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Version Control
“Version Control”
is a love story grounded in emotional truth, neurodiversity, and the slow, often nonlinear shape of healing. It’s about what happens when you stop running, and choose to stay. It is a character-driven queer literary romance centered on Rowan Calder, a brilliant but emotionally closed-off cybersecurity engineer, and Dr. Emilia Navarro, a thoughtful trauma researcher who lives with quiet purpose. At its core, the novel is about what it means to let yourself be seen—truly seen—and how vulnerability, trust, and healing can grow in even the most fractured hearts.
Rowan has spent years avoiding emotional closeness, isolating herself behind dry humor, exceptional competence, and a carefully guarded routine. Haunted by a long-buried teenage trauma—the death of her first love, Elise—Rowan lives like she’s always debugging herself. When she meets Emilia, a kind, intuitive professor who sees beneath Rowan’s armor without trying to tear it away, she’s caught off guard by the safety she feels and terrified of what it means.
Their connection unfolds a meeting at a bar orchestrated by Rowan’s best friend Jenny; a series of tender, intellectual conversations about trauma and technology; shared tea in emotionally curated cafés. For Rowan, these interactions begin to melt the frost she’s wrapped around her past. Emilia, too, brings her own history of heartbreak and hesitance, having once loved someone who saw her softness as a resource rather than a gift.
The story builds on careful emotional layering—Rowan navigating her fear of touch, her reticence around physical intimacy, and her desire to move forward without betraying the memory of Elise. Their relationship grows through nontraditional expressions of showing up after a breach, making tea after a hard night, holding space without demand. Together, they redefine what intimacy can look like when consent, pacing, and trust are deeply honored.
Running parallel is Rowan’s emerging mentorship with Sky, a nonbinary intern and budding whistleblower who reminds her of who she once was—angry, afraid, and searching for something honest. Sky’s decision to share a file with journalist Eliza Morero launches a secondary thread about truth-telling, ethics in tech, and generational courage. Their connection—developed through silent music exchanges and tentative trust—mirrors Rowan’s own journey toward becoming someone capable of holding others without collapsing.
By the novel’s midpoint, Rowan begins to recognize that love doesn’t have to feel like losing control. Her sessions with her therapist, Dr. Benavides, help her unearth the long-held belief that closeness always leads to abandonment. Emilia, never asking for more than Rowan can give, allows her to reclaim agency in connection.
Moments of intimacy deepen—from first touches to phone calls full of yearning. Rowan starts offering instead of only reading Emilia’s panel notes, debugging code for Civic Circuit again, and preparing to speak publicly about surveillance ethics. Her relationship with Emilia evolves into a space where silence can mean safety, and closeness can arrive without urgency.
Rowan has spent years avoiding emotional closeness, isolating herself behind dry humor, exceptional competence, and a carefully guarded routine. Haunted by a long-buried teenage trauma—the death of her first love, Elise—Rowan lives like she’s always debugging herself. When she meets Emilia, a kind, intuitive professor who sees beneath Rowan’s armor without trying to tear it away, she’s caught off guard by the safety she feels and terrified of what it means.
Their connection unfolds a meeting at a bar orchestrated by Rowan’s best friend Jenny; a series of tender, intellectual conversations about trauma and technology; shared tea in emotionally curated cafés. For Rowan, these interactions begin to melt the frost she’s wrapped around her past. Emilia, too, brings her own history of heartbreak and hesitance, having once loved someone who saw her softness as a resource rather than a gift.
The story builds on careful emotional layering—Rowan navigating her fear of touch, her reticence around physical intimacy, and her desire to move forward without betraying the memory of Elise. Their relationship grows through nontraditional expressions of showing up after a breach, making tea after a hard night, holding space without demand. Together, they redefine what intimacy can look like when consent, pacing, and trust are deeply honored.
Running parallel is Rowan’s emerging mentorship with Sky, a nonbinary intern and budding whistleblower who reminds her of who she once was—angry, afraid, and searching for something honest. Sky’s decision to share a file with journalist Eliza Morero launches a secondary thread about truth-telling, ethics in tech, and generational courage. Their connection—developed through silent music exchanges and tentative trust—mirrors Rowan’s own journey toward becoming someone capable of holding others without collapsing.
By the novel’s midpoint, Rowan begins to recognize that love doesn’t have to feel like losing control. Her sessions with her therapist, Dr. Benavides, help her unearth the long-held belief that closeness always leads to abandonment. Emilia, never asking for more than Rowan can give, allows her to reclaim agency in connection.
Moments of intimacy deepen—from first touches to phone calls full of yearning. Rowan starts offering instead of only reading Emilia’s panel notes, debugging code for Civic Circuit again, and preparing to speak publicly about surveillance ethics. Her relationship with Emilia evolves into a space where silence can mean safety, and closeness can arrive without urgency.
339 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 11, 2025
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