From actress Zazie Beetz's interview w/ Jezebel.
http://themuse.jezebel.com/a-conversation-with-zazie-beetz-on-atlanta-hair-touchi-1787399543

Right, she’s clearly doing her own thing within the relationship, but you get the sense that she wants to make it work with Earn. The show picks up in the middle of their relationship, so we don’t see what drove them apart. We only know that they have a baby together and they’re kind of trying to rekindle something. How did you view their relationship while reading it?

We went back and forth. Originally, they had the idea of, like, we’ve known each other for a long time and then this happened. But then we decided they knew each other and then they started hanging out but then super quick into that she got pregnant and they never had a chance to actually date. So they never got a chance to see if it could work out. It could have worked out. But this huge responsibility got slapped onto them and so they have basic compatibility things. He makes her laugh. I remember in the screen test, talked about how Van is the only person that actually gets Earn in his community and environment. And Earn is the only person that actually gets Van, which as the season goes on, particularly in Episode 8, which was a big thing that I also piped in about, was that you have to see them also love and care for each other. You see a little aspect of that, but that episode fully comes into this idea of choosing love over choosing conflict, allowing an audience to believe they would be together because they do have this energy in common. And had Van not needed to be a mother, I think she would be able to engage or understand Earn’s lifestyle more than she does now.