“We miss you too, Sora Joon,” Mom says, stirring a bubbling pot of gheimeh. I can almost smell the onions and tomatoes and dried limes simmering through the phone. “You know, if you want to come back early, we wouldn’t object!” I watch her dip a corner of pita in the stew to taste-test before throwing in another dash of salt.
“We’ll see, Mom,” I say, choking back a sob. She doesn’t know how seriously I’m considering it. “Kiss Reza for me.” I blow a kiss into the phone.
“We love you, Soraya Joon. Be careful,” Dad says. “And wear the whistle!”
“Okay, Dad. I’ll try. I love you guys too.” I end the call with a tight throat, dabbing at the corners of my eyes with the hem of my shirt. I have to pull myself together. The tour is tomorrow. I’m short on time and need to get to work. Slowly, I get to crossing tasks off the list. I pick up everything for the first-aid kit at a local pharmacy. A gift shop Nico knows has the materials I need for the souvenir bags. I am mostly done and about to head back when Ihear very obvious sniffles coming from a woman sitting on a bench. I really should return to the B and B, but she sounds so sad. I would have wanted someone to acknowledge me, I think, when I was crying like this a few days ago. I approach, juggling my shopping bags so I can tap her on the shoulder.
“Hi, are you okay? Do you need help?”
The woman pulls her blotchy face from her hands. She stares, squinting as she studies my face. “I know you!”
I pull back, confused. She looks familiar too—but there is makeup running down her face and her eyes are puffy, so it takes a minute to connect the dots. “Sailor! We were on the same flight over.” I’m shocked she even remembered.
“That’s right. You’re the funny one. You had that really big backpack.” Sailor looks down, wipes her tears away.
“Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yes.” She tries to put on a happy face, but her lip is wobbling, and she crumbles back into tears. “Actually, no. My phone died, my friends split up, I lost my purse, I don’t know where I am, and I might be a little or a lot tipsy but that’s only because I found out that my boyfriend and my assistant—well, let’s just say that in my absence, they’ve been keeping each otherquitebusy.”
“Bastards,” I say, dropping to the bench to put a comforting arm around her. From what she posts, I would never guess that Sailor ever had a bad day. Messy people with messes for lives—like me—need people like her tolook up to, but if even the Insta goddesses’ lives aren’t perfect, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Sailor hiccups. “Everyone has cameras these days, you know? How dumb can you be?”
“I’m so sorry. At least you found out now? Before you wasted more time on him?”
“That’s true.” Sailor dabs at her eyes.
“If it makes you feel better, you aren’t alone. I know a little bit about boy trouble if you need someone to unload to.”
“They’re all trash,” Sailor wails.
Nico’s face pops into my mind. I want to say that that there are good and worthwhile people out there, to not give up on love just because one dickhead did you dirty, but this might not be the moment. “Well, my phone is charged. You’re welcome to use it.”
“Thank you.” Sailor straightens her skirt, powdering her face with such expert speed that in moments, it looks like she’d never cried at all. She inputs her hotel, turning the phone from east to west as she tries to memorize the navigation. “If it’s not too much to ask, do you mind walking me back?”
“Not at all. I’m happy to.” We make our way slowly back to Sailor’s hotel. I learn that she has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, but her career as an influencer pays ten times more than she’d ever make with her degree.
“If it takes you to places like this, that’s not half bad,” I say when we stop at a stand for a slice of pizza.
“You have a point,” Sailor agrees. A string of cheese stretches long from her mouth to the pizza, and we both laugh as she shovels it ungracefully down. She’s a real person, I realize. I’d known that in some abstract sense, maybe, but it had never sunk in before now that she isn’t just a pretty face on a phone screen.
Before long, we arrive. She’s staying at a fancy hotel, one with bellmen waiting outside in little caps and a long, plush red carpet. I bite my lip to hide my smile. I wanted so badly for Nico’s place to be just like this, and now, you couldn’t pay me to stay anywhere else.
Sailor wraps me in a tight hug. “You’re the best. I owe you big-time. Can I Venmo you? For the pizza, and using your phone?”
“No, honestly, it’s totally fine.”
“I insist. You saved me today. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”
The wheels in my head start to turn. Well, if she was going to offer… “There isonething, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“Consider it done.”
CHAPTER 31
“How did it go lastnight?” Nico asks me later that evening as we go over the plans for our moped tour one last time. It’s our first chance to catch up all day, with me running all my errands and Nico tending to things at the B and B.
“Fine,” I say. “I mean, they were asleep when I got back, so we didn’t talk.”
