“Tiana?” I didn’t remember a Tiana. “No.”
Svitlana frowned, puzzled. “You don’t know who I mean. That’s weird. She remembers you. Tiana Matatumua.”
“Ohh-wuh! Oh, you mean Ana. I haven’t seen her in ages. Why?”
“I met her … Well, her sister’s a dyke. Tiana isn’t, but she knows people in, oh, you know, circles. She’s political. Anyway, we got talking. You remember, I told you someone had given you a good review?”
“Yes?” I was too astonished to take this in.
“That was Tiana. I think she’d like to hear from you.”
“Why? I mean, why would she tell you about … About me?”
Black and blue
“Your friend Kerry. She was talking about why we shouldn’t work with men. It was like 1980s politics. Your name came up. She hates you, you know. Just a tiny bit. Tiana was sitting next to me, and when Kerry said you beat women black and blue, and why is Barbs still friends with you, Tiana laughed. And Kerry said there were some straight women we shouldn’t be working with. And then it got very intense.”
“Fucking hell. So Ana – ok, Tiana, I guess – Tiana’s on the shit list too, now.”
“Oh yes. I don’t think she’s losing any sleep, though. Anyway, I talked to her afterwards. I knew Barbs and Mayne were going to dinner at your place in a couple of weeks, so I asked her why you were so funny.”
“I’ve always wanted to know why I’m so damn funny. So what did she say?”
“It was a conversation! I mean it was private, Jaime. Anyway, it meant I came along to your dinner. And it means she’d like to hear from you. I’m sure of it.”
Immigration Woman. And a Woody Allen joke: “The last time I was in a woman, it was the Statue of Liberty.”
“That’d be great, I guess.” I shook my head. “But I haven’t got her number, for one thing. I have no idea where she lives.”
“She’s working at Citizenship and Immigration. Department of.”
“Where? Which office?”
“I don’t know. But you’re an ingenious man. If you want to, you’ll find her.”
Svitlana kissed me when she left, that night. The next time she visited, which was the last time ever, she didn’t kiss me.