with said admiration, and it made Max feel as though he had grown to be ten-feet tall. He puffed out his chest and grinned. "So... you're finally starting to realize what a fucking catch I am? Damn. Took you long enough."

Nina smirked. Her next words turned Max's face tomato red and sent pleasure tingling through him. "What are you talking about, loser? I've known that you were a catch for quite some time now. I'm just choosing not to act on it... yet."

Nina wore the same teasing expression on her face as she always did, but, this time, there was a husky undertone in her voice that gave Max a real feeling of excitement.

They were still planning to go to the haunted house with her coworkers over the weekend. Max wondered if he should do something to test her resolve. Nothing overt or inappropriate, of course, but if Nina was going to start openly flirting with him, then Max certainly had no intention of keeping himself locked in the friend zone any longer than necessary.