“It looks like you arekissinga man at abar!”
Her mother said it with all the scandal of someone else saying, “It looks like you are murdering a man at a murder house.” “That’s not what kissing looks like, Mama.”
“Don’t get fresh with me.”
“I’m not being fresh!”
“You are nuzzling, at the very least.” Zara tossed her hair.
“Nuzzling is worse than kissing,” her mother announced.
“How...?” Jia rolled her shoulders. It was no surprise how tight they were. “We were both avoiding photographers. Clearly not well enough.”
“Avoiding photographers? Is that what they’re calling it nowadays. Convenient,” Noor said dryly. She readjusted the nasal cannula under her nose. Jia felt a stab of worry, as she always did when she saw the device. While she’d been sick in California, Noor had been battling the sameillness in their hometown in Western New York. Jia had recovered without long-term side effects, but Noor hadn’t been so lucky. She didn’t need supplemental oxygen all the time—she could do her rounds at the hospital as an ER doc without it—but she still depended on it when she was home.
Nothing had made Jia feel more homesick or helpless than being sick all the way across the country, except for knowing her sister was sick and she couldn’t help out. Her sisters might be annoying as hell, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love them fiercely. “Look...”
Zara sighed. She was always stylish and glowed with health, and today was no different, though she wore a sweater instead of a suit. “Jia, I’m sorry, but the jig is up. I told Mom and Noor.”
“Told them what?”
“I overheard you speaking with Ayesha weeks ago. I know you’ve been talking to this man.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
The rare swear could be forgiven right now. Jia had told Ayesha about Dev, but only because she told Ayesha everything. Of all the conversations for Zara to overhear...
“Imagine my surprise to find out my youngest daughter is going around with a boy and I know nothing about it,” Farzana announced, hurt dripping off her words.
“I’m not going around with him.”
Her eldest sister snorted. “You are clearly talking to him.”
Talking towas the euphemism all her sisters had used for dating until they got engaged or married. Their mother gotscowly at the thought of her daughters engaging in American dating, what with its premarital sex and all.
Except Jia had literally only beentalking tothe Person Formally Known as Dev. She opened her mouth, but her mother continued. “I would not have been opposed to this, Jianna. It is time for you and Ayesha to settle down. And obviously, Devanand Dixit, well... he is not the star his grandfather was, but clearly he is from a good family and well-off. You did not have to hide him.” Farzana’s mouth turned down in a frown. “Am I so scary you could not tell me?”
Yes.
Jia rubbed her hand over her forehead. But that wasn’t the issue right now. She hadn’t told her mom because there had been nothing to tell. “It’s not about that...”
“Despite his wealth and family, he’s still an actor,” Noor said, but it wasn’t with the same level of accusation as when the call had started. She liked to be on the same page as their mother. Noor’s eyes turned calculating. “I bet the wedding would be bonkers fun, though. The Dixits probably know how to throw a party.”
Wedding! “I’m not marrying Dev Dixit,” Jia blurted out.
Zara rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure you’re not. Then why were you squealing over how sweet he was with Ayesha?”
Did her sister have bat ears? “We did talk about Dev, but I’m not dating him.”
“So you’re just kissing him in public? Sorry, nuzzling. Full mouth to neck action.” Noor’s lips puckered up, like she’d eaten something nasty.
Jia’s neck went pink at the attention. “He didn’t have his mouth anywhere on me!”
Farzana gave a small growl, like she hadn’t heard Jia at all, which wasn’t unusual. “That, I will not tolerate, Jia. What would people say?”
“We weren’t doing anything—” Jia was interrupted by Noor’s coughing fit. She watched helplessly as her sister bent over almost double from the force of it.
“I’m coming over,” Zara said to Noor, when she subsided.
