“Do you remember,” Kaori trailed, hiding a smile behind a bite of chips, “our session after the translation event?”

“You still owe me for that,” Yusuf said. “I fielded emails from overbearing parents for days.”

“What the hell happened?” I asked. “Something with translating Figueiredo’s language?”

Yusuf sighed. “She conducted her first physics seminar at Oxford entirely in Japanese.”

“With hand gestures. And equations. And diagrams!” Kaori actually giggled. For the sake of her staff, I made a note to lug gallons of margarita back to the Compound. “I was illustrating that physics transcends language. And that physics is the language of science. Clearly.”

“I explained this thesis to our division head,” Yusuf said, rolling his eyes. “Who then asked me to remind you that you were there to teach in English, as per the syllabus.”

“Babying the undergraduates to cave to that man’s lack of philosophical rigor remains the low-point of my career.” She stabbed the lime on the rim of her glass and it tumbled into the neon drink. Then, she glanced my way. “Well, until we see where letting you stay leads me.”

I fanned my hand over my heart in dramatic horror. “You know, usually I’m into some casual negging as foreplay. But, ouch.”

“Did you get set up with the video team?” Yusuf with the pivot.

“What my esteemed colleague means to ask is if you’ve crashed our footage server yet,” Kaori said sweetly.

The waiter, my savior, dropped off my drink. I glugged a catch-up mouthful. “What’s with the ‘esteemed colleague’ garbage? Aren’t you two friends?”

“Is a carpenter friends with her hammer?” The laugh was gone from Yusuf’s voice. He swiped at the salt over his lips.

“Now, now,” Kaori protested. “You’re far less blunt than a hammer.”

“Thank you.”

“Besides. You value science. I value science. Therefore, by the transitive property of—”

“This is gonna be good,” I interrupted.

“—of… interpersonal relations, that means I value Dr. Hassan, here.”

“You should get that printed up on a greeting card,” I said. I glanced over at Yusuf and his eyes were lost on the ice cubes of his glass. I wasn’t sure he was in on the joke.

“I’m not sure we’ll have time on this specific outing,” Kaori said. “I’ll consider it.”

On my tongue, the margarita was sour and sweet.

*   *   *

Sometime after my second drink, the two of them stopped referring to each other with their fancy titles in front of me. I leaned back and watched them fall into their easy shorthand after years working and teaching together. I goaded them here and there with questions about their research, with my eyes as camera lenses picking up how they reacted.

NAREK (VOICEOVER)

You’re good at this because you’re a liar. You know what people want to hear, what they want to be asked. You use all that to get a story out of them.