Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
T he sun was setting, and purple dusk fell like a veil over the city. Arjun sat on a blanket in the middle of Alamo Square Park, feeling the coolness of evening settle over him. Someone had set up a large projector screen twenty feet across at the other end of the park and was projecting Casablanca for the few hundred people who had gathered to watch.
He heard footsteps in the grass behind him, and he scooted over to make room on the picnic blanket. “Get anything good?” he whispered.
Sophia shook her head. “They’re out of popcorn,” she replied, sitting next to him. “Luckily, I thought ahead.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a bottle of wine and a pack of Twizzlers. “We can use them like straws,” she said, pulling out one of the lurid red candy ropes, which flopped over her hand.
Arjun laughed. “That’s a great idea,” he said as Sophia settled onto the blanket beside him. “But how are we going to get the wine open?”
“I can take care of that,” came a voice. Arjun winced, as though bracing himself for a blow. This is it, he thought.
Arjun had seen Sophia twice more since their first meeting on Monday. On Tuesday, the same day he’d met Emily Richter, he’d taken Sophia to the Museum of Modern Art. They walked around the huge building, examining abstract paintings and the huge, alien sculptures assembled by Alexander Calder. Like Erica, Sophia was well-read when it came to art, and Arjun was amused to find that she often knew more about various pieces than the museum’s own docents. “What do you see when you look at this?” she’d asked him, tilting her head in front of a large abstract painting.
Arjun squinted. The painting was a series of multicolored, vertical lines overlaid one over the other: red and brown, gray and yellow. Each line had been painstakingly laid, as though the artist had used a ruler. “It’s discordant,” he said. “The lines are parallel, which would otherwise be pleasing. But do you see the line there, in the center?” He pointed. “The blue one. It’s slightly angled. It’s not much—probably only a few degrees—but it’s enough to make you feel like…” He struggled to find the words.
“Like something is a little off?” Sophia said.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”
She laughed. “Come on. Let’s go check out the Dutch masters.”
On Thursday, Arjun and Sophia went to a Giants game. Kevin McPherson was a fan, and he had a pair of season tickets that he lent Arjun. The seats were fantastic: just a few rows behind the dugout. “I love baseball,” Arjun told Sophia as “Charge” blared over the stadium speakers. “Nothing makes me feel more American.”
“Can I be honest?” she asked, wearing the black-and-orange baseball cap that Arjun had purchased for her. “I don’t get the point. It’s just…men standing around in tights.”
He smiled. “That isn’t part of the appeal?”
Someone was up to bat, and there was a sharp crack as the baseball soared up to the top of the stands. The jumbotron showed the scrum of people fighting over the ball—only for a young boy to emerge with it in his mitt, laughing joyfully. “Come on,” said Arjun, pointing. “That doesn’t warm your heart?”
“That’s not fair,” she replied. “Everyone loves kids.”
Walking out of the stadium in the gathering dark, Arjun realized something. “You know, there’s nothing wrong with you,” he said to Sophia.
She hitched up an eyebrow. “Do you say that to all the girls?”
He shook his head. “That came out wrong. What I meant to say is that throughout this whole process, we’ve been scoping each other out. Trying to figure out if we’re really as compatible in real life as we are on paper. And the thing that I’ve realized is…I still don’t have a reason to say ‘no.’”
She smiled. “Me, neither,” she said, and she threaded her arm through his.
Whatever comfort that Arjun had felt in that moment had now completely faded. His heart was in his throat as he turned to see the two people who had come to join them in the park. “These are my friends, Dan and Erica,” he said to Sophia. “And this is Sophia. She’s my…”
He was momentarily at a loss. What was Sophia to him, exactly? His new friend? His excursion companion? His “person-I-met-five-days-ago-and-might-soon-marry”?
“We’re seeing one another,” Sophia said helpfully, extending a hand. “Arjun has told me so much about you both. And I’m sure you’ll have lots to tell me, too.”
Dan laughed. “We might need to crack into that bottle first,” he said, spreading his own blanket out over the grass.
Sophia leaned against Arjun as the movie played, and he wondered if he could put his arm around her. In the other relationships he’d had, three dates in was generally when things began to get physical—but, of course, this relationship was not like his others. Cicadas sounded in the grass, drowning out Humphrey Bogart. Dan poured the wine, and Arjun attempted to drink it through a Twizzler (it didn’t work).
The movie ended soon after, and Arjun rose to fold up his blanket. “What did you think?” Sophia asked, helping him to fold it lengthwise.
“I liked it,” said Arjun—though, truthfully, he despised black-and-white movies.
Thankfully, Sophia didn’t seem to notice. “You’d better,” she said. “Honestly, I should have put that on the biodata: ‘Must love Casablanca. ’”
Dan stood and stretched his arms. “It’s still early,” he said. “Kiki’s?”
“What’s Kiki’s?” asked Sophia.
Arjun and Dan exchanged a look. “You’ll see,” Arjun said, grinning.
The bar was a short Uber ride away, and it was more crowded than Arjun had ever seen; evidently, everyone else at the screening had the same idea. Dan went to get drinks while Sophia excused herself outside to take a call. Erica and Arjun stood against the wall, all of the booths having been occupied. She leaned over to him. “You and Sophia make a nice couple.”
“Thanks,” he replied. “I think so, too.”
“Do you think you’ll marry her?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, thinking back to their conversation outside the ballpark. “I like her. We have a lot in common.”
“And is that enough?”
He shrugged. “What else is there?”
A pool table opened up, and Arjun and Erica claimed it for the group. Dan returned as Arjun was chalking up his cue. “Where’s Sophia?” he asked.
“Still outside,” Arjun replied. “She said she had a phone call to take.”
Dan grabbed the triangle from underneath the table and started racking up the balls. “She’s a good one,” he said, leaning over the table. “But, to be honest—and, please, don’t take this the wrong way—I liked you with Nisha better.”
Arjun frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I just think you two have good chemistry together,” Dan said. “Like, you really get each other. Remind me again why you’re not dating her ?”
Arjun shook his head. “We’re just friends,” he said, perhaps a bit too forcefully. “And, besides, chemistry can be misleading. Not that I have that kind of chemistry with Nisha. We’re just friends,” he repeated for emphasis.
Dan shot a look at Erica, but he didn’t press the point further. “All right,” he said, rolling the cue ball across the table to Arjun. “You break.”
Sophia returned after Erica had finished wiping the floor with Dan and Arjun. She looked flushed, as though she’d just gone running. “You were gone for a long time,” Arjun said as Dan re-racked the balls. “Is everything alright?”
She nodded. “Everything is great,” she said. She leaned over to Arjun and whispered: “I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” he asked.
She inclined her head towards the door. “Not here. Outside.”
Arjun thought that was a bit strange, but he followed Sophia outside. A streetlamp buzzed overhead, and the music from the bar drifted faintly out onto the street. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Arjun asked as Sophia paced the sidewalk in front of him.
She stopped. Then, she leaped towards him and grabbed his forearms. “I got the job!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to be a professor at Stanford! ” Her eyes were wide, as though she herself didn’t believe it.
Arjun let out a huge, booming laugh. “Are you serious? Sophia, that’s amazing! I’m so happy for you!” He stepped forward, and Sophia allowed him to embrace her.
“Yeah,” she said as they pulled apart, still sounding a bit breathless. “I’m not starting until August…but, God, there’s so much I have to do. Find a car, a new place: maybe in Palo Alto, but maybe in SF? And I’ll probably need a roommate, because this entire city is criminally expensive, but I’m also almost thirty?—”
“Stay with me,” Arjun replied immediately.
She cocked her head. “Like, move in with you?”
“Why not?” he said. “I have a big place right in the middle of the city. And I have a spare bedroom.” It occurred to him just then how unique his proposition was: not only asking someone to move in with him just three dates in, but actually wanting her to.
Sophia smiled. “That’s a very sweet offer,” she said. “But I’d like to live apart until after we get married.”
He felt the expression on his face freeze. “What is it?” she asked.
“It’s nothing,” he replied. “It’s just…you said, ‘after we get married.’”
“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, I guess I did. Did that freak you out?”
He shook his head. “No,” he said. “It was just…a little unexpected, that’s all.”
She frowned. “Well, that’s the point of this, isn’t it? If we like each other, it moves quickly. I mean, we could be married before the end of the year.”
Arjun knew this was true, but hearing it said so plainly was like being hit by a brick. This is what you want , he told himself, staring into Sophia’s eyes. The streetlights danced in her dark irises.
Standing there in the cool night, he tried to picture it again: him and Sophia, getting married and growing old together. The image was still fuzzy, as on an old TV. He tried to visualize it more clearly. How does it make you feel? he asked himself.
“Hey,” Sophia said. “Are you still with me?”
Arjun nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. Do you want to go back inside? I’m sure Dan and Erica will be excited to hear the good news.”
Sophia shook her head. “I need to call my parents and tell them first. Maybe my grandparents, too. But your friends were lovely, Arjun. I’m really glad I got to meet them.”
He smiled. “Yeah, me too,” he said—and, to his surprise, he really was glad. He stood on the curb with Sophia as she awaited her Uber, and he bade her goodbye with a promise to see her again the next day.