“That sounds awfully dramatic.” Like a Bollywood revenge story.
He snorted. “Yeah. We brought out the worst in each other. That’s why you scared me.”
“What? What’s scary about me?”
“Really?” he scoffed, smiling, and for a fleeting moment, the dimple appeared. “You’reterrifying, Reena Manji, because you did the opposite. You brought out the best in me right from the beginning.”
She turned and their eyes met. This was a lot to take in. She needed more answers before getting sucked into his gaze.
“Why didn’t you call me this week?” she asked. “If you’re not engaged why did you let me think you were?” True, he had texted her, and she’d ignored him, but he could have phoned if he really cared.
“You didn’t respond to my texts, so I figured you wanted to be left alone. Plus, my phone service went dead, and they haven’t been able to figure out why.”
Reena smiled. Ashraf. Her family had her back.
“I took it as a sign from above not to call you,” Nadim said. “I should have come by, though. I’m sorry. Avoiding you after everything that happened wasn’t fair to either of us. Actually, nothing I’ve done has been fair to you.”
“You regret this? Us?”
“No,” he whispered. “Never. But we should have been honest to our families. And to each other.”
That only sounded like regret with a coat of paint. Reena looked away, blinking.
It seemed old Nadim was the same as old Reena. Adapting to whatever others were doing, not taking what he really wanted seriously, and avoiding confrontation until he just couldn’t do it anymore. This was so different from the Nadim she knew now, the Nadim in the contest videos—caring, sentimental, and passionate about his interests. She’d thought it was an act, but maybe neither iteration of the man was fake. He’d just left that old him behind, come here, and found a home. And the new home brought out the absolute best in him.
“So, you really did want to move here? You weren’t forced?”
“I did. I conceded that I have terrible judgment both in business and in women, and my father agreed to help me start over.”
“A new job, a new country, and a new wife.”
“Yup. Facilitated marriage has worked well for many. If I didn’t like who he picked, I would deal with that, but I wanted to give this option a chance.” He smiled warmly. “Of course, I ended up liking who he picked a little too much.”
Reena couldn’t help but snort-laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“It was supposed to be Saira.”
“What?”
“Saira. My father offered mysisterto your father, not me. It happened right after she caught her fiancé banging his Dutch cousin in their condo, so she needed to clean up her image. I was juggling two guys from Tinder back then, so I wasn’t the good, pure woman for you, either.”
“Um…”
May as well go for broke and tell him the whole story, so she told him about the swindling architect and Mum’s gambling habit. “To think, we owe our introduction to an incestuous Dutchman and my mother’s stellar poker face,” she concluded.
The wall beside her shook with Nadim’s attempts not to laugh. “God, I feel like there’s a lot I don’t know about your family.”
“What you don’t know about the Manjis could fill a crater on Mars. Daddefinitelyoversold us as a good family. I’m not even going to mention my sister’s threesomes.” She paused a second, thinking. “Too bad you haven’t met Khizar. All the goodness in our family ended up in him.”
He finally turned to look at her, laughing openly now. “God, I’ll miss you. Whoever they promised, I’m glad I got you.” He turned back around, but with that grin still plastered on his face, Reena was gifted with a perfectly framed dimple through the gap. She hated that she couldn’t kiss it.
“I still can’t figure out why Salim Shah would lie about you being engaged to his daughter,” Reena said.
He shrugged. “Maybe he was trying to one-up your dad? That’s all those men do.”
She opened the screenshot of Salim’s post on her phone. Looking at it again told her nothing. Just the picture and some sentimental tripe about welcoming Nadim to their family.
