Between Leases and Labels

Twenty-four-year-old Maia Santos is fresh off a breakup that felt less like a door closing and more like a floor giving way. Broke, bruised, and crashing on her brother's couch, she stumbles into an open house where a terrifyingly pragmatic landlord offers a lifeline: co-lease with a stranger, skip the waitlist.

Enter Elias Reyes, coffee snob with a spreadsheet soul and an ex who refuses to take the hint. Enter Nico, Maia's annoyingly supportive older brother dragging her out for midnight sis-bro dumplings and radical pep talks. And Ari, a magnetic, gender-fluid, effortlessly flirty, and the first person to make Maia's stomach flip since... ever? Or at least since the wrong person.

Buried in their rental agreement is a "radical honesty" clause requiring monthly check-ins about boundaries, schedules, and "romantic entanglements." It was supposed to keep things drama-free. Instead, it cracks Maia wide open past heartbreak, into messy desire, toward the shimmering truth that her attraction doesn't obey straight lines or tidy labels.

A lease brought her a roof. Honesty brought her a self she finally recognizes.