"...If outdated gender roles and your poor relationship with your father can by their powers combined get me really nice food I find myself rather void of objections."

"Brilliant. How do you feel about curry?"

"I love curry! However, I mysteriously become a white person in its presence. So they have to have a mild option, or a medium that really means medium and not chemical warfare."

"Awesome. Although you only really have to worry about ramps for me when it's icy. Ren actually encourages me to walk some when I can so I don't atrophy or something."

"Duly noted. I still prefer places in principle that don't choose to cut themselves off from a morally arbitrary segment of the population."

"I sort of get it? Restaurants in particular have brutal margins and it's hard to get investors. If they can't put together enough capital to be picky about buildings or refit them," shrug, "I mean, it's not like they're hedging me out for being Asian, if they were doing that a pox on the lot of them because it's strictly more effort. What's really enraging is when the elevators in train stations are broken. And stay that way for weeks. And the one thing that sets me off every time is when a total stranger sees me stand up and wants to know everything about my medical history, as though I didn't increase aggregate demand for wheelchairs and thus improve the market. It's like they think I stole it from a paraplegic."

"That's...most of the reason I was worried about being discourteous when I asked why you had it, to be honest."

"You were fine. The average case is someone I wasn't even talking to in the first place, who jumps straight to chiding me. Or yanking my chair away while I'm standing up. I don't even park in handicapped spots," snorts May, "which would almost earn a little suspicion over a scarce resource, if the people who take it on themselves to be the wheelchair police weren't such jerks."

He shrugs. "In my experience, when someone has to deal with something unpleasant frequently, even experiences that would otherwise be innocuous can become grating, if they're similar. It didn't turn out to be necessary, but I would prefer to be more curious rather than less. To the extent my curiosity allows, I suppose, or I would have refrained from bringing it up altogether."

"Believe me, I understand being curious. This is also the reason why I find a reason to mention that I'm Japanese early in an acquaintance if I can. Because it's not clear when people are supposed to ask, but it would be weird if someone knew me for four years and thought maybe I was Mongolian or something."

"Kind of you."

"You'd think my name would help, but it's short for Mabel."

"Pfff. So anyone who doesn't know that is doomed to come to the right conclusion for completely the wrong reasons."

"Unless they know my middle name, yeah. Charlie - that's my dad - is completely assimilated, my last name is Swan, no help at all."

"What's your middle name?"

"Mariko. What's your full name?"

"Kanimir Czcibor Kozlow."

"Do you get people asking you to spell that all the time?"

"Mostly I avoid giving out my middle name."

"Makes sense. So when should we meet for dinner, and should it be there or here?"

"The curry place doesn't close until late, so...sixish? Sevenish? And I don't think my car is equipped to hold a wheelchair, if that's relevant."

"Okay, call it seven, and what's the address?"

He gives her the address.