Page 17 of Isn't It Obvious?
Her expression changes, but before Ravi can really get a read on it, Yael steels herself into that same teeth-baring look she’d given him earlier. “My apologies, Ravi. I hope you’ll consider staying on, but I understand if it doesn’t work out. Have a good night.”
Ravi nods in response, feeling a little chastened and a lot uninterested in assessing why he feels that way, and heads to the door.
He puts in his earbuds and presses play on the early episode ofThe Sophomore English Agendahe’d been listening to on the way here. He only gets two more sentences into Elle’s analysis ofThe Great Gatsby(she seems to really hate this one, with a depth he can’t fully understand but finds entertaining regardless) when his muffled name cuts through the noise cancellation.
It’s one of the kids from the club. Taller than Ravi already but doesn’t seem to be done growing, floppy curly hair, braces, nervous smile. The two things he’s said this week before today were his name and pronouns on Tuesday, and Ravi can only remember one of those.
“Hey,” Ravi says.
“I’m Leo, from book club.” Ravi smiles, trying to assurehim. Leo continues, “You said you’d readThe Song of Achilles, and I was just wondering if you liked it?”
“It was a long time ago now, so I don’t remember all of it, but, yeah, I did.” Ravi gets the sense that that isn’t what Leo stopped him to ask, but with the way the kid is biting his lip, he guesses that a blunt “Anything else?” will scare him off.
“Did you read it in high school like Ms. Koenig?”
Ravi shakes his head. “University. I, uh, got a copy from my first boyfriend.” That’s not who Cole was to him, but he can be forgiven for the revision, he thinks.
“Is that when you came out? When you had your first boyfriend?”
There it is.“For me, coming out wasn’t just one moment. I told my brother before that, but a lot of other people in my life I told more gradually. But starting to see people publicly who weren’t women was a big part of it.”
Leo’s nodding along, and it seems like he might want to say something else but ultimately decides against it. “Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, Ravi. It’s cool that you’re… yeah. Thanks. See you Tuesday?”
“Yeah, anytime, Leo. See you Tuesday,” he says, and he decides that he means it.
IF THERE’S ANYTHINGto be said for Ravi’s apparent change of heart, it’s that it makes telling Charlie a whole lot easier. Yael spent her walk home practicing what to say, and theAnyway, I’m not even sure he plans to stayshe’s planning to throw in is especially helpful.
She unlocks the door to her apartment, hangs up the yellow New York Public Library tote that Sanaa bought for herbirthday, and bends to yank her feet out of her floral embroidered Chelsea boots. “Charlie?” she calls out. “You home?”
He emerges from his room, clearly fresh from a postwork nap. His wolf cut is all over the place, and all his clothes are wrinkled. “Hey, Yael. A new season ofSelling Sunsetfinally dropped. Sound good for tonight?”
“I will never say no to Chrishell Stause. But I also have something I want to tell you.”
Charlie frowns. “Good news first, please.”
“There’s no good news,” Yael says, and Charlie’s face falls farther. “I guess there’s no bad news, either. Or, at least, no terrible news. Like, I don’t think—”
“Yael.”
She laughs. “Sorry. Anyway, you know how I said Sherine found a volunteer for the club?”
“Yes…?”
“Well,Charles, that volunteer turned out to be Ravi.”
His brow furrows for a half second before the realization dawns, and Yael takes that as a good sign. Like the hesitation means that it hasn’t been weighing on him as much as she worried it might. “Ravi, from last weekend? Seriously?”
She nods, raising her eyebrows emphatically. “Right? Apparently, he saw one of my flyers on his way out.”
“What are the odds?”
“That’s what I said!” Yael’s Pops has always said that Portland was a big city but a small town, and growing up she never fully got what he meant until she couldn’t go to a coffee shop or Salt & Straw on a break from college without running into an old classmate behind the counter. “I’d been looking for someone forweeks, and it had to be him. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you on Tuesday; we were just kind of ships in the night and then I completely forgot to bring it up yesterday over dinner.”
Charlie smiles, and Yael feels relieved. “That’s because you were emailing with Kevin.”
She pretends to balk at the suggestion. “I was giving you my utmost attention.”
“Sure you were,” Charlie says.
