Exit Party

What Ari would remember for the duration of her life was that from the moment Kareem swept her into the room, the party carried an electric charge. The space was gentle, that was Ari’s first thought. She wished to speed forward into some imagined point in the future where she didn’t lie awake half the night. She was standing by the dining nook, looking up at the only painting he owned—Swan Dive, by Lucas Alkaitis, gifted to Kareem long ago by an uncle—and finally she was alone.