I felt like we’d been sitting for hours. As the semicircle of gathered women began to disperse, I stood, brushing the last bits of pink confetti off my lap, and scanned the room.

“Hey there, what did I miss?” someone said behind me. I turned to see Alondra. She gave me a hug as brisk as everything she did and handed me an envelope. “Gift card. Figured you didn’t know what you needed yet. Who are you looking for just now?”

“Rahmia.”

“Ah.” Alondra nodded toward the back door. “Rahmia was outside on the phone when I got here. Sounded like she might be wrapping up.”

My throat was dry and my cheeks were starting to ache from all the grateful smiling. I nodded at the punch bowl, and Alondra walked with me. I dipped up two glasses of the sticky-sweet punch and handed her one, which she sipped before wincing and setting it down unfinished.

She said, “I’ve been trying to get her to join the Bluebonnets, but she’s too busy. I’d hoped she would be one of our speakers, but she doesn’t want the attention.”

“What?” I tried to piece together friendly Rahmia, exasperated by Emir, and the shadow I’d thought I’d seen in the shopping complex with the words Alondra was saying.

Then Alondra looked past me and raised her voice. “At the very least, we could do some fund raising.”

And Rahmia herself came up beside me, smiling at Alondra. “Nag, nag, nag.”

“What is she talking about?” I asked Rahmia.

Alondra answered. “Rahmia works with the local branch of the International Women’s Resource Center. Listen, I’ve got to get some water or something. No offense, but that punch is like drinking a lollipop.”

As she left, I turned to Rahmia. “I didn’t know about this.”

Her hands fluttered as she said, “Alondra makes it too big. I just help where I can.”

“You help women, like with a women’s shelter?”

Rahmia sighed. “Let’s sit. You shouldn’t be on your feet so long.” She drew me back to the twin chairs, sitting in the one where Elizabeth had been. “So, it started because I am lucky. I wanted an arranged marriage; I didn’t have to have one. My sister and her husband met in medical school, but I was tired of waiting for my family. I knew Ali from before; we’d been in grade school together. And even when we went overseas to our different colleges, we both spent summers with family. Ali had started his PhD, and I had just finished my master’s, so the timing was perfect for our engagement.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with your work.” My eyes felt gritty, and I reached up to rub them. The fluorescent lights and the beam of everyone’s attention during the gift opening must have made me more tired than I’d realized.