One Heartbeat

There is one surefire way to prevent excessive awkwardness. I employed it at 20h14.

Hello, Akah Sari? This is Nitannyi. I think you’re probably still asleep like most sane people, but … I’d just like to say that I had a great time at the light show. My roommate and I are planning on going to Ten Thousand Flavors tonight. It’s a Mityeni restaurant, and we’ve never been … do you want to come with? Feel free to bring as many friends as you want, but please call me by noon so I can make the reservation.

At 3h82, Akah Sari sent me a text message:

Can do. Mityeni food is excellent. Bringing Karatau Meiyenesi & woman named Kitesra. Think you two would get along. ☻ What time? ~ Tenes

I replied:

11h.50. Meet at the restaurant. We look forward to seeing you there.

Now all that remained was convincing Nurannyi to come. It involved promising to buy groceries for the next two weeks and mentioning that Adviser Tenes Sari was coming. Apparently people who aren’t me like him a lot because he appears on the news channels all the time, for, in Nurannyi’s words, Are you serious? He’s such a cutie! You’re not serious, are you? I mean, he probably has some kind of state dinner—oh, you are serious. How do you meet these people? Yes, I wanted to reply. He will undress you with his eyes for the entirety of dinner. That is so sexy.

We got to the restaurant first. I brought my camera, and she dressed in something distractingly low-cut. (I can’t believe I just wrote that about the person I live with. Moving on.) Adviser Sari, Karatau Meiyenesi, and Kitesra arrived while we positioned ourselves at the table at the edge of the balcony. From where I sat, I could see most of the block. (Reminder: Likua deserves something nice in the mail. Honestly.) We spent the first ten minutes of dinner introducing ourselves. Kitesra monitors satellite system with Geocentric International, but she is running for office in her home town. Karatau wouldn’t tell us what he does, but as one of the nuameč, I can assume that whatever he does isn’t nice. Adviser Sari, of course, didn’t need to talk about his job; he talked about his passion for theater.

Karatau and I sat next to each other, but he didn’t speak to me as freely as he had yesterday; my reaction last night must have produced some kind of emotional response. He ordered nothing but their version of fried bread and water at first, but after some convincing from Adviser Sari, he ordered spiced porridge. For comparison—but also because now that I know what he is, I don’t really feel comfortable encouraging him to eat more interesting things—I ordered some kind of whole bonfire-roasted fish stuffed with spiced porridge and nuts. The first bite burned my tongue.

Throughout the first fifty minutes of dinner—that is, until the appointed time—I took photographs of the food and of the people at the table. That way, people wouldn’t think it odd for me to aim the camera at the street below to find Aneti. Karatau nearly spilled a pitcher of water on me several moments before I intended to take the photo, drawing me away from a conversation about space arms proliferation that was kind of interesting. The two of us exchanged glances, and for a moment I thought I saw something familiar in his eyes. It vanished and I was left to wonder for a few moments as I took out my camera. Mentally, I thanked the near miss for getting me back on track.

Finding her in the darkening streets below proved a challenge; thankfully, I did before she realized that the other person wasn’t coming. She stood by one of the fabric merchants with a slightly-below-average-height man. Several quick snaps gave me what I want … but not without a price.

See, before she turned to go with the new stranger, she scanned the streets. I think she saw me sitting on the balcony with metal in my hands. She seemed to nod at me before she turned to go.

After all, as Tenes Sari’s girl with the gyena, how hard would it be to pick me out of a crowd?