Page 51 of Isn't It Obvious?
She hits send and lets herself out of the office to collect her lunch. The notifications come in as she stands in front of the teacher’s lounge microwave. She opens the texts first.
Kevin
I’m so happy for you, Elle. I’ll follow you there, if you want to go
You are fucking brilliant, you know that?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ravi leaves for the book club fifteen minutes later than usual. Suresh is home with a migraine, so Ravi picks Mia up from day care even though it isn’t his turn. When he returns, he finds Suresh on the couch with a pained furrow in his brow that deepens when Mia climbs on top of him. Ravi offers to stay back, but Suresh insists he’ll be fine. And, well, even though he still looks pained, his smile when Mia kisses his forehead and says “It’ll be better now, Daddy” is genuine.
On his way to Northwest Portland, Ravi listens to the final cut of the new episode again. He’s not sure why he does it at first—he looks through other podcasts and playlists while he waits at the bus stop, but very little catches his interest, and nothing holds it. It’s already there in his downloaded files, and without really thinking about it, he hits play.
Halfway across the bridge, though, he realizes he’s looking for clues. Trying to marry the sound and cadence of Podcast Elle with the voice whispering over the phone two weeks ago so he can piece together what the real her would be like.
A pointless effort, because the reality is she doesn’t want him to know. When he offered to call again last night, she’d been skittish, and he hadn’t pressed. But he had wanted to.
He stares down at the tie-dyed pants folded in the TraderJoe’s canvas bag (both freshly laundered) on his lap. Maybe that’s part of it, too. He wants to remind himself of the person he can’t have so he doesn’t think about the person he shouldn’t want.
After a week of clear skies, it’s raining again, and in his rush to leave the house, Ravi pulls the lined denim jacket off the hook by the door instead of digging in the closet for his rain shell. A quick glance at the TransitTracker app tells him that the streetcar has the worst delay Ravi’s seen since moving to Portland, so he opts to walk instead and arrives at Kennedy with wet marks on his shoulders and water from his hair dripping down his forehead. Sherine stares disapprovingly over her reading glasses at him while he signs in. As if he’d chosen to show up like this in order to inconvenience her, personally.
As he pushes open the door to the library, he tries to shake some of the water out of his hair, but all that does is make a rivulet of rain trail from his hairline to his brow. He combs it back with his fingers, finally accepting that unkempt and out of the way is better than the alternative.
“Nice of you to join us,” Yael says from the already populated circle of chairs. He’s always hated being the last one to arrive somewhere, how it makes everyone stare at him.
“What’d I miss?” he asks, approaching his seat.
Her brows lift briefly. “Zoe would like us to skip ahead to adult romance.”
“But we still haven’t readThe Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School,” Ravi says. He withdraws his notebook from the bag, then tucks it under his chair so nobody can see what’s inside.
“THANK YOU!” JQ says, slapping their hands on their knees.
Zoe frowns at Ravi, and he can’t help but laugh. “Sorry,”he says. “I don’t mean to take sides. I was just excited for that one.”
“See, Ravi wants to read it, so we can’t skip,” JQ says.
“Please don’t make this my fault,” Ravi says. He scans the circle, disappointed when he doesn’t find Leo.
“But we’ve been reading so much YA contemporary!” Zoe says. “Iam a contemporary young adult; I don’t need to read about it all the time.”
JQ narrows their eyes at her. “I thought you said that every book we’ve read isamazing.”
“That’s not the point.” Zoe pouts.
“Okay,” Yael interrupts, face stern. “It’s almost Halloween, why don’t we have a brief break for some Chuck Tingle?”
Zoe’s jaw drops in delight. “Really?!”
“I ordered us a few copies ofCamp Damascus, Zoe,” Yael says. “Not his erotica.”
“ButLadybuck on Ladybucklooks so funny!”
Ravi laughs into his hand, and Yael throws her hands in the air. “I swear, you are all trying to get me fired,” she says, amusement in her eyes.
“I could do horror,” Eli says. Jackson, whose legs are draped over Eli’s lap, nods in agreement.
“Me too,” Ravi says.
