Natara didn’t move from her spot. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, flatly but not unkindly.
Neel didn’t get a chance to introduce anyone because his mother beat him to it. She was already pulling out a chair.
‘Sit, sit,’ she said, waving Kaavi over. ‘I brought you something to eat.’
She opened a container. Roti rolls.
‘It’s potato curry. I hope you like potato curry,’ she said warmly.
When Kaavi first stepped into the kitchen, food was the last thing on her mind. But the moment she caught a whiff of the potato curry and saw the rolls, her stomach twisted with sudden hunger.
‘Thank you, these look really good,’ she said to Neel’s mother.
His mother smiled and took the seat opposite her at the kitchen table.
‘Kaavi, is there anything we, as your in-laws, should do, traditionally, for your dad’s funeral?’
Kaavi set the roti roll down and leaned back. The question caught her off guard. She couldn’t believe this woman’s kindness. They were offering to step in as family when shehadn’t even given them the time of day when she married Neel.
‘I don’t know,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t even know when the funeral is.’
Neel straightened from where he stood.
‘It’s tomorrow,’ he said.
Kaavi nodded. She picked up the roti roll and took a bite, forcing it down past the lump in her throat.
Her father’s funeral was tomorrow. And still, she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Natara placed a cup of coffee in front of Kaavi. ‘Two sugars, right? That’s what Neel said.’
Kaavi nodded, smiling softly. It warmed her more than the drink to know that he remembered something so small.
She looked around the room at these four people who were embracing her with such kindness, it almost undid her. She hadn’t felt this held in a long time.
Her mind drifted to her childhood kitchen. It wasn’t the space itself that made it feel like home. It was her mother. Her mother had always been the one to bring warmth, the one who stood by her through everything she went through with her father. But as she grew older, that warmth had faded.
Now, sitting across from Neel’s mother, watching the way she looked at her and Neel, with open admiration, it hit a tender spot. It hurt. And Kaavi didn’t know how to explain any of it. She never had. Not to her mother. Not to Neel. Not even to herself. That was the thing. She was never good at naming what she felt and that’s why she’d never really told Neel about the storm she lived with every day.
‘We’re headed to Kaavi’s parents’ home. Are you joining us?’ Neel said after a while.
His father shook his head.
‘We’ll be at home if you need us,’ he said.
Neel’s mother reached out to his cheek and lightly tapped it.
‘We are only a call away, okay?’ she said.
Kaavi was jealous. Why hadn’t her mother been there for her when she needed her the most?
They said their goodbyes and made their way to Neel’s car in the garage. Kaavi tapped the screen on her smartwatch. It was almost 4pm. So much had happened in 24hours.
She got into the car and gave Neel directions.
She was quiet on the drive to her parents’ house, but part of her waited for Neel to say something about how they were so close to his place yet he had no idea her parents were even alive. She’d overheard him tell his father he’d assumed they were dead. He had no clue they both lived in Johannesburg. Kaavi had taken every out-of-town assignment she could find just to avoid running into them.
When they entered her old neighbourhood, her heart started racing.
