“Okay,” he says. His cheeks turn red. “And, um, I’mreallysorry for puking on you,” he rushes out.
Ravi laughs, and Leo’s blush deepens. “Thank you. Try not to do that again.”
“I won’t; I promise.”
Silently, they look at one another for a moment. “Alright,” Ravi says gently, “I have to catch my bus.”
“I’m going to stay and wait for Ms. Koenig,” Leo says.
Ravi swallows. She won’t come out until she knows the library is empty. “Knock on the office door after I go. I’m sure she’ll have a moment to chat,” he tells Leo.
Leo seems to accept this without suspicion, so Ravi replaces the last couple of chairs and turns to go.
YAEL JUSTABOUTjumps out of her skin when she hears the knock at her office door. She’s resorted to hiding in here and doing jack shit on her phone after book club (today, sudoku and reminding Charlie to write her a plant-watering guide for his upcoming trip to visit his maternal grandparents in Hong Kong), so she reaches for the nearest stack of papers to make it look like she’s doing somethingresemblingwork.
“Come in!” she calls, her voice half an octave too high. The door creaks open tentatively, and a head of slightly overgrown curls appears. “Leo,” she says, surprised. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Ms. Koenig,” he says. “Do you have a minute?”
“Of course,” she says.
“I was hoping to catch you and Ravi before you left—”
“Oh, I could go out there with you.” She gestures at the papers that she was doing absolutely nothing with. “This can wait.”
“He left already,” Leo says.
“Oh.” Yael flushes, and she hopes desperately that Leo can’t tell. She tucks her chin to her chest, letting her hair fall forward to cover her face for one solitary breath. Their mutual avoidance is a lot less comforting when Leo’s in the middle of it.
“Is something wrong between you and him?”
“No,” Yael answers quickly, biting back the “why?” onthe tip of her tongue. “We could both stay back next time, if you want.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Leo says. “I talked to him. I just wanted to thank you for giving me a ride home. I’ve never been like… I’ve never needed to use SafeRide before. I’m usually responsible.”
She nods slowly. “I’m sure. I’m not judging you. I’m not condoning it, either, but I was in high school once, too.” Not that she went to parties. The first time she got drunk was off leftover Manischewitz from Pesach on the roof of Sanaa’s condo building. If she’d had to drive anywhere, though, she definitely would’ve needed the help. “Hopefully this taught you your limits, though?”
“It did, definitely.”
“Good.”
“Thank you,” he says again.
“Anytime, Leo. I know you talked to Ravi a bit that night, and I’m sure he’d be willing to listen if you wanted to talk more.”
“Yeah,” he says, looking at the floor.
“And,” Yael says, “no pressure at all, but if you ever want to talk to me, you could do that, too.”
He nods, still looking at the floor. “I think my mom’s here.”
“See you Tuesday,” she says, and he leaves, closing the office door behind him.
Next week. Next week, she’s going to suck it up and speak to Ravi.
RAVI OPENS THEfront door to the smell of stew chicken and immediately knows something is wrong. Suresh never makes it on weekdays. The prep time is too long. Ravi rounds thecorner to the couch first, where Mia is sitting, jaw open, staring at the TV. Another bad sign. Suresh only parks her like this, unattended, as a last resort. She’s currently laser-focused on one of those Field Museum videos with the same woman, whose hair is braided this time, talking in front of a humanlike skeleton.
“Hey, Mia,” he says, and she only grunts in return.
