Page 11 of Make Room for Love

Mira laughed. It was thrilling to walk with Isabel and listen to her talk, as though her conviction could rub off onto Mira that way. “And so you did?”

“I applied for the union apprenticeship, and I got a call the summer before my senior year, so I dropped out.”

Mira was hit by a pang of…something. Maybe admiration or envy. She mulled it over as she went through the turnstile. What was it like to be so decisive, to simply do what you thought was right? Whatever it was that Isabel had, Mira didn’t have it.

She did the math. Isabel had been an electrician for a decade, which meant she was around thirty-one. Maybe Mira would have her life together at that age. “Seems like you made the right choice,” she said.

“I love what I do.” Pride radiated from Isabel’s words, as obvious as the union stickers on her hard hat. “Can’t imagine doing anything else.”

The approaching train was deafening, interrupting the longest conversation they’d had so far. Mira longed to know evenmore. But she knew so little about Isabel that she couldn’t get a foothold on what to say.

On the train, it was, surprisingly, Isabel who spoke first. “Shreya said you’re going out and asking people to sign union cards. How’s that going?”

“I think it’s going well. We have a few hundred so far.”

“I mean for you.”

“Oh, um, I haven’t really talked to anyone yet. Just a few people in my office.” All of whom were going to sign cards anyway.

“Why not?”

Mira looked at her lap. There was no good reason. She could try to deflect, and Isabel would leave her alone, but Isabel’s own forthrightness discouraged her from that approach. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just scared.” She was so tired of settling for what she’d been given in life. But asking for more was easier said than done.

Mira’s strengths when it came to union organizing were more along the lines of emailing to reserve the campus event space. Maybe following up politely if she didn’t get a response. Not going out and talking to people who might be hostile to her.

“Scared of what?” Isabel asked.

Mira didn’t have a good answer to that, either. “I’m nervous about talking to strangers. I guess I’m afraid I won’t be able to be persuasive or respond to what people say, and it’ll make the union look bad.”

“Have you had any training?”

“Yeah, I attended a training. But I still don’t feel prepared.”

“It takes practice, like anything else,” Isabel said, as though it were inconsequential to fail and humiliate oneself. “I told you about the time I was a union salt. My first few times talking to my new coworkers, I came off as way too aggressive, and I turned some people off. But we still won the election.”

“I don’t think I’ll have that problem. Being too aggressive, I mean.”

The corner of Isabel’s mouth quirked upward. “You know what I’m saying. I can give you more practice, if you want.”

Isabel was taking this seriously. She was takingMiraseriously, maybe more seriously than Mira took herself.

The idea of having a charged back-and-forth with Isabel, even if they were only role-playing, made her stomach drop. It would be good for her. But she was intimidated enough by Isabel during this ordinary conversation. Having to stammer her talking points or argue back while Isabel evaluated her, those dark, intense eyes meeting her own…

“That would be really kind of you,” Mira said faintly. “I might take you up on it. Thank you.” Time to change the subject. “It must have felt amazing to win that election in that shop you were salting, after all that hard work.”

Isabel frowned and looked down. Had Mira said something wrong?

“Yeah,” Isabel said, suddenly subdued. “I don’t talk about it much. My sister died two months before the election.”

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” It was clear that Isabel was trying to close the topic, not open it. Mira couldn’t have known, but she wanted to kick herself. “I didn’t mean to make you talk about it.” When Isabel had told those stories in her speech, she must have been thinking of her sister the whole time.

Isabel was silent as the train rumbled on. Finally, she said, “I’ll help you with whatever you need.” She was now as hard and remote as ever. Mira wouldn’t be hearing more about Isabel’s sister. “I can help you practice. Just let me know.”

5

“Canwe do this without video today?” Isabel said. “I need to make dinner.”

“Sure.” Cat’s new pink, shaggy haircut disappeared on Isabel’s phone screen.

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