She heard from most of her friends at some point, checking in to see how Dad was doing. Asha, Nicole, Tim, Anil, and surprisingly, even a (very brief) phone call from Jana. Shelina had called about eight times after heading home Saturday night. But nothing at all from Rohan.
She did get an email from his assistant though—to her Emerald email address asking her to send them a list of the Emerald clients that HNS would be taking over temporarily. And Rohan called Dad to briefly check in and discuss the cases. But still. Rohan used to check in onKamilawhen he knew Dad was in a bad way. Not this time.
Maybe she should contact him? She almost sent a text—even drafted a light and breezy message telling him about the new Malaysian noodle recipe she was planning to cook this week.
But she couldn’t pretend what had happened hadn’t happened, and she didn’t know how to talk about it. So, she did nothing. Which was so completely outside of her comfort zone she didn’t know how to feel about it. Thankfully, she was almost too busy with Dad to worry about it too much. Almost.
***
She stayed busy for the next few days. Client meetings, plus the Aim High paperwork. She’d had to hit three different stores to get the ingredients for the Malaysian noodles. Wednesday, she worked from home so she could keep an eye on Dad, but she was steadily busy until five, when she tag-teamed with Rashida Aunty to keep Dad company so she could rush to the shelter for a puppy prom meeting. Thankfully, Asha brought the puppies to the meeting, so that alleviated a lot of Kamila’s stress.
“Potato!” Kamila squealed. She pulled him into her arms. “Look how big you are!” She buried her face in Potato’s soft neck while he squirmed in her arms, trying to lick her face.
Asha laughed. “I figured you needed some puppy time.” She unclipped the leashes from the rest of them. They all promptly ran straight for Kamila, jumping up to her lap to join their brother.
Kamila laughed. “I did. I totally did need these guys.”
“Oh, sweet mother of Alanis Morissette—puppies!” Tim said from the doorway. Which made the puppies leave Kamila and attack the new person in the room.
It took them a while to get settled, of course. But eventually, the three of them were able to get some work done, each with a puppy or two in hand. Soon they had the final list of sponsors, the itinerary, and the menu for the prom sorted out. Kamila wished all charity committees were like this. Puppies might even make the Aim High meetings pleasant. After wrapping up, they headed to Boba Noodle for dinner, since Rashida Aunty was still with Dad.
“Hey! Look who’s here!” Tim said as he opened the door to the noodle shop. Kamila was behind him so she didn’t see who he was talking about, but she assumed it would be Maricel, finally coming to try Kevin’s Earl Grey.
She was three steps from the table when she saw it wasn’t Maricel who Kevin was chatting with, but Rohan. Alone. His suit rumpled, his tie loosened, a big bowl of beef noodle soup in front of him, and a bright-green boba tea.
Rohan.
Why was he here? He was clearly as surprised to see Kamila as she was to see him, because they were staring at each other.
How many days had it been? Only four. It felt like so much longer. His hair wasn’t its usual combed with precision, and there were faint circles under his eyes. Well, she probably didn’t look too hot, either. She’d skipped her whole blow-dry routine on her last wash day so her hair was limp and stringy. She was wearing a dress, but it was kind of a boring solid thing. Deep magenta, but still much less…Kamila than normal. She couldn’t take her eyes off Rohan’s face, though, both relieved to see it again and weirdly uncomfortable about how much seeing him made her feel better.
See? Awkwardness. This was why anything between her and Rohan was a monumentally terrible idea. That face meant too much to her. She couldn’t risk losing him. She might already have.
“Rohan!” Tim said, startling her. She’d forgotten she had anyone with her. “I didn’t know you hung out in tiny noodle joints. This place is a bit quirky for someone like you.”
Rohan chuckled, standing. “Kam introduced me to this soup and I’ve grown a bit addicted.”
“Best in town,” Kevin said with a grin. “Y’all sitting with him? I can get three more place settings.”
Rohan was nothing but polite and generous, so, of course he insisted they join him at his table. Kamila assumed he didn’t really want her there, so she ensured there was a comfortable amount of space between them by sitting neither next to him, nor across from him. Diagonal was best. No chance of eye contact or worse—physical contact.
“Here.” Rohan handed Kevin a business card after Kevin put soup spoons and chopsticks on the table. “We can talk more later, but I think I have just the opportunity for you.”
“Dude, this rocks,” Kevin said, taking Rohan’s card. “I’ll be around to get your order in a few.” He headed to the front of the restaurant.
“What were you talking about?” Asha asked.
“He’s looking at changing his university major and was asking me about accounting and law designations.”
Kamila frowned. “He’s a student?” Kamila didn’t know why that surprised her. Why wouldn’t Kevin be in school?
“Yup. Part-time. He’s a good kid. I told him to apply for an internship at HNS—he can get a feel for both business law and accounting with us. He was concerned because he can’t afford to take an unpaid internship. But we pay our interns.”
Of course they did. Rohan was a conscientious employer. Kamila hid behind the menu, which was really unnecessary because she knew she wanted a mango-matcha boba tea and a beef noodle soup. But wait. That’s what Rohan had in front of him. She didn’t want to order the same thing as him. What would he think? That she was obsessed with him? She needed to order something else.
When Kevin returned, she reluctantly ordered a brown sugar oolong milk tea and Taiwanese popcorn chicken on rice. The soup was better than the chicken, but sacrifices had to be made.
But maybe she was imagining weirdness that wasn’t even there. Because as soon as their orders were in, Rohan smiled a normal, casual, not-at-all-awkward-because-they-had-kissed-and-not-talked-about-it smile. “It’s handy I bumped into you, Kam. I was planning to call you later tonight.”
