Asha tilted her head. “Wefreeda tiger. Not stole. I have done plenty of stupid things in my youth, butthatwas justified.”
“Tell them about the time you streaked through physiology class in university,” Nicole said.
Asha laughed. “It’s a bit scandalous for this crowd, don’t you think?”
“Nothing is too scandalous for this crowd.” Kamila looked around their group. “I happen to know at least one scandalous thing every person in this wedding party has done. More than one for most of you.”
Zayan snorted, shaking his head. “My perfect big brother has never done anything resembling scandalous.”
“That’s what you think.” Kamila pointed a finger at Zayan. “He did something rather scandalous only a few hours ago. In our Jacuzzi tub.”
Shelina put her hands over her ears and looked at Zayan. “Who let your brother marry my sister, anyway?”
Rohan laughed. “No oneletme do anything.”
Kamila giggled. “Ilet you do lots of things to me. In fact, I encourage you. I beg you. I—”
“La, la, la,” Shelina sang, her hands still on her ears. She turned and looked at Jana. “Anyway, not everyone has a scandal. I certainly don’t. Jana doesn’t, either. We’re mothers.”
Kamila snorted loudly. “Y’all have scandals. Just because you squeezed out babies doesn’t erase the stuff that happened before that. Let’s not forget about your pothead days when you were eighteen, Shelina. Remember when you asked Dad to water that ‘plant’ in your room for weeks while you were in school?” Kamila then looked at Jana and laughed. “And Jana arguably has one of the biggest scandals here in her past. One Iknowshe regrets.”
Jana blinked at her friend. Jana didn’t have a lot of scandals in her past—at least not compared to Kamila herself, who was once a bit of a wild child. In fact, she had only one major scandal in her life.Anil.
Jana could feel her heart rate speed up. Kamila was a great friend. Even if they weren’t always as close as they were now, Kamila had been there when Jana’s other friends ghosted her when they found out she was having a married man’s baby. Surprising Jana more than anyone, Kamila ended up being the most nonjudgmental, accepting person she knew.
But now Kamila was calling Imani’s birth a scandal? Laughing at it? Even after Jana told her the truth about Anil’s marriage?
Jana felt betrayed.
“That wasn’t onlymyscandal. It takes two to tango,” Jana spat out angrily. She glared at Anil.
Kamila frowned. “Jana, no. I’m sorry…I wasn’t talking about…I was talking about that guy from high school we were both hooking up with at the same time. Remember?” Kamila smiled awkwardly, clearly regretting her words. “God, I was such an idiot back then.” She looked at Rohan. “I hope you know you married someone who used to fog up windows with a stoner who had an Indian-girl fetish and used to play with devil sticks behind the school.”
Rohan laughed.
Jana looked at the others. She’d read that moment wrong and felt terrible. She should apologize to Kamila. She glanced at Anil, but he wasn’t even looking at her. The conversation had moved on. People were laughing and teasing Marc now—something about throwing up on the biggest roller coaster in Toronto. Then Tim was teased about the time his dogs were kicked out of a major dog show because he had used an illegal shine-enhancing shampoo on them. Everyone was poking fun at each other. They could laugh at one another and still be friends.
They knew what to say.
Jana’s mood had completely soured. She pushed herself off the low seat. “I need another drink.”
Mostly, she needed to get away from this crowd. All her past feelings of not fitting in were back. She walked over to the bar in the other room. “May I have an old-fashioned?” she asked. “Room one twenty-six.”
“Of course,” the bartender said. A few moments later he slid the drink along the smooth wood surface as Jana perched herself on the barstool.
“Asante sana,” she said, thanking him in Swahili, then looked at his name tag. “Ayubu. I’m Jana.”
He smiled. “Karibu, Jana. You are not going back to your friends?”
She shrugged, taking a small sip of her drink. “Needed a breather.”
“Have you been traveling for a long time with them?”
Jana nodded. “Feels like forever. It’s been almost two weeks.”
Ayubu whistled low. “I could not manage being with so many people for so long.”
Jana raised a brow. “You’re a bartender.”
