Page 20 of Isn't It Obvious?
RE:Not Work Thread
Just talking to you, honestly. Might play FIFA later. Thrilling, I know.
To:Kevin Kisson
RE:Not Work Thread
Well, my Saturday night isn’t exactly raucous, either.
Is that why you sent me a picture of Squirtle? You were bored?
To:Elle Rex
RE:Not Work Thread
Kinda? I don’t know. I just haven’t really had much of a social life since moving in with my brother and Mia. And I really liked talking to you on Wednesday. I’m not sure if that makes sense.
To:Kevin Kisson
RE:Not Work Thread
It does. Lonely only child, remember?
Ravi stares at the message, blinking. Yeah, he’s lonely. Christ is he lonely. He has so little time to himself now, only these evenings after Mia and Suresh have gone to bed, and he feels hollow with the loneliness sometimes.
He hasn’t told any of his friends in New York about the move, because he knows they won’t understand why he did it. Or worse, they’ll look at him with pity. He’s kept in touch with one friend from childhood, Andre. But Andre has a wife and kids of his own and isn’t a particularly emotional person. When Ravi came out to him over a winter break during university, he’d said,“Weys, das cool,”and the two of them had gone back to playing FIFA. It could have gone much,muchworse, but it also wasn’t an invitation for anything more. There was relief, then disappointment. Because who could Ravi tell about this if not Andre?
Then again, Andre had been the only Dougla person in their graduation year at their mostly Indian school, and he’d never once talked to Ravi about that, either.
To:Elle Rex
RE:Not Work Thread
Still?
To:Kevin Kisson
RE:Not Work Thread
I think maybe it’ll always be a part of me. Also, making friends as an adult is so fucking difficult. Which is why I basically haven’t.
To:Elle Rex
RE:Not Work Thread
I’m surprised you feel that way. I agree, but you seem like you could talk to anybody. I’m not good at that. Every friend I’ve ever made approached me first, and now I’m not really meeting anybody my age.
To:Kevin Kisson
RE:Not Work Thread
You’re right, I am good at talking, but it makes me friendly with everyone, not necessarily friends with them. I have Sanaa, who you know. I’ve known her forever, but we don’t live in the same city. And I’ve technically known my roommate as long as I’ve known Sanaa, even though we didn’t become friends until college. But he’s the only person I really ever spend time with socially, and he has this whole world outside of me with his close-knit architecture studio and rec soccer league. He invites me to stuff with them, but I always feel like it’s so obvious that I’m a plus-one, not really a part of it. And I went to college out of state, so I don’t have that in-person group anymore.
I guess I also have a friend at work. We’re close enough for a good time during the week, but she’s all about separating business and pleasure. She’s casually invited me to her drag shows before, but it’s so clearly a “I spent fifteen minutes talking about this and now it would be rude not to extend the invitation” thing rather than a genuine desire for me to attend. And that’s okay, really. I think I’m just kind of envious because I don’t feel like I have a community like that. I have my work. And I like a lot of things about it, but I’ve been at the same job since I finished school, and I sometimes feel so… stuck. Now I have this podcast, which helps. But yeah, I’m a little lonely. As evidenced by the aforementionedBridgertonSeason 2 and emailing someone I’ve never met in person on a Saturday night instead of, you know, being with friends.
To:Elle Rex
RE:Not Work Thread
