“I heard,” I said pointedly even though I could barely make myself sound annoyed. He bit his bottom lip and winked, a combo that had a very debilitating effect on me. Taking a sip of the crisp, cold wine didn’t help to calm me down. “Anyway, the library was it for me and Mimita. Our favorite spot. It’s how I learned English,” I admitted. Those had been such weird times. I’d felt so untethered, Corona could’ve been another planet, and there was so much noise, all the time. But the library had been my oasis. A comforting haven when everything else was chaos. A memory of something I hadn’t told anyone came to me, and before I knew it I was telling him.

“You want to hear something crazy?” I asked rhetorically and he nodded instantly. His big body leaning toward me, eyes lit up with interest. “The first few times we went neither of us knew we could take the books home and we would just hang out there for hours.” It had been so long since I’d thought of that. “We don’t have libraries like the ones here where you can borrow books. Not public ones, anyway. And definitely not ones with story time for kids or anything like that.” I sighed, recalling those afternoons sitting on comfy chairs reading or listening to one of the staff read a book for us. Even when I still couldn’t understand much of what they were saying I’d been enthralled. “It was a magical place. Libraries and bookstores have always felt like that to me.”

He stared at me for a really long time. So long I started to squirm, and then he shook his head.

“And now you’ve turned your passion into your business. You’re incredible.” I tended to bristle at implications that I’d overcome harrowing circumstances, but his words didn’t feel like condescension. And lately, I’d been thinking about how hard it had been to manage as much as I had as a kid. That first year of public school when I thought I’d lose my mind trying to understand what was happening around me, while my parents struggled to make a life in a place they could barely navigate. We were all so scared. For months we didn’t leave the four or five blocks that made up our neighborhood. My parents, who had been brave enough to leave everything behind to come to New York, became these meek, docile people. Worn down by the slights and rejections lurking around every corner. That fear had grown inside me too, but I’d fought it. Every day I made myself be bold, even when it cost me so much.

“Thank you, Theo.” He winced at that.