“What happened?”

“I was coming back from dropping Yin at his house. We worked at the restaurant this morning. Since we have brunch now on weekends, we were there early and finished around 4:00 p.m. I stayed at his house for a bit longer than I should have.” He cleared his throat then, and even in the midst of this shitty moment I smiled hearing how his voice filled with affection whenever his spoke of his boyfriend. “I was rushing to make sure I could stop home before meeting you. I told my uncle I would bring him some dinner from work. I was going faster than I usually drive. They pulled me over right outside of Trumansburg.”

“Did anything bad happen during the stop?” I waited in silence, dreading what he’d say next.

“They were rude, and asked me to get out of the car, but they didn’t hurt me. I did everything you and Nesto told me.”

When they’d been over helping with the move, Ari shared he was scared of driving on his own. He’d bought Nesto’s old Prius when Nes upgraded to an SUV some months back, but was still very careful on the road. Nesto and I had talked to him about what he should do if he ever got stopped, told him about the videos he could watch.

“I was just scared.” His voice sounded small and I felt so damn sorry he’d had to go through that. “When they asked for my ID, I almost panicked. I have my license, but I heard they’ve been asking for papers. All I have is my work authorization. I was worried they’d see it and ask me about Batavia.” His voice shook when he mentioned the detention center he’d been held in for over a year. I closed my eyes as my own heartbeat throbbed in my ears. It made me sick to my stomach to hear that he’d gone through that.

I didn’t want this for him.

When he spoke again, his voice, which was usually so strong and jovial, sounded tiny and terrified. “I thought they would call my uncle and you know how he is. He would’ve been furious to know I was driving back from Yin’s house. He keeps threatening me that he won’t help me with my Green Card if I don’t stop being friends with him.”

My mood sank even further at the mention of Ari’s uncle. I knew the man wasn’t evil, but he was certainly going out of his way to be an asshole. I had a feeling his uncle was using this to scare him and that he was not necessarily able to do all the shit he was threatening Ari with.

“Where are you now?”

“I’m at the employee parking lot of OuNYe. I didn’t know where to go and didn’t want to scare Yin.”