Nico

FF #12
Ana and Sunita were originally friends of my friend Jiten—the three had met in their German language class. Ana is from the Spanish province of Andalucía, and Sunita is a second generation Brit of Mauritian-Indian origin.   A month after I moved to Munich from Berlin, I bumped into Ana and Sunita near the Kunsthalle, and exclamations and greetings were exchanged. Ana too lived in Munich now; she worked at the Institut für Physik. Sunita was visiting her from Berlin.

Ana and I started meeting on Friday evenings. We would explore the city, and particularly its restaurants and cocktail bars. We would try new cuisines and new restaurants. However during Sunita’s visits, we’d go for Japanese, since both women loved sushi. Occasionally other friends of Ana’s or mine would also join in for our Friday restaurant researches, widening both our social circles.

I’d heard a lot about Nico from Ana and her friends. A passionate Flamenco dancer, he was doing his PhD on Homer and his epics. I had never got to meet him until his last day in Munich. Sunita was also in town, and after we finished our Japanese dinner, we went to meet him briefly. A tall, handsome guy with unkempt wavy hair and long sideburns, Nico was in a hurry, since he wanted to go to his favourite Flamenco club here for one last time—and go home and pack after that; his flight to Heathrow was in the morning. Ana insisted that she would go and help him pack after he finished Flamenco. Sunita and Nico exchanged numbers, since she too would be moving back to London in a few months.

“And that might be the beginning of a new love story,” I teased.

Strangely, all three ignored my joke. And after Nico had left, I figured why, because Sunita commented that she’d introduce him to her gay friends in Oxford.

I was stunned. Here was a gorgeous guy, gay; and yet perhaps the only one of Ana’s friends in Munich I hadn’t met. I had just started coming out to my very closest Indian friends; but I wasn’t out to Ana and Sunita yet.

I was too disappointed and preoccupied for the rest of the evening.

I couldn’t meet Ana for a few weeks— she was visiting her boyfriend in Spain, I had a paper to submit, and so on.

But as soon as we’d ordered dinner the next time we met, I came out clean.

“Ana, I have to tell you something I should’ve told you a long time ago: I’m like Nico.”

Ana stared at me, and gave me a sad smile. Apparently one of the reasons she had never invited him to our Friday dinners was because she thought I might not be comfortable with his homosexuality. Our common friend, Jiten, the only other Indian she knew, wasn’t comfortable around gay folks.

“Actually Nico was asking about you when I went to help him pack that night… he said he found you very cute.”

23 Jun 2016