‘Yeah.’
‘No, Sam. I did not marry my sister.’
Sam cackled. Anni kicked Kaavi under the table. Kaavi looked at her and shrugged.
‘Boy, did I get that wrong,’ Sam said.
‘If only you knew how wrong,’ Anni whispered loud enough for them all to hear. But Sam was too interested in playing private school sports catch-up with Neel to respond.
‘Good times. You guys were great hosts to us,’ he said.
‘We had to be good hosts because your team lost every match. It was the least we could do,’ Neel teased.
Sam held up his hands.
‘Hey, bro. Not on. At least pretend that I was good in front ofmy wife. I would have done the same in front of your wife.’
Anni let out a strained laugh that caught in her throat.
‘Do you see why keeping secrets is messy?’ Neel said to Kaavi, his tone measured.
Sam’s eyebrows furrowed, a flicker of confusion passing over his face as he tried to piece together what was happening. Anni sank a little deeper into her seat.
Kaavi closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, Neel was no longer looking at her. He was taking a long sip of his beer.
‘His wife is here.’ Kaavi heard herself say it, but she didn’t know what she was going to say next.
Neel still didn’t look at her. Anni was now sitting straighter in her seat and Sam was looking around.
‘Where?’ he asked.
‘Next to him,’ Kaavi replied confidently.
‘I don’t get it,’ Sam said.
‘Sam, for a doctor, you can be really be thick sometimes. Kaavi is Neel’s wife,’ Anni said, exasperated, watching the realisation slowly dawn on his face.
‘No! This couldn’t have happened on my watch. Sen is going to kill me,’ he said.
Neel gently put down his beer.
‘I don’t know who Sen is and I don’t care,’ he said.
‘Sen is my best friend …Wait, Kaavi is your wife?’
Neel and Kaavi nodded simultaneously.
‘We got married almost three years ago in Jo’burg,’ Kaavi said.
In that moment, she realised that Neel was right about keeping secrets because once she’d said it out loud to a second person, the weight of it started to lift.
‘So, you’re divorced now?’
‘No,’ Kaavi said.
‘A long-distance marriage?’
Neel looked at Kaavi and she shrugged.
