"I'm not so sure that's true," Amara said, the wine freeing her tongue more than it otherwise would have been. "I'd saved some money, but when I was fired, I was down to essentially one month's worth of money in the bank. If I hadn't found this job when I did, I would have probably lost my house."

The reality of that hit her, and she shuddered slightly and mentally reminded herself to boost what she was depositing into her savings account monthly. She could now afford to do so.

"And by this ...