Chapter Ten
KIRAN
Kiran stared at her phone and the text message Nash had sent her at their dinner to let her know his number.
Hi. That was all he’d sent, but even those two letters made her smile.
All she had to do now was say she was free today and see if he was up for a day at Chelsea Piers where her company was having a staff-wide family fun day.
Why did that make her so nervous?
Kiran: Hey. Chelsea Piers today? My company reserved the whole place, and I thought maybe you’d want to check it out. She typed and retyped that question in various forms until she thought she’d finally decided on the very first version anyway. She hit Send before she could contemplate it any further and drive herself crazy.
Nash: Yes, please.
She breathed a sigh of relief, as if she’d run a marathon but had to recover in two minutes.
For the thousandth time, she didn’t know what it was about Nash that made her nervous. So far, he had been kind, sociable, funny, and a sweet friend to have in a circle that had shrunk to a handful of acquaintances, some friends at work, and the CMC.
“Get a grip, Kiran,” she scolded herself. “This isn’t like you.”
Kiran: Let’s go at noon. They have free food! Also, wear comfortable clothes.
His response was almost immediate: I shouldn’t be surprised food was the selling point for you.
Watch yourself, she responded.
Promptly at noon, Kiran left her apartment with a surge of energy for the day ahead. She didn’t carry anything on her except a small wristlet with her phone, cards, and keys inside. Her hair was in a ponytail, and her skinny jeans and plain white tee were paired with white Keds.
“Hi! You’re here already!” she exclaimed as she descended the last few steps, pushing her diamond studs into place in her ears.
Nash stood at the bottom of the staircase, leaning against the banister and playing with his phone. His jeans and simple white polo, paired with white sneakers, offset his skin and browned him in comparison to his usual complexion, and his pale-blue eyes were sky against earth with his new hue.
“Only for a few minutes. I was looking at this place on my phone—good choice. You said the company reserved it? Look at you, with all that clout. Are you secretly the CEO?”
“It wasn’t me, you goof. It’s a family fun day or something, so they reserved it for anyone who wants to go and spend time there.”
“You’re taking me on a family fun day?” Nash raised an eyebrow.
“If you keep making fun of me, I will turn my ass around and go back upstairs and read a book.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be nice.”
“Actually, I wouldn’t stay here.” Kiran grinned. “I’d tell you to take your butt home while I go play games all day.”
Nash chuckled, and they began to walk in comfortable silence out of the apartment building toward the subway, but Kiran had a last-minute change of heart.
“Hey, let’s grab an— Wait, did you realize we’re basically wearing the same outfit?”
Nash looked down and then scanned Kiran from head to toe.
She blushed in response to his gaze, wondering if he saw curves and crevices or whether he didn’t notice those things on her at all.
“Clearly, I’ve been a good influence on your fashion sense,” he said finally.
“Hey!”
“I mean, you were cute before, but now you’ve elevated your game with the white tee and jeans.”
“I hate you.”
But somehow, the word cute replayed in her mind.
She summoned an Uber, miraculously already around the corner, and Nash opened the door for her, waiting until she got in before circling the car and climbing in on the other side.
They wound through the streets of the city, and Kiran marveled at all the things she took for granted every day. Each neighborhood had a vibe of its own. The East Village was a little hipster. The West Village was historic and reminded her of prim and proper aristocracy. She loved the meatpacking district, even with all its construction, for the brick-and-mortar industrial vibes and the quirky, cool stores she knew she’d find. She loved that in some neighborhoods, she couldn’t see the tops of buildings as they reached for the clouds.
“I think people are going to recognize me someday by my chin and not my face.” Nash broke the silence as he gazed out the window.
“What?”
He turned to her. “I’m not used to always looking up. And this city is all vertical. I mean, the beauty is in the brownstones, and the small stores, and the tiny little places you never thought you’d find…but I’m always drawn to these skyscrapers, and I feel like people are going to see my chin more than my face if I’m always craning my neck to see what’s above me.”
Kiran laughed. “Honestly, I still do the same thing. Every neighborhood has its own vibe.”
“I’m beginning to get that.”
They paused at a ticketing booth, and the cab pulled up to the curb of Pier 60 where they stepped onto the pavement and took a look around.
The three piers—59, 60, and 61—extended out from the side of Manhattan in the shape of a backwards E into the Hudson River. In between each pier was waterfront parking for tugboats and yachts to pull up for people to take a short cruise. Long buildings sat on two piers while the third had a driving range.
“Wow,” Nash said softly. “This is an entertainment dream.”
“Let’s explore!”
They picked up the wristbands that would give them free access to the facilities from the friendly company representative manning a welcome table and walked into the building on Pier 59. Signs for bowling, rock climbing, golf, batting cages, gymnastics, and food popped up, leading to a hallway, pointing to a pathway down the parking garage, or directing people to sets of glass doors.
Nash was right. This place was an entertainment dream.
“What do you want to do first?”
“Oh my gosh, they have an arcade!” Kiran exclaimed.
Nash stopped in disbelief. “They gave you 475 activity options and you chose the arcade?”
“Nash! Can we play some games? Please, please, please?”
“If it makes you happy, yes. Just stop doing that puppy eye thing.”
“I don’t do a puppy eye thing.”
“Trust me. You have puppy eyes. They’re on your face. They’re a thing.”
She nearly skipped her way through the bowling alley to an area that couldn’t quite be called a full arcade since there wasn’t a wide variety of games but that filled her heart with happiness anyway.
“We’re crossing the arcade off your list,” Nash said as they walked in.
“Best day ever.”
“What about these video games makes you so happy? You’re practically flying.”
“They remind me of high school.”
“Do people want to be reminded of high school?”
Kiran slowed down, taking in the blue lights that shone around the walls, the children laughing with glee, and the ones who didn’t put quarters into the machine but tried to drive the virtual cars anyway, turning the steering wheel this way and that.
“I think I told you before that I got a scholarship to my high school, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, it was like a whole new world had opened up. Until then, I’d been in this village where the water came through pipes three days a week and we had to store it in giant plastic bins for the other four. Our electricity was spotty at best, especially during the summers when the heat would fry the grid. And boarding school…it wasn’t even the freedom that got me but the mundane things all the wealthy kids got to do on a regular basis growing up that were novelties to me.”
“Like video games?”
Kiran nodded. “Like video games. And giant shopping malls with air-conditioning and name brands. And Starbucks. And pizza.”
Nash’s eyes were on her as she continued, and she liked the way she seemed to captivate his attention.
“All of this takes me back to that. I’m still this Indian village girl at heart who finds these things amazing. I’m used to it now. I’ve lived in the United States for over a decade. But these tiny experiences are big reminders of what I didn’t grow up having.”
“I never really thought about it that way,” Nash replied. “Though I can relate on being able to experience things now that I didn’t when I was younger. A full fridge. A steady apartment…though if you’ve heard the way my floors creak, you’ll question how steady it is.”
She wanted to explore his mind, all the little nooks and crevices, and shine a light on the dusty corners he was unveiling when he threw in these tiny mentions of a past that didn’t seem to match his disposition. But she didn’t want to ruin the moment.
Instead, she stuck her tongue out. “I live on the floor below you. Trust me, I know.”
“You find beauty in the small things,” Nash said, and the tenderness in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Isn’t that the only way to live? To find beauty in all moments?” Kiran asked.
And she couldn’t help but find wonder in this one.