“I doubt entrepreneurship will satisfy you. Entrepreneurship has its own particular tricks in every country, and you won’t find all of them recorded on the internet or even in books. Beyond that, you need enormous perseverance and strength to fall down again and again, get back up, and keep going until something finally works. And even after you get somewhere, you always have to be prepared to fall again.”

All my excitement and energy drained away.

I felt I no longer wanted to continue the conversation.

He understood.

“Still, Ms. Mahta,” he said, “if you decide to do it, whenever there is anything I can help with, I won’t hesitate.”

“You’ve always been kind to me,” I said.

I wanted to know more about him too, but I didn’t want him to realize how curious I was about his life. I wished he would simply volunteer something himself.

I asked, “How is Mrs. Malkan?”

He said, “Not very well. Ever since I separated from her, she’s more or less stopped speaking to me.”

I asked, “You separated from your wife?”

He laughed. “No. I separated from Mom and Dad.”

I tried not to react.

Very casually I said, “Parents are never really ready to accept their children’s independence.”

We were both quiet for a moment.

I said, “When Mom was in the hospital, from the bottom of my heart I would have given anything never to have become independent if it meant they wouldn’t leave me. But who doesn’t know that way of thinking isn’t logical?”

With the faintest smile, he said, “We never did figure out whether you’re a logical person or an emotional one.”

I smiled too.

That day I didn’t push my curiosity any further. He wasn’t someone who volunteered information anyway.

A month later, Café Lunar had opened. The app took a little longer.

I had hired a barista too.

Three months passed, and I wasn’t even making enough to cover the rent.

I needed customers. I needed a sponsor. But I had no reputation that would make anyone want to sponsor me.

One day, so frustrated and nervous from having so few customers, I went home earlier than usual.

As I was parking, I saw one of Sina’s friends getting out of a car with a gift bag and a woman carrying a cake.

I had seen this friend a couple of times in furtive little encounters, arriving somewhere together with someone, but I didn’t know the woman.

Apparently, it was Sina’s birthday.

I couldn’t tell whether the woman was his friend’s wife or someone else.

I was completely thrown.

The more fun he seemed to be having, the harder life felt for me.

By now I had nothing.

All my pride had been destroyed.

I wanted to blame everything on fate and on the deaths of my parents. But somewhere deep inside, I knew why I couldn’t live as simply as everyone else.