“Oh, I’m glad you love it.”
He took another bite. After he finished, he closed his eyes and whispered, “You’re not going back to California. This settles it. I won’t let you.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re going to do? You’re going to kidnap me over shrimp tacos?”
“This taco should be illegal.” In minutes, he devoured the rest of it and then licked his lips. “I’m pretty pissed right now.”
“Why?”
“All this time, I’ve been missing out.”
“Well, you should have come by my place for food.”
“That’s not fair. I didn’t know I was ever invited.”
“Now you know.” I took a bite of my taco.
He studied me. “I get an open invitation to your place?”
I munched on shrimp. “Yes.”
“Is there an expiration date?”
“We’re ride or die quarantine buddies for life.” I made an O shape with my hand. “See. That’s our secret sign.”
“We need a secret sign?”
“Of course.”
“But what does the O stand for?”
“I’m too lazy to make a Q.”
He put up his hand and did the sign. “Got it.”
“Whenever you need me, just put your hand like that in the air.”
He leaned forward. “And you’ll appear?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll have to be in New York for that.”
“There are these things called planes.”
“I think the virus is here to stay for a while.”
I grimaced. “I refuse to believe that.”
“Maybe not for years, but definitely months. Have you considered the fact that you may be stuck in New York until the end of the summer?”
I blinked. “Nope. I’m choosing to be positive and hope this goes on for a week or so—”
“Not happening. This is New York. If it’s one thing we do well, it’s spread viruses.”
“New York should put that on a bumper sticker.”
He held a stern expression. “What would you do, if you were stuck here?”
“Stay with Ganesha.” I let out a long breath. “That’s assuming Zora is still stuck in the Maldives.”
“And if she is back home?”
“I don’t know. Zora and I kind of discussed this. Corey has a house so she could stay with him while I—”
“Zora will be in this apartment more than that house for now. Her work is here. It’s Brooklyn. Corey has already admitted to himself that he’ll need to find a new coaching job and move to Brooklyn himself.”
“Yes, but it would be a temporary fix. She might be okay with it.”
“Of course she would. She loves you. But there’s another option.”
“What’s that?”
“You can stay in my condo and cook me amazing food. Then, everybody would be comfortable.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I’m your friend?”
“Yes.”
“Then, of course you stay at my place. It’s big. . .for New York. Three bedrooms. I have a sunroom that I don’t use. It could be a studio for you to do your art in.”
I stopped eating. “Are you serious?”
“I was thinking about it in the shower.”
“That’s what you chose to do with your shower?”
I smirked. “Yes. I chose to think about you when I washed my naked body.”
That delivered a warm shiver up my spine.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I. . .um. . .I think it’s something to consider if I need to consider it.”
He was about to speak, but the lights went off. Darkness bathed the space.
I widened my eyes. “What just happened?”
“Damn it, New York,” Kamal grumbled. “It must be a power outage. Stay there. Let me check.”
Movement sounded on his end.
A minute later, and moonlight filled the space as he opened the curtains.
“Yes,” he said. “The whole street is dark. That’s just what we need right now—darkness.”
“Is this typical?”
“No. But it did happen in Manhattan last summer for a few hours.” He dug into his pocket, pulled out his cellphone, and turned on the screen light. “Knowing my sister, she’ll have candles in the closet.”
“Yeah. She had that on my instructions list.”
“Zora prepares for everything.”
“Thankfully.”
Ten minutes later, the living room glowed in candlelight. Flames flickered atop several vanilla scented candles.
We continued to eat, laughing at this or that.
Kamal brought up the possibility of my moving in with him again. I told him I needed time to think about it. On one side, he was now a good friend—someone who I could depend on. He’d showed that in the short time we’d spent together. However, the other side was that we still had not lived together for more than a few days. While his condo provided more space, I would feel weird staying with him.
But do I have much of a choice?
We devoured our meals over talk of childhood memories. In the shadowy darkness, we cleaned up, yet continued to chat away. Conversation with Kamal came easy. He refused to let me wash the dishes. From time to time, I got to dry a plate or fork, but that was it. After he wiped up the table and put up the food, we returned to the living room, trying to figure out something to do.
With no television to entertain us, we resorted to playing music on his phone and sipping more wine.