“Who was that?” Soraya asked as I sat down.

“Who?”

“That guy you were talking to.”

I glanced over at my parents. My mom’s lips were a straight line. My dad’s eyes flickered down to the table.

“Just a friend,” I mumbled.

I hated myself as soon as that word left my mouth. Friend.

A moment passed. I felt like we were all holding our breath. “Rome is beautiful,” my mom said, breaking the silence. “What have you seen here, Amir joon. The Colosseum?”

“No. I didn’t see the Colosseum.” The waiter arrived with our pizzas, and it was like we could all breathe again. Everyone dove in to grab a slice. “But I saw the Sistine Chapel.”

“That must have been very nice,” my mom said, cutting into her pizza with a fork and knife.

“Yeah, but it took a while to get there.”

As we ate, I thought about the Sistine Chapel—how that Amir felt like another person ago, another eon ago. How that Amir would judge me hard for lying to my parents about my relationship with Valerio.

“Holy motherforking crap, this pizza is delicious,” Soraya said, picking up a chunk of cheese that had fallen on the table and popping it in her mouth. My mom gave her a disapproving look. “What kind of cheese is this?”

“Gorgonzola,” I said, and then I giggled. “Gorgonzooola,” I said more slowly, gargling the word. “Gorgooonzzoollaaaa,” I said a third time.

“Umm. Why are you saying ‘gorgonzola’ like that?” my sister asked.

I looked over my shoulder at the busy park, the marble fountain, the benches at the edge, and I turned back to Soraya.

“No reason,” I said, smiling.

I took out my phone under the table and sent one last text from my Italian number.

Interrogation Room 38

Roya Azadi

WE WERE SO happy to have Amir back.

Interrogation Room 38

Soraya

IT WAS WEIRD having Amir back.

Something just felt different. It wasn’t just that his hair was longer, curlier, or that he had a tan now and knew a bunch of Italian words. I don’t know. He was just in his head a lot. It was like his mind was somewhere else. When we went out for dinner, Amir hardly looked at us. He just kept looking up at those pretty Italian buildings. It was the first time since the Instagram video that I realized he really did have a life there, in Italy, with friends.

Interrogation Room 37

Amir

THE INCIDENT ON the plane. Right.

I was sitting in an aisle seat, across from my family. I remember looking down the row, out the window, and there were little droplets in that airtight space.

Looking out that window, twisting my hands in my lap, I couldn’t believe how quickly my life had changed. And not for the first time. Italy was already starting to feel like a fantasy I had made up.

Meanwhile, my family . . . they still didn’t know who I was. All of a sudden, they were strangers to me.