“It’s a compliment!” He unfolds more brightly colored linens. “Don’t pretend you’renotinto it.”
She’s spent the last couple weeks in only two alternating modes: wiping away the memory of the Ramble Incident and carefully preserving the visceral details in a mental scrapbook, decorated with bespoke lettering and Washi tape. No matter how many times she closes the book with a hardthwackand shoves it in a drawer, twenty minutes later she’ll find herself running the pad of her thumb over her lower lip. Thinking. Remembering.
Shit.Shit.
“Are you set up out there?” Radhya yells from the kitchen. “Service was supposed to start three minutes ago.”
Ari walks to the front entrance, peeking through the small window, hoping to see a mass of people outside the entrance, queued up for Radhya’s Gujarati delicacies. There isn’t a line, but there is someone in a black parka waiting just to the left of the door, looking up every so often, as if waiting for a first date to show up.
Gabe continues setting the tables. “This is the worst time of year to accidentally get involved with—”
“Oh God.” Ari takes a second peek.
“—someone. You need to deal with thistoday—”
Josh is dressed in various shades of black, standing outsideBohemian Garden with his arms crossed. He’s not radiating nervous energy. Not occupying himself with his phone while monitoring the passersby. More like telegraphing annoyance. Tall, imposing. In absolutely no danger of cracking a smile.
She presses her back against the front wall, even though it’s impossible that Josh could see her from this angle.
“—or you’re locked into this through Valentine’s Day. Who are you hiding from?”
“He’s outside.”
Gabe raises his eyebrows and unabashedly takes a look. “Hello, there.”
No reason for nerves. They’d both agreed it was just a case of getting carried away by a national holiday. No big deal. Fine.
And then they hadn’t spoken about it for fourteen days.
“I’ll help you out,” Gabe offers. “Grease the wheels.”
“No.Things are…delicate right now.”
He clears his throat. “Rebounds aren’t supposed to be delicate. Or complicated.”
“This isn’t a rebound. There aren’t any rebounds in this situation. Only Bumble snacks, Tinder treats, and the occasional slutty couple on Feeld.”
The best thing to do is step back and reestablish some boundaries. If the last week proved anything it’s how much she doesn’t want to mess this up. How critical it is to get back to normal.
Gabe throws the door open and Ari feels like she’s boarding theHindenburg.
IT’S BEEN Along time since Josh had to wait in the cold outside a building, giving passersby the impression that he’s being stood up for a blind date.
Actually, no. The last time he lingered at an entryway, it was two weeks ago, and he was anticipating the arrival of the same latecomer.
He checks their last text exchange, in which she’d clearly stated she’d be at Bohemian Garden at threep.m. And while she hadn’t explicitly invited him to Radhya’s pop-up a second time, it had occurred to him that showing up to the event might present him in a magnanimous light.
Better than continuing to send her texts and receiving half-hearted, noncommittal responses.
It stands to reason that after you kiss like two people who have really,reallybeen wanting to kiss each other for several long months, you are obliged to have at least one substantive conversation about what it meant.
New Year’s Eve had cleaved their friendship into a clearbeforeandafter—he’s only beginning to understand what theafterlooks like.
In theafter,he and Ari haven’t talked since he walked her over to Gabe’s apartment from the Ramble. He’d spent the first day of a new year ruminating, caught in between the heady excitement of replaying the kiss and the disappointing way it fizzled.
And wondering if Ari and Gabe still “watch movies” together.
It’s the little things he can’t quite get out of his head: touching her hair for the first time, the way her cheeks were freezing and flushed andsoft,her voice murmuring his name. New versions of things that are already so familiar to him.
