Again, Omkar took charge of the ungainliness of their conversation. “Look, will you go on a date with me? I swear I’m not the guy who is going to do anything bad.”

“OK, yeah. I guess I’d like that,” Aria said. She had spoken without thinking, as if some unknown part within her had answered on her behalf.

Excitement coursed through his veins. “OK, well, can you go out tomorrow?”

Aria smiled at his urgency. “Yeah,” she said.

“Do you want to meet here or should I come pick you up?” Omkar asked, careful to maintain a respectful distance.

“Ah … I can meet you here. What time do you want me to be here?” she asked.

“How about five o’clock? Is that too early or …?” Omkar said, ready to adjust himself to any time she specified.

“Nah, five is good,” Aria said.

Omkar and Aria stood there on the pavement of the street, neither of them wanting to be the one to rupture their proximity. Eventually, Aria gained the strength to step out from beneath the reassurance of his shadow. “OK, I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said, shyly moving her body away from him while still looking him in the eye.

“OK, see you tomorrow, then,” he said, standing motionless and watching her start to walk down the street. “OK, five o’clock. Thank you!” he yelled out after her, suddenly feeling the need to remind her of the time they had agreed upon as if she had already forgotten.

Omkar turned and placed his arms and forehead against the cold steel of the top of his car. No longer trying to act collected because of her presence, he let out a sigh of relief.

When he opened the door to the store, carrying his heavy load of textbooks and papers, Neeraj criticized him for not using a backpack to carry his things, and Omkar realized his father hadn’t seen Aria and him talking. He had probably been too busy looking through the spreadsheets, which he insisted on printing out instead of reading on a computer.

Omkar went straight upstairs. Without taking his shoes off, he lay down on his carefully made bed and stared at the ceiling. His heartbeat hammered against the walls of his chest. With his mind, he traced the lines of her. He memorized the music of her voice. He knew the hours between now and five o’clock tomorrow would be the longest he had ever spent.

For the rest of the night, Aria wrangled with the part of herself that wanted to hope. She could hear her inner voice make a hundred and one excuses for why it wouldn’t work between them. She suffocated that excitement beneath a blanket of pessimism until the wrestling match she had been playing with herself was put to rest by Aston running up to her through the dark.

“Where’s my mommy?” he asked.