Page 34 of American Love Story

My heart sank at the finality. “Did something happen with Nesto?”

He answered quickly, as if just realizing that I would think that. “No, he’s fine. Everyone is fine. I just.” He let out a long shuddering breath. “The police stopped me.”

I hit the brakes then, trying to find a place to stop. I needed to be still while I listened to Ari. I looked around, disoriented as panic took over. I didn’t want this for him.

I was on a small county road still about ten miles outside of Ithaca and it was deserted, so I pulled to a stop and after a deep breath, I spoke again. “When?”

“Like twenty minutes ago.” It was almost 5:00 p.m. and had just started to get dark in the last few minutes.

“What happened?”

“I was coming back from dropping Yin at his house. We worked at the restaurant this morning. Since we have brunch now on weekends, we were there early and finished around 4:00 p.m. I stayed at his house for a bit longer than I should have.” He cleared his throat then, and even in the midst of this shitty moment, I smiled hearing how his voice filled with affection whenever he spoke of his boyfriend. “I was rushing to make sure I could stop home before meeting you. I told my uncle I would bring him some dinner from work. I was going faster than I usually drive. They pulled me over right outside of Trumansburg.”

“Did anything bad happen during the stop?” I waited in silence, dreading what he’d say next.

“They were rude, and asked me to get out of the car, but they didn’t hurt me. I did everything you and Nesto told me.”

When they’d been over helping with the move, Ari shared he was scared of driving on his own. He’d bought Nesto’s old Prius when he’d upgraded to an SUV some months back but was still very careful on the road. Nesto and I had talked to him aboutwhat he should do if he ever got stopped, told him about the videos he could watch. I was glad he’d done it.

“I was just scared.” His voice sounded small and I felt so sad for him. “When they I asked for my ID, I almost panicked. I have my license, but I heard they’ve been asking for papers. All I have is my work authorization. I was worried they’d see it and ask me about Batavia.” His voice shook when he mentioned the detention center he’d been held in for over a year. I closed my eyes as my own heartbeat throbbed in my ears. It made me sick to my stomach to hear that he’d gone through that.

When he spoke again, his voice, which was usually so strong and jovial, sounded tiny and terrified. “I thought they would call my uncle and you know how he is. He would’ve been furious to know I was driving back from Yin’s house. He keeps threatening me that he won’t help me with my Green Card if I don’t stop being friends with him.”

My mood sank even further at the mention of Ari’s uncle. I knew the man wasn’t evil, but he was certainly going out of his way to be an asshole. I had a feeling his uncle was using this to scare him and not necessarily able to do all the shit he was threatening Ari with.

“Where are you now?”

“I’m at the employee parking lot of OuNYe. I didn’t know where to go and didn’t want to scare Yin.”

Poor kid.

I did some quick mental math on what the best course of action was. I didn’t want him to get on the road again if he was still freaked out. “I’m only like ten minutes out of town, why don’t you call Yin and tell him I’ll pick him up. You can walk over to my place. We’ll order some Thai food and hang out. Is that okay, or do you need to be home for anything?”

“No, I can tell my uncle I’m sleeping at a friend’s house.” He didn’t sound like he was thrilled about that conversation. But heseemed to be happy with the dinner and movie at my place idea, so I went with it.

“Thanks, Patrice. I am so embarrassed to call you like this, but I didn’t want to bother Nesto and Jude on his night off. They had plans to go to that new place on Seneca Lake and I know they would’ve cancelled if I told them what happened. They’ve already done too much for me.”

I shook my head as though he could see me still struggling to keep the sharp anger that was bubbling up from coming through in my voice. “I’m glad you called. I’ll see you soon.”

As I powered up the SUV again and got on the road to go pick up Yin, I tried hard to calm myself. I didn’t need to put my own shit on Ari, but someone was going to have to put the sheriff’s department on blast about this nonsense. Because the longer this went on unchecked… It was only a matter of time before a tragedy happened.

Of course, my mind went straight to Easton, and his job in particular. When we’d talked about it before, we’d both tiptoed around the topic and eventually fully dropped it when it was obvious it would ruin our conversation. I compromised because I wanted to spend time with him. Because I let my own wants become more important than my values. I knew this was all bigger than the both of us, but unlike Easton, for me it wasn’t about a cause or a job. This was about my community, my purpose. I could not get involved with someone that would muddy the waters of what was important to me.

I needed to focus on my work, on my activism. Easton was not the person for me. There were things I needed to do that would get too messy if I pursued a relationship with him.

So what if I wanted Easton, so what if he made me feel good? I was still me and he was still him. Our worlds were still at odds, and that was not something I could ignore, no matter how much I wanted to.

I pulled up to Yin’s apartment building where, I knew from dropping him off a couple of times, he lived with his two older sisters. I had barely brought the SUV to a full stop when Yin ran up and yanked the car door open. He got in the car with a backpack on his shoulder, his usually sunny face drawn and worried. “You have everything you need for a sleepover?” I asked with a hell of a lot more lightness than I felt.

He looked like he was about to cry. “Yes,” he said, pointing at a small leather backpack. “Thank you for picking me up. I didn’t want Ari coming to get me. He might get into an accident,” he said as he wiped his eyes. “He’s too upset. My sister was going to drive me on her way to work, but she doesn’t leave for another hour.”

“No problem. You want to call in the order for dinner? Thai?” He nodded and pulled out his phone.

We spent the last few minutes of the drive in the negotiations of placing a dinner order and by the time I drove my SUV into the underground parking of my building, we were both feeling a little less on edge.

Ari was waiting for us when we walked up to the building. He and Yin embraced, hard. I imagined with what they’ve both gone through just to get to the States that they were deeply aware of how fragile life could be. They’d been apart for maybe an hour, but they were touching as if it’d been years. It was a relief to see them comfort each other.

As we reached my door, I noticed a note taped to my door. I knew who it was from before I even read it. My heart sank and my stomach flipped before I could make out the words. It was only a couple of lines, letting me know he was home and I could come up whenever I got in. But the frustration and fear of the last hour were more than I could ignore. I ushered Yin and Ari into my apartment then pulled out my phone. I quickly tapped out a text, ruthlessly ignoring the ache in my chest as I did so.