“Who was that?” Maddie asked.
As she weaved around Nisha to get to the refrigerator, Nisha had the all-too-common feeling of being in the way. She moved to the other end of the kitchen, near the opening that led to the hallway.
“The person who lives in my old apartment.”
“Is Nish making friends?” Suni put her hands on Nisha’s shoulders to move her aside as she squeezed into the kitchen. She kissed Maddie’s cheek and went to the sink to wash her hands. “What are we doing for dinner tonight, team?”
Nisha gave a quiet sigh. She loved them dearly, and she appreciated that it was always “we” and “team.” She’d needed that at first, but these days she, Suni, and Maddie felt less like the three Musketeers and more like two newlyweds and the barnacle of a friend they couldn’t shake. The more they tried to include Nisha, the more obvious it was that she was an obligation.
“Actually, I have plans tonight.”
Suni’s carefully brushed and threaded eyebrows raised to her forehead. “Our little Nish has friends?”
“Stop that,” Maddie chided her. “She’s always had friends. Don’t be mean.” She set a pan on the stove and turned on the burner. “I was going to make sweet potato and cauliflower curry. We had that cauliflower head that needed to be used up.”
Suni and Nisha exchanged a look. Maddie was always looking up recipes on food blogs, mostly written by white ladies who thought they had good taste. And bless her for the effort, but her food was always flavorless.
Maddie drizzled some oil in the pan and turned to Nisha. “So where are you going?”
“Um…I have an extra yoga class tonight, and we might get some dinner afterward.”
“Okay, have fun.”
“Yoga class, hmm?” Unlike Maddie, who was too nice to question whether someone was telling her the truth, Sunita didn’t believe her. “Isn’t that usually on Mondays?”
“She said it was an extra one,” Maddie said.
“Okay, I guess she wants to get extra limber or something.”
“Or something,” Nisha agreed, fleeing the kitchen before Suni could press her any further.
Despite how long Nisha had lived there, the guest bedroom didn’t look like her space. Or feel like it. It still had the modern yet neutral decor Suni and Maddie had selected when they’d moved in. She took her phone off the nightstand and scrolled through her contacts. What was she going to do tonight? She thought about taking herself to dinner, but that sounded depressing. There probably was a yoga class somewhere, but she had just made it up.
She looked at the texts the woman—Kara—had sent. She’d said she was alone in Chicago. Her cranky attitude was probably just loneliness.
Nisha hit the call button before she could think twice.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Kara, this is Nisha Rajchandra. We spoke a little while ago. I hope you don’t mind me calling you.”
“Hello, Nisha Rajchandra,” Kara said, sounding amused instead of angry. “I didn’t expect to talk to you again.”
“You said you’d just moved here and didn’t know anyone. I wanted to check on you, but first I have something to say. What you said about Oleg was completely out of line.”
“Who’s Oleg?”
“He was nothing but nice to me when I lived there, and I still consider him my friend. Just because he’s Ukrainian doesn’t mean—”
“Are you talking about the maintenance guy?”
“Oleg is a sweetheart. He called me to tell me you’d moved in, and he and I talked for an hour when I came over the other day to leave that note for you. As someone whose grandparents often get discriminated against for being immigrants, I don’t appreciate you making accusations about Oleg just because he’s Ukrainian.”
“Whoa, wait a second! I don’t care where he’s from as long as he stays out of my apartment. I’m sorry if I falsely accused him. I just couldn’t think who else would have a key besides him and you.”
Nisha took a beat to evaluate if Kara was telling the truth. “Okay.”
“It’s not my style to think anything about someone because of their immigration status or national origin.” Kara sounded sincere.
“I’m sorry if I assumed. Oleg told me you’re from Wisconsin.”
“Hey, people from Wisconsin aren’t so bad. We’re mostly too busy drinking beer to cause trouble. Anyway, now who’s stereotyping?”
“Fair enough.”
“Did you just call to yell at me?”
“No, now that that’s settled, I’m hoping we can move on from it. I just couldn’t leave it like that.”
“Okay.” Kara gave a slight chuckle, but Nisha didn’t know what was so funny.
“Anyway, I was wondering if you’d like to get some dinner or a drink or something tonight?”
“You’re inviting me to dinner two seconds after accusing me of being prejudiced against immigrants?”
“You said you’d moved here and didn’t have any friends yet. I know it can be hard to meet people, so I thought I’d be neighborly and offer you some company.”
“Actually, maybe you could help me figure out where’s a good place to go. Like, with women.” Kara sighed. “Look, I’m gay, and I want to figure out how to meet other people like me. Do you know where they hang out?”
Nisha laughed out loud at what Kara must have thought was a big declaration. Maybe where she was from it was. But Nisha worked in theater and volunteered at the LGBTQ community center. In her world, people only had to come out as straight.
“If that’s offensive to you or not your scene—”
“No, it’s just that I’m gay, too. Everyone I know is gay or bi or trans or something queer.”
“Really?” Kara sounded hopeful now.
“There isn’t one special bar where we all hang out. I mean, queer people are all over this city.” She thought for a moment. If Kara wanted to make friends, where was the best place to take her? Somewhere quiet, where people made conversation, and she had a better chance of getting to know someone. “All right, I have an idea. I think I know a place you might like.”
“Okay, text me an address. Should I take the train? I’ve only taken the train to the Loop for work. I’m not sure I’ve figured out how to get around yet.”
“Take a cab. It’ll be much faster.”
“What do I wear?” For someone who had seemed so brash during their first phone call, Kara sounded self-conscious now. “My hangout clothes are usually sweatshirts and jeans, but I get the sense that’s not the best way to make an impression here.”
If she needed fashion advice, she had met the right person. Nisha understood why the universe had brought them together. She’d help Kara make herself over—not to be someone different, but to bring out the best parts of herself—and introduce her to Chicago. She’d help Kara feel more at home here.
“I got you,” she promised.
She texted the address to a lesbian-owned wine bar in Ravenswood where she’d been a few times. It was dark and quiet, and the bartenders never made anyone feel embarrassed if they didn’t know much about wine. A really welcoming, unpretentious place, frequented by women. Kara was bound to make a friend or get a phone number.
A few minutes later, she texted a picture of the outfit she planned to wear, laid out on her bed, as guidance for Kara. She paired a white cable-knit sweater with cropped maroon velvet pants and a pair of strappy black suede heels. Without tights, her feet would be cold, but the shoes were sexy and had a chunky heel that made them appropriate for fall. To complete the look, she opted for her turquoise peacoat and a cream pashmina.
Oleg had described Kara as skinny and blonde, but he either hadn’t noticed or wasn’t able to describe anything more than that. Nisha had no idea what kind of style Kara might have, but her own outfit was dressy enough for a night out and versatile enough to go with anything from a dress to jeans.
Although she’d told Kara to take a cab, Nisha wasn’t going to waste the money doing the same. The bar was only a mile from Suni and Maddie’s, so she put on a pair of ballet flats, carrying her heels, and walked the distance. Around the corner from the bar, she switched shoes and tucked the flats into her purse.
The place was dimly lit and had low modern jazz playing. People, mostly women but some men and genderqueer folks, sat at small tables decorated with tea lights and drank wine as they quietly conversed.
Nisha took a seat at the bar and waited. She wasn’t entirely sure how she’d spot Kara, but soon enough a tall blonde in a ponytail entered and was waving at her.
“I recognized the shoes from the picture you sent,” she explained.
Nisha extended one leg from the barstool to look at her heels. They were one of her favorite pairs, and it was nice they’d been so attention-grabbing.
Kara took off a puffy coat to reveal a pair of straight-legged jeans with a plain white button-down shirt and a green vest over it. Her shoes were brown leather oxfords. It was fine overall as an outfit, but it didn’t really say much about Kara’s personality.
“It’s nice to meet you.” She held out her hand for a shake.
Nisha was surprised by the formality. “I feel like we should hug!” She hopped down from the stool and gave Kara a quick squeeze. She didn’t miss the fact that Kara only reciprocated with one wimpy pat to the back.
“So what’s the deal with this ring?” Kara asked.
“Thank you for looking for it,” Nisha said as she settled back onto her barstool. “You’re the second person to move in after me, and the other guy wouldn’t even talk to me.”
“Oh, so you didn’t just move out?”
“No, it was about a year ago. There was a single guy living there between us.”
“Oh, I thought…Never mind.”
“Thought what?”
“It was kind of dirty when I moved in, and you said you still had a key, and I—”
“You jumped to the conclusion that I left it a mess? Hardly. Besides, they charged us two hundred dollars in cleaning fees when we moved out, even though we’d paid for professional cleaners to get our deposit back. Such a scam.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
Oops. Nisha was usually careful about choosing “I” over “we.” She wasn’t a “we” anymore, unless being part of Suni and Maddie’s team counted.
“My ex Angie. We lived there together.”
She didn’t want to get into the whole story, and she doubted Kara wanted to hear it anyway. She picked up the menu the bartender had put in front of her. “Do you prefer white or red? Or sparkling?” Kara hesitated. “I didn’t even ask if you’re a wine drinker, but if you’re not, they have some really nice cocktails here.”
“Red, I guess.”
“Do you have a varietal preference? They also have great flights here if you can’t settle on just one.”
“Honestly,” Kara said, “I don’t know much about wine, and it always seemed too overwhelming to learn when beer is really easy to figure out.”
“They might have beer bottles if you’d prefer.”
“If you’d be willing to teach me about wine, I’d be up for learning.”
Nisha nodded and pushed the menu away. “I’ve got you covered.”
When the bartender came, she ordered two different flights, and a neat row of eight wine glasses with liquid ranging from pinkish red and translucent to nearly black and opaque was placed in front of them. Nisha explained what each was before Kara tasted, and soon they were trying each other’s. Kara said she liked the fruitier varieties better than the dark chocolate-tasting ones.
“How do you know all this?” Kara asked.
“I learned it from coming here. They’re really nice about explaining, especially on weeknights like this when it’s not crowded.”
“Do you usually go out on weeknights?”
She didn’t usually go out at all. “I work in theater, so Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights I work. It’s easier to get drinks on a Wednesday. What do you do?”
“I’m an attorney. But not the cool kind on TV. The boring kind who looks at contracts all day.”
When they finished their flights, Kara offered to buy a second round. Nisha accepted and once again did the ordering, this time getting each of them one full glass. Kara’s was a valpolicella she had liked in her wine flight, but Nisha let her try the tempranillo she’d ordered for herself. It tasted like black cherry and smoky vanilla, warm and comforting.
“There’s an aftertaste, though. It’s something.” Kara smacked her lips. “It makes your tongue feel dry.”
“It’s the tannins.” She liked that Kara was being a good sport about learning.
Somehow their conversation drifted from wine and to the personal.
“You said you just moved here from Wisconsin. What prompted that? May I ask?”
“There are more opportunities to get ahead here. I had a job at home, but a bigger city means bigger clients and more career paths. Even if there are a thousand more attorneys.”
“I guess we’re a litigious city.”
“Nah, you just have five law schools.” Kara took another sip of the wine. “I also have an ex, and that was part of the reason I moved.”
Nisha’s wine warmed her body to the core. She took another sip and could feel its effects on her hot cheeks. The muscles she usually held so tight were slowly beginning to relax.
She didn’t want to talk about Angie, and she wasn’t going to push Kara to talk about her ex if she wasn’t willing to share her own breakup story. She tried to figure out where to steer the conversation next, but Kara was more forthcoming than she expected.
“She’s not an ex. She’s a former.” Kara reached behind her head and tightened her ponytail. “My partner Hilary died.”
“Oh, Kara, I’m so sorry!” The words sounded useless in the face of something so terrible. No wonder Nan had said Kara was in pain.
Kara stared at her wineglass as she twirled the stem back and forth. “I’ve spent a long time grieving, and I couldn’t move forward without a new start somewhere else.”
“I can’t understand going through that kind of loss.”
“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” Kara turned to Nisha, a wan smile on her face. “It’s taken a long time and a lot of counseling and meditating to get this point, where I can talk about Hilary like this. I’m not trying to ignore what happened by moving here, but have you ever felt like you needed to break away from things to really be yourself?”
Nisha hadn’t lost a loved one like that, but she had broken away from her parents when she’d come out. She’d moved to a new part of town and starting hanging out with new friends, people who accepted her as herself instead of pushing their expectations onto her.
“I can understand wanting to move for a fresh start.”
“Is that why you moved out of the apartment? Were you trying to get a fresh start, too?”
It seemed only fair to be equally forthcoming.
“Angie and I were in the process of buying a condo together when she dumped me. They had accepted our offer, and the mortgage was being processed, but we hadn’t closed yet.” Nisha sighed and shook her head. “Then Angie said she was leaving me and Chicago. I called the mortgage broker and resubmitted everything in just my name, but without Angie’s income and credit rating, they couldn’t approve me. I told Oleg what happened and tried to renew the lease on the apartment, but by then the management company had already rented it to someone else, and there weren’t any other vacancies.”
“You basically got kicked out of your own house.”
No one had ever put it that way before. Her parents had blamed her for being dumb enough to buy a house with another woman, and even Suni had made it clear she thought Nisha should have been less financially reliant on Angie if they weren’t married.
“I guess so.”
“Where are you living now? If you didn’t get the place you were trying to buy?”
“I’ve been staying with some friends. I rent their extra bedroom. Actually, it’s not too far from here.”
“Is that why you suggested this place?”
“No, I thought you’d be able to talk to someone here, make some friends. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Kara covered her face with her hand and stifled a laugh. “I think there was a misunderstanding. I thought you’d tell me where there was a club where I could dance and let loose and maybe…” She made a vague gesture with her hand.
“You wanted a hookup,” Nisha realized.
“Yeah, and then I walked in here, and it’s kind of…slow and quiet, and it matched your stationery.”
“My stationery?”
“From the note you left. It was pink and smelled like—”
“Oh, that’s Nan’s! She’s in her eighties.”
“Oh, wow. I thought you had some pretty old-fashioned perfume.”
Nisha shook her head with a smile. “We both keep making false assumptions, don’t we?”
“You don’t dress old-fashioned.”
Nisha noticed the way Kara tugged self-consciously on her vest, but they hadn’t known each other quite long enough for Nisha to offer fashion tips. Hookup advice, though, that was a different story.
“If you’re trying to meet people, why don’t you just use Tindr like everyone else?”
Kara looked at her open-mouthed. “That never even occurred to me!” She shook her head. “Honestly, I guess Hilary and I were together so long I missed that whole era.”
“It’s still an era.”
“We used to go to the Twin Cities for Pride, and they had this dance pavilion where there would be hundreds of people, just wall to wall bodies, everyone dancing and having a good time. Every spectrum of the rainbow you can imagine. I guess I was hoping to find that here.”
“Are the Twin Cities close to where you lived?”
“Really close. Eau Claire’s in Wisconsin, but it’s only a little more than an hour to Saint Paul.”
“Why didn’t you move there instead of all the way down here?”
Kara shook her head. “Way too close to home. I needed some distance from my family after the last two years.”
Nisha’s parents only lived a few miles away. As infrequently as they talked and saw each other, they may as well have lived in a different city.
“I’ve told you a lot about myself, given that we just met,” Kara said.
Nisha offered what she hoped was a disarming smile. “Well, you don’t know anybody else in Chicago, right? That makes me your best friend here.”
For a second, Kara looked terrified at the idea. Then she smiled back and said, “I guess you are.”
Nisha could see she was pretending. Maybe Kara didn’t want to continue being friends after tonight, and that was fine. But Nisha was at least going to make sure Kara was set up for success in her new city first.
She drained her wine glass. “All right, you want to go dancing. I know a place. We can take a cab there.”
“Cool. Lead the way.”