Katrina waved her hand. The diamond on it glinted. “It’s a promise ring!”
Lakshmi snorted. “Get engaged already and put that manout of his misery.”
“If you got engaged, Rhiannon probably won’t feel as bad about moving into Samson’s place,” Jia said, without thinking, then winced. “Oops. Sorry, Rhiannon.”
Katrina turned to face her best friend. “What is she talking about? You want to move in with Samson?”
Rhiannon’s lips thinned, but she sighed. “We’ve been talking about it.”
“You should do it. Are you not doing it because of me?” Katrina’s face tightened. “Rhiannon, you’re gone more often than not right now anyway. Putyourman out of his misery.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was abandoning you!”
“Neither of you is abandoning me. We’re not going to stop being friends, are we?” Katrina gestured at the table. “This group is staying intact, even if we all live under separate roofs. Don’t insult me by suggesting otherwise.”
“So Rhiannon is moving in with her man, and Katrina and Jia are going to learn to communicate with theirs.” Lakshmi drained her glass. “And some day, we shall pass that elusive Bechdel.”
An imp of mischief worked its way to Jia’s shoulder, and she welcomed it after her recent misery. “If we talk about your love life, Lakshmi, do we pass it?”
“There’s no love life, so sure.”
“None?” Jia took a larger bite of her sandwich. “It doesn’t take long to move from friend zone to end zone, I’m just saying.”
Lakshmi gave a mock growl. Jia welcomed the chuckles,as well as the paper towel roll Lakshmi tossed at her. She wasn’t looking forward to asking Dev what he was thinking tomorrow, but at least for tonight, she’d be with the people who would help her if things went sour. She was a lucky girl, with or without a ring on her finger.
Chapter Thirty
DEV HADnever been an anxious person, but then again, he’d never had his new wife entirely shut down and suddenly run away. He’d texted Jia twice since she’d gone home, ostensibly to get more clothes, and her responses had been short and sweet, and delayed, like she didn’t have her phone perpetually in her hand. He hadn’t liked sleeping without her in their bed last night. When it had become their bed, he wasn’t sure.
“Something is wrong.”
He returned his attention back to his phone and his grandmother. She’d called from the beach to give him an update on Luna. “No, nothing. Let me speak to Luna.” He smiled at his niece. She was covered in sand, and dressed in a bright green two-piece swimsuit his grandmother had surely bought for her. “Hello, beti. Are you having fun and wearing sunscreen?”
“Hi, Kaka. Yes. How are you and Jia, I mean, Auntie, settling in?”
“Well,” he lied.
Luna’s eyes flickered away, clearly distracted. “Good.Okay, I’m going to go. Adil Uncle found a Frisbee. Love you!”
He paused. Had she ever told him she loved him before? He wanted her to say it again, in every language she knew, but she was already gone, his grandmother back. “She’s having fun,” he said, instead. Her skin had glowed with health and affection.
“She is. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
His grandmother looked far too determined to put off, so he quickly told her about his problems at work, which were a problem, just nottheproblem.
She made a dismissive gesture when he was finished. “Good riddance. Who cares. Make your own show.”
“I can’t just make my own show. That’s not how things work.”
“You can when you’re a Dixit. You miss your old show? Make it again, set it in America, for the American market. Done.”
He stopped. It was almost exactly what Jia had suggested. “I can’t do that.”
“You shaped a number of the arcs on your old show, so you can do it creatively. You’re about to receive a large sum of money, so you can do it financially. What is stopping you?”
Nothing.He could do exactly what he loved, tell the stories he wanted to tell, in the location he wanted to be in. He could cast unknown talent, the actors Hollywood ignored. He could use his grandfather’s money for something good, to lift up people who weren’t lucky enough to be born Dixits,and entertain all classes of people. Oh, the old man wouldhatethat. “It’s something to think about.”
“Now, what’s really bothering you?”
