Chapter 10 When Things Look Up

"Well, as long as it isn't serious," Shira said on the phone. Afraid of jumping on the Subway right after work, Leah decided to start walking uptown. She'd see how far she'd get before her legs got tired and she'd ride the rest of the way. She'd called her sister during the walk, knowing that her sister finished work at the same time even with the three-hour time difference. Call center employees couldn't work eight-hour days, Shira had once explained. It was too much to sit and answer calls for that long. It could make people suicidal . So call centers worked in shorter shifts. Sure, she only got paid for six hours a day, but she had the afternoons free for her real projects. She was working on a film now about a college student who went missing. Everyone thought it was one of those typical stories where a girl gets drunk and ends up with the wrong type of people, but in the end, it turns out she was abducted by some CEO of a huge corporation who had been stalking her. He brainwashes her to think that his corporation is saving the world and that she will run the company one day. When her parents find her, they try to get her back, but she ends up having them killed. "It's an allegory for how all college students are brainwashed today," Shira explained. "When I saw the script, I was just like wow. It's so true. We're all being abducted and brainwashed to think capitalism is right. And we never learn from the mistakes of the past."

Leah agreed and then went on to tell her sister about Gabe. Their first official date had been everything she could have imagined. He picked her up right on time and took her to a tapas bar a few blocks from her apartment. He'd asked if she minded if he just ordered a bunch of things, and she excitedly agreed. He'd ordered tons of small plates with tortillas, potatoes, cheeses, meats, and all types of finger foods with flavors Leah had never experienced before. He also ordered a pitcher of sangria and made sure her glass was never empty. The waiter had even given them a free dessert, saying they were such a cute couple, which made Leah blush. Were they a couple? It was romantic and exciting and Leah thought it was the best first date she had ever been on. (Sure, she'd never really been on one before.)

After dinner, they'd gone next door to a cocktail lounge and ordered fancy drinks that tasted like there wasn't any alcohol in them. Leah felt like they could talk about anything. He told her about his family, "Italians," he described as though that said it all. "Everything is extreme and loaded with pasta, but they are crazy." Leah commiserated, "We're JAPs," she joked. When he didn't understand, she clarified, "Sounds like Italians, but Kosher."

"Great, so our families would get along just great." He joked and Leah daydreamed about their families meeting. Gabe told her that he stopped going to church when he was old enough to stay home by himself and his parents kept their disappointment to themselves like good Catholics. His parents too had strayed. No longer churchgoers, they replaced religion with new hobbies they had taken up post-retirement.

"So Christianity isn't, like, important to you?" She'd asked, wondering if she crossed a line, asking about his religion. If she had, he didn't let on. He just shook his head.

"I don't really care about any of that stuff. God, no God, a hundred Gods, what's the difference? I really just care about being a good person, you know?"

Leah nodded. Sure, being a good person was the number one priority, she reasoned, although if someone had asked her whether she cared about religion, she probably would have answered differently. But maybe that was because she had been primed to think that way. The truth was, she wasn't sure if religion really was important to her. She'd never even thought about it because she had grown up being told that it was. She'd just assumed it was important to her because it was important to everyone else around her .

Leah told Gabe that she used to belong to a Jewish youth group and most of her friends had always been Jewish.

"So what the hell are you doing with me?" He laughed as he took a sip.

"Sowing my wild oats," she joked back, hoping she sounded coy and playful, without letting on to how she really felt, which she wasn't sure what that was.

"I can deal with that." When Leah started to yawn, Gabe got the check and walked her to her apartment. This time he kissed her hard, pulling her close to him with his hands spread wide on her back. She had wanted to invite him in, anything to stop him from leaving her side, but after a few minutes he pulled back. "There's no rush," he smiled. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Sure enough, he had texted her in the morning. Wow it's tough getting up for a morning run after three cocktails.

You forgot about the sangria. She texted back.

You're right. That must be what got me.

They'd spent the rest of the day texting, which made work go by fast. Leah had even somehow finished the TCR early, despite spending every other minute with her phone in hand. She'd even had enough adrenaline in her that at 10 am she'd asked Alex and Mark about lunch. She'd asked early hoping they wouldn't forget her again and they'd enthusiastically responded with an invite to a burger place where they often ate. She'd spent lunch trying to stop herself from looking at her phone long enough to make conversation with her colleagues.

She found out that Alex was an amateur stand-up comedian in his free time and he sometimes performed midnight shows at clubs. During lunch, she felt that he might have been practicing some of his jokes on them. Who loves airline food? Nobody right? Except me. I flew to Los Angeles last week and when I got my meal, I called the flight attendant over. Ma'am, I said, I just want to give my compliments to the chef. She was confused of course and got this look on her face like I was making fun of her. No really! I told her. What's the recipe? Honestly, it takes some talent to make food that all 300 passengers on a plane would hate. Well, 299 passengers. I thought it was delicious.

Leah promised she'd come to see one of his shows sometime. "Please don't," he'd responded. "It's terrible." She assured him that he was funny and she'd love to see him. And she promised to laugh no matter what!

Lunch had made the afternoon at work all the more bearable. Even the emergency team meeting her boss Tony had called where he spent twenty minutes lecturing about why Facebook was the death of integrity. Do you know people post everything that happens to them? My daughter posted about a piece of gum she found on the street! Apparently Tony spent more than a good amount of time stalking his kids on social media. He had a fake profile and everything. He was friends with his kids and even commented sometimes. I told her the gum was really cool . Leah nodded, wondering why this warranted an emergency meeting until he segued into a discussion of a recent article he read in the Times about bankruptcy. Why did they get this before we did? Unacceptable! We're supposed to have our ears to the ground!

After the reprimanding that Leah wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel guilty about since she wasn't a reporter, Leah went back to work. She'd been given a few new assignments that included looking up financial data and other information the reporters would use for their articles.

She was having a great day, which is why she wanted to share it with her sister. "It's not serious, right?" Shira confirmed.

"We just went on one date," Leah assured. One date wasn't serious. But she had really enjoyed herself.

"Well, you know what, maybe it's a good thing. You know, you never really dated anyone except Asher. So you don't even know what you want in a partner. It's good to date people you'll never marry, so you can learn about yourself."

"Really?" Leah liked the affirmation she was getting .

"Yeah! Definitely. I mean, I date people all the time who I will definitely never marry. Like now, I'm dating this guy, Murph, he's hot, but he's a total mess. It's just fun and it means nothing. I'll end it before it ever gets serious."

That made sense. Shira was right. Leah needed experience dating. She needed to date people who were wrong for her so she would know what was right for her. Gabe was perfect for that. She could date him and learn about herself and when she was ready for serious, she'd find a Jewish guy who had the qualities she liked and not the ones she didn't.

Her phone buzzed and she saw it was another text from Gabe. "Cool, well, I got to go! Love you, sis!"