'What did you have for breakfast?' he asked. 'I don’t eat breakfast,' I answered, 'I work out for breakfast.' And then I wanted to kick myself because that was such a stupid thing to say.
I was a freshman at Cal State L.A., and I hadn’t made any friends yet. So I joined a club and it announced its first socially distanced event: Beach Day in Santa Monica. I thought about skipping at the last minute, but my older brother encouraged me. He had a friend who was part of that same club. Hesitantly, I reached out, and my brother’s friend invited me to meet him at the South Pasadena Metro station so we could take the train together.
He gestured to the now-empty seat with over-the-top formality, and asked, “Excuse me, ma’am, would you like to sit?” We lapsed into silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I caught myself looking over at him more than a few times. At one point, we played charades to pass the time.