“She’s never even been arrested. Not once! Ever! How does that even happen?”

“She’s lucky, I guess.”

“I guess.” I picked at my fingernails. “What do you two talk about, if not politics?”

“Ariah.”

“You do talk to her, don’t you?”

He frowned at me. “Ariah.”

I dropped my face into my hands. “I’m sorry.”

He was quiet for a long moment. “We talk about her work. We talk about you. We talk about the future. We do talk. I am very fond of her.”

He was fond of her—very fond of her—but she loved him. It came bursting out of her whenever they were in the same room, whenever she looked at him. All he could give her was fondness. It was uneven. I couldn’t shake that it was unfair. But it was none of my business. I tried to remember that.

* * *

Shayat bought me a plum and watched me eat it while we walked through the market. “You’re so messy. You’ll stain your shirt.”

“Then Parvi will make me another.”

She clucked her tongue at me. “He probably would. I don’t know what he sees in you.”

I laughed. “Shayat, can I ask you something?”

“Yes, professor.”

“It’s personal, this thing I want to ask.” She looked at me, apologetic, eyebrows raised. I rolled my eyes. “It’s not about you.”

“Sure it isn’t.”

“It isn’t! Look. What if…what if you thought someone was making a mistake, maybe a very big mistake, but it was personal. And you felt you couldn’t say anything. Or, rather, you knew you couldn’t without betraying someone else’s trust. What would you do?”

She looked over at me. “How can I give you advice without specifics?”

“I can’t tell you specifics!”

“Then I can’t give you advice.”

“Fine.” I took another bite of the plum. “We make life so complicated. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“I told you I can’t give you specifics.”

She took my plum. She took three bites, and gave the remainder back to me. I frowned at her. “I bought it,” she said.

“That was so rude.”

“Well, it’s done now. Look, professor, your company is not so enthralling that I want to stand next to you while you mutter to yourself. Let’s talk about something else.”

“All right. I think you’ve got Lothic down pretty well, though the irregular verbs still…”

She took the plum again. “Ugh, not languages. I’ll talk to you about anything but languages.”

“Why didn’t you just buy it for yourself?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t really want it until I saw you eat it, I guess.” She grinned at me and wiped the juice away with her sleeve. “Do me a favor, will you?”

“Yes? No! Tell me what it is first.”