She shouldn’t have stopped. “I’ve already answered that.” She shouldn’t have turned around.

The real question he was asking was in his eyes. Clear as day. “When was the last time you did something because you wanted to?”

She tugged at her bun, that stupid strand of hair gouging at her scalp. “I do a lot of things I want to.”

“Right. I mean when was the last time you did something that made you feel alive?”

She hoped her face showed him exactly how much she didn’t want him to say what he was going to say next.

“When was the last time you played ball?”

Sweat broke out down her back, prickles of ice over hot skin. The dampening spread to her palms, the insides of her elbows, the backs of her knees.

She could have named the exact date and time. “I think your friend is looking for you.” Song was heading their way. She stumbled and Rico went to her. Ashna made her escape.

Despite her soccer scholarship to UCLA, Ashna had never really thought of playing as something she would do after college. She hadn’t meant to let it go entirely either. In all honestly, she’d never given it a thought, believing that there would be time to make those decisions. As about everything else, she’d been wrong.

The last time she had put on her gloves, touched a ball, was when her high school soccer team had taken pictures for the yearbook. It had been after the season was over. She’d had plans with Rico after. Plans that relied heavily on the fact that his aunt was traveling and her house was empty overnight. It was going to be their first time spending a night together.

Ashna had lied to Mina Kaki and told her that Baba needed her at the restaurant, even though it was midweek. Then she’d freaked out. She’d been sure that Mina Kaki would call Baba, that Rico and she would be found out. She hadn’t been able to relax until Rico asked if she wanted him to drive her home, and he had, without a whit of disappointment. For years, she had wished they’d had at least that one night together.

She went to the green room and took her time grabbing her jacket. No, she was not hiding. When she opened up her rideshare app she remembered that there was a huge tech conference happening in the city. It was going to be a twenty-minute wait. Ashna groaned. This was what happened when you became too dependent on technology.