“You remembered!” I say. I barely remember telling him about our ritual. I slide onto the bar stool and chomp down gratefully on a mozzarella stick. “Thank you for this, by the way. You’re amazing.”

“Of course.”

I tell him about Carmen’s plans to launch her own business and our evening at The Wing. His eyebrows shoot up. He looks impressed.

“It’s super cool that she’s going out on her own, too. I wish I had the guts to do that.”

“Would you ever consider it?”

He shakes his head. “Nah. Not for me. I always thought I might. . . . My parents have their own restaurant in Queens and raised me to work for myself. But honestly, I’m happiest working with and for others. I’m looking for jobs right now, though.”

“Coding jobs?”

“Coding or design, yeah. I loved the early stages of designing and coding the app at my last startup, but the maintenance stuff toward the end got pretty boring after a while.”

Something clicks.

“Raj, would you want to help out Carmen? She’s looking for the right person to build her app.”

He rubs a hand over his mouth. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m tempted.”

“Yeah? I don’t know how complicated it is, but . . .” I say, trailing off. I’m already typing out a text to Carmen to say I might have found an engineer for her.

“Yeah, clearly, says the girl who still uses an ancient MacBook from, like, the nineteenth century.” His eyes light up when he teases me. “I’ve seen that thing in your store.”

“Twenty thirteen was not that long ago!” I squeak.

Carmen is already typing back. “Deets?!?” she asks.

“Can I connect you to Carmen?” I ask Raj.

He shrugs. “Go for it. Would love to learn more. I like startups.”

I connect them via text. It’s too simple.

“Did you always know you wanted to run your own jewelry business?” he asks.

“The idea for the store came later, but I’ve been really into jewelry since I was a kid,” I explain. “My parents own a boating shop, and there used to be this jewelry store next door run by this amazing woman named Helen. I used to hang out there all the time when I was younger, and she taught me to really appreciate fine jewelry.”

“Like a mentor,” he says.

“Yeah. In middle school, I couldn’t afford anything she sold, obviously, so I used to wear Ring Pops—remember those?—and pretend they were real.” The memory makes me smile.

Raj grins. “I used to love those.”