The Probability of Us by Elizabeth-Jade Taylor

Jahlani Jones has a plan. Finish her master’s. Land her dream job. Achieve financial stability. All of which comes to a screeching halt when her long-term boyfriend leaves her, her mounting debt catches up, and she's forced to move back in with her emotionally distant mother. As her constructed life unravels, she accepts an offer to become the graduate teaching assistant for a statistics course— an opportunity to regain some control.

Roman Hayes has a goal. Become a successful software engineer. A demanding task made even harder as a single father. With graduation looming, he resolves to do whatever it takes to get the future he wants for himself. The last thing he needs is to be distracted by lurid fantasies about his captivating, mahogany-eyed teaching assistant during lectures.

When a misunderstanding puts them at odds, the tension threatens to derail their already complicated lives. Forced to work together, they struggle to put aside their differences and prioritize their dreams. But as the semester unfolds, Jahlani wonders if she’s misjudged him. Maybe he isn't just another lackadaisical, privileged pretty boy. And Roman finds himself drawn further into her calculating stares, and the challenge of breaking down her walls. Despite having his academic fate in her hands, he can’t seem to pull away, and Jahlani can’t seem to shake the striking green of his eyes long after he’s gone.

As their resistance weakens, both must confront their pasts, their dreams, and the possibility that love— complicated, unexpected, real love—might just be the variable they’ve both been missing.