NOVA
Katya Volkov organized game nights the way the military organized operations. There was a group text, a schedule, a location rotation, and a strict no-phones-at-the-table policy that she enforced with a glass bowl by the front door and the unspoken threat of social exile.
I had been added to the group text without my permission. A message appeared on my phone Tuesday afternoon: *Game night. Thursday. Katya’s place. 7pm. Bring wine. No excuses.* Fourteen women in the thread. I recognized three names from the family section in Detroit.
I texted Diane. *Am I required to attend?*
Diane texted back: *The captain’s girlfriend attends game night. Yes.*
Thursday at 7 PM I stood outside a brownstone in Lincoln Park holding a bottle of red wine and wondering how a woman with a PhD in sport
