Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
A rjun sat alone on a bench at Fisherman’s Wharf, the sea breeze whipping off the ocean and filling his nose with its sweet salt smell. His almost-kiss with Nisha, not yet two days ago, still played on a loop in his head. Some part of him wished he could go back and tell her how he really felt, but he knew where that would lead. One heartbreak had been enough—and, as much as he liked Nisha, he couldn’t take that risk again. Like you told Devi, he thought, it’s time to commit.
At noon, Arjun had received another biodata from Dhanya. A new woman, Sophia, wanted to meet him today at six o’clock. Due to the short notice, Sarita couldn’t make it from Iowa, and Dhanya told Arjun that Sophia’s parents wouldn’t be there, either. Arjun thought it was funny: this was almost like a normal first date…except that both his and Sophia’s parents had already approved it.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a woman approaching. She was slim and fair-skinned, with hair that had been dyed blonde at the ends. She wore dark jeans, a purple blouse, and a fashionable pair of eyeglasses. “Are you Arjun?” she asked him.
He stood. “Hey,” he said, trying to put Nisha out of his mind. “You’re Sophia?”
“That’s me,” she said. “I never know how to introduce myself at these meetings. Would a hug be too informal?”
He smiled. “No, a hug would be perfect.” They embraced, and Arjun could smell her chocolate-scented perfume.
“Thanks for indulging me, by the way,” said Sophia as they pulled apart. “I know Fisherman’s Wharf is a tourist trap…but I’m a tourist, right? I mean, I grew up in Los Angeles—well, Pasadena—but it’s not like it’s convenient to get up to SF, is it?” She sighed. “Sorry. Am I talking a lot? I’m talking a lot, aren’t I?”
He laughed. “No, you’re fine. Dhanya mentioned that you were here for work. Anything special?”
“I just had my final interview at Stanford,” she explained. “I finished my postdoc at Caltech in January, and I’m trying to be a professor. I really want to be either at Stanford or at Berkeley. Well, Stanford mostly. Berkeley is kind of my safety school, I guess. Not to perpetuate any stereotypes or anything. Wait, you didn’t go to Berkeley, did you?”
Arjun shook his head. “I did my MBA at Stanford, so, in fact, Berkeley is fair game,” he said with a grin. “So, Fisherman’s Wharf. What do you want to see first?”
Sophia smiled, turning to face the boardwalk. “What does every tourist come to Fisherman’s Wharf for?”
They wended their way through the plaza. It was a pleasant day, with the late April sun dispelling most of the low-hanging clouds. Sophia led the way, confidently weaving through the crowds of people who milled between the restaurants and shops on the boardwalk.
Pier 39 was in the rear of the Wharf, across a wooden dock lipped by a chain-link fence. The waters were gray-green and tranquil, except for the occasional ferry that passed through the bay. Today, the viewing gallery was uncharacteristically deserted.
“Where are they?” asked Sophia, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. She leaned up against the fence. A gentle breeze blew toward her, and her blouse hugged her stomach.
Arjun looked out at the square docks bobbing in the marina. Usually, there were dozens of sea lions lazing at Pier 39: huge, loud animals with slick brown fur and a distinctive wild animal scent. Now, though, the docks were empty, without a single sea lion in sight. A seagull swooped overhead and splashed into the water. “Well, this was a bust,” Sophia said disappointedly, turning away from the water.
Arjun shook his head. “Come on,” he said, leading her away from the pier. They returned to the boardwalk.
He stopped at a small booth. “Two, please,” he said, reaching into his wallet. The cashier handed him a pair of tickets. “This way.” Without thinking, he reached his hand toward Sophia’s. She took it. “It’s right here,” he said, pointing.
They had arrived at a giant carousel in the middle of the boardwalk. Animals of all kinds pranced around a huge circular platform, topped by a blue-and-white striped dome. Arjun handed his tickets to the attendant and stepped onto the platform. “What are you looking for?” asked Sophia as he went from animal to animal.
“This,” he said, stopping. He patted one of the figures on the rump. It was a sea lion, its mouth open in mid-bark. “I know it’s not quite the real thing…but it’s pretty close, right?”
For a moment, Sophia looked at him like he was crazy. Then, she laughed. “I think you’re right.”
The platform began to rotate. Sophia swung onto the sea lion, and Arjun got onto a tiger beside. Circus music began to play from the speakers above, and the animals began to move up and down on their poles. “What do you think?” asked Arjun.
“Who needs real sea lions?” called Sophia, her voice rising over the music.
Watching her bob up and down, something strange transpired within Arjun—something that he didn’t even notice until after the date had concluded. In an instant, he forgot the stakes involved in their date. He was no longer obsessively wondering if this woman could be his wife. It felt easy, natural…
And almost serendipitous , he would think later.
The music slowed, and so did the platform. Finally, it came to a stop, and Arjun and Sophia dismounted. He felt a bit dizzy, as though the ground were still spinning underneath him. Sophia took a few steps and careened into him, and he caught her in his arms. “So, what next?” she asked.
He shrugged. “How about some ice cream?”
They spent the next few hours at the boardwalk. They ate ice cream and browsed around the novelty shops frequented by tourists: magic stores, board game boutiques, a candy emporium, and an Alcatraz gift shop. They visited a booth that sold oysters customers could break open. After cracking three of them, Arjun found a tiny pearl winking inside the fourth. “Here,” he said, handing the jewel to Sophia.
She held it up to her ear. “Big enough for an earring?” she asked.
He smiled. “Maybe a nose piercing,” he said, indicating the fold beside his nostril.
“We do those here, you know,” said the man working the booth, craggy and tanned, with a thick brown mustache that reminded Arjun of a caterpillar. “Oh, and belly buttons. You interested?”
Arjun and Sophia exchanged a look. Then, they burst out laughing.
They got dinner at an Italian restaurant a few blocks from the pier. The sky erupted into a brilliant show of purple and orange, the clouds running like egg yolks. Arjun sat outside with Sophia, watching the waves darken as the sun set. Sophia shivered. “Are you cold?” Arjun asked.
“A little bit,” she admitted, rubbing her arms. “I’ll be fine, though.”
He nodded. “One sec,” he said, rising from the table. He ran to a store just across the street and returned with a red plastic bag. He dug inside and handed a white hoodie to Sophia. “What do you think?”
She looked at the front and smiled, then turned the sweatshirt towards him. “‘I HEART SF,’” she said, laughing and pulling it over her head. “I love it,” she said, picking a piece of fluff off of her cheek. “But what about you?”
“I’ll be warm in a second,” he replied. He drew a matching hoodie out of the bag and slipped it over his head. “There,” he said. “We make a good pair, I think.”
Dinner arrived a few moments later: fresh pasta in a light summer sauce for Arjun and shrimp scampi for Sophia. They had wine, too—an expensive Napa red. “What are we toasting to?” she asked, raising the glass.
“To your new job,” replied Arjun.
“I haven’t gotten it, you know,” said Sophia.
He smiled. “I’ve got a good feeling.”
They tapped their glasses together, and the sound hung in the air like a chord strummed on an acoustic guitar.
Their conversation grew livelier as they ate. Arjun was surprised by how much he had in common with Sophia. She liked the same music, the same books and movies. She told Arjun about her first concert, a Pixies show at the Rose Bowl that she’d begged her parents to let her attend. Like Arjun, she’d gone to college on the East Coast. “Harvard, huh?” Arjun asked. “I’m a Yale grad—but I won’t hold it against you.”
Of course, they dived into the weightier stuff, too. Like Arjun, Sophia dreamed of raising a family in the Bay Area. She told him about her plans for the future: a house in Palo Alto with a big yard for kids and a dog or two. She wanted to stay in academia, write books about her economics research, and hold monthly salons at the house for her favorite students.
Arjun tried to picture himself in that life: walking around the house with Sally skipping behind him, or chasing his children around the backyard. It wasn’t a clear picture, like the kind he got when he tried to visualize his own future—but it was an outline, like a painter’s blocking strokes. He gazed at Sophia, wondering if this could really be it. I mean, could it be this simple? he asked himself. Sophia was smiling at him, and the sight of her set something stirring deep in his chest.
The waiter came by once they’d finished. “Dessert?” he asked, clasping his hands in front of his apron. Arjun glanced at Sophia, then shook his head.
“Just the check, please.” The waiter left and returned with a black billfold.
“Can I ask you something?” Sophia said as Arjun slid his credit card inside.
“Shoot.”
“How do you feel about all of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know arranged marriages are the norm in India. But, obviously, you grew up in America. You didn’t have any reservations?”
Arjun sighed. He thought back to his conversation with Devi a few months ago. This time, he was less flustered.
“Honestly, I wrestled with it for a while,” he said. “At first, I felt like a loser. Like I couldn’t find anyone on my own, and I was in this situation as a last resort. But I think that this experience is what you make of it. It’s not better or worse. It’s just…if it works out, who cares how it happened?”
Sophia nodded. “I feel exactly the same way.”
They left the restaurant and walked back to where they’d first met. The pier was as lively as ever. Music played faintly from the loudspeakers, and people walked about, conversing in a hundred different languages. The crescent moon cut a sliver into the velvet-black sky. “What time do you have to be back?” asked Arjun, sticking his hands into his pockets.
Sophia checked her phone. “I just called an Uber,” she said. “I have some grading that I promised myself I’d start at nine.” The night breeze ruffled her thick, dark hair like an affectionate hand. “I’d like to see you again.”
“Me, too,” Arjun replied instantly, and she smiled. She took his hand in hers, then leaned in and pecked him on the cheek.
A car pulled up to the curb. “Good night, Arjun,” Sophia said, climbing inside.
As the car sped off into the night, Arjun could not help but feel as though the hands of fate, or time, or Dhanya the matchmaker, had carried him off and were bearing him along toward his true destiny: a destiny with the beautiful girl he’d met only a few hours ago.