She did. His eyes were so familiar. Deep and dark. Andhere.
Seven, eight, nine…Whenever disaster struck—and she reluctantly agreed it struck this family often—Rohan was here.
Still holding her hand, Rohan spoke with a soothing voice. “Look at all this you’ve done here. It’s exquisite. You’ve even got the June Cleaver dress on. With matching shoes.”
Ten.She let out a breath, grounding herself in his face. Focusing on it. Studying it, mostly so she wouldn’t pass out. But also, she noticed something.
“That’s more than a day’s worth of stubble on your face,” she said weakly.
He chuckled, still holding her hand. “I’m considering growing a beard. What do you think?”
She narrowed her eyes. “It will suit you.”
This Rohan, the one in pajamas in her house every Saturday morning, wasn’t the Rohan the rest of the world saw. He was usually in suits and ties so high-end and perfectly tailored that any facial-hair situation would complement them, so long as it was neat and tidy. He’d probably look evenmoredignified with a beard. She nodded, letting a smile sneak onto her face.
The room had stopped spinning. She pulled her hand back from his and wrapped the apron tighter around it. She felt weird about Rohan seeing her freak out there, but it was fine. They were friends.
The landline phone rang, and she heard Dad answering it upstairs.
Kamila turned back to the food so she wouldn’t break down again. She lined up the uncut sweet potatoes on the board. “You’re ordering the biryani for next week’s movie night, right?”
“Yep.” He plunked another cherry tomato into his mouth. “I scoped out a new place. We will be feasting on Burmese biryani.”
She raised one eyebrow. “Burmese? Trying to one-up me for the Kashmiri?”
“It looked interesting. The biryani is served with a dried shrimp topping.”
Kamila was skeptical. “At least it’s my turn to choose the movie. Enough of your epic oldies. I have the perfect film picked out for next week.Jab We Met. It’s about a buttoned-up businessman and the free-spirited woman who makes him want to live again.” Kamila wrinkled her nose. “Now that I think about it, that’s really sexist. Like, the only purpose for the quirky woman is to be an object that teaches the uptight man to enjoy life? But anyway, the scenery in it is supposed to be amazing. And I checked—the lead actress dances soaking wet in the rain. I know you’re not happy unless you see at least one dancing-in-the-rain scene in an Indian movie.”
He blinked, blank faced.
“You know it’s true, Rohan. I swear, if I ever find a man who looks at me the way you look at a woman in a wet sari, I’ll be set for life.”
He laughed, turning to look at the food on the counter. “Is there an issue with how that child you’re dating looks at you?”
“Ernesto istwenty-three. And we werehooking up, not dating. It was an FWB situation.”
“FWB?”
“Friends with benefits. But the benefit period has now ended. His internship is done and he’s heading back to Brazil today. That’s why he left before the movie last night.”
Rohan’s head tilted in what looked like genuine concern. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You okay?”
Kamila shrugged. “We had fun, but like I said, casual.” She frowned when she remembered Ernesto’s goodbye last night. “It’s probably for the best he’s leaving now—the guy was growing a little too…enamored. I would have had to have broken it off anyway.”
“Honestly, Kam, I don’t get how you can only want casual. You don’t want people feeling things for you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I want peoplefeelingthings for me. Just not, like, permanent commitment-type feelings. Casual is the new exclusive.” She exaggeratedly looked around the empty room before lowering her voice and stepping closer to him. “It’s pretty great to only have shiny new-relationship sex and never boring routine sex. Nothing like that new man smell.” She licked her lips, watching a cute shade of pink rise up Rohan’s cheeks.
This was fun. “Although…” she continued. “Iamgoing to miss Ernesto. We had aprivatefinal date on Thursday, and let me tell you, that man is talented. He could do this thing with his fingers and his tongue in sync—”
Rohan slapped her hip with a tea towel to stop her. Probably best. She loved knowing she could unravel Mr. Buttoned-Up like that, but she knew he wasn’t getting much action. It was cruel to rub it in.
“Anyway,” she said. “Youknowwhy I only do casual. I have no intention of abandoning Dad, and that’s what a serious relationship would do. All a girl needs are friends, companionship, and sex. I have plenty of the first two, and I always know exactly where to find the third.”
Her father wasn’t over Kamila’s best friend, Asha, who’d lived just around the corner, moving four kilometers away into her new wife’s McMansion. Bad enough that Kamila’s sister, Shelina, and her husband, Zayan, who happened to be Rohan’s brother, moved two hours away to London, Ontario, with their sons a few years ago.
Rohan was still a touch pink, so she decided to see how frazzled a CEO could get. “You should think about having casual sex sometime, old man. You’ve been divorced for what—a year now? I saw an ad for a seniors mixer at the community center. Want me to get the deets for you?”
