“The one I rented.”
Dev massaged his temples. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Would you rather I stay in a hotel room when I visit? Like a peasant? Expect to see me there in three days. That’s as soon as I can get away. You will bring the girl, and her parents if possible. They’ll know of me, of course, but they should get to know me properly.”
She said that like anyone would come running to see her if he merely said her name, and she wasn’t totally wrong. Jia’s parents no doubt grew up on Shweta Dixit movies.
The offhand way she referred to Jia set Dev’s back teeth on edge. “Her name is Jia, and I’d rather you not come—”
“Dev.”
The single word silenced him. He wasn’t hungry for his grandmother’s approval like his brother and cousin, but hismother had drummed a strong sense of respect toward his elders into his head. It was hard to counter that programming, even when his grandmother was being objectively ridiculous.
“Unless you can give me one good reason why your own grandmother should not meet the girl her grandson is serious enough about to send her passionate love notes, I will be there soon.”
He was silent. No, damn it, he couldn’t give her a reason, becauseit’s all fake even though I wish it wasn’twasn’t a good reason. Or at least, not a reason he wanted to divulge to his grandmother.
“Goodbye,” Shweta said. The phone line cut. How on earth was he going to tell Jia about this?
He turned around slowly and spread his hands in front of him. “So.”
“I didn’t understand the language, but going by your tone, that did not sound good.” The beautiful Black woman sitting next to Jia leaned forward. This was Rhiannon, Dev had learned, and she was as sharp as Jia had described her. Katrina sat on the arm of the sofa, her fingertips touching Jia’s shoulder. She’d been touching Jia in one way or another since they walked in, her face soft and empathetic. It was a shame Dev wasn’t meeting Jia’s friends under better conditions. Say, a triple date, not a crisis-handling meeting because he and Jia were accidentally engaged.
He quickly recapped the phone call, his voice trailing off when he finished explaining that his grandmother was arriving in a few days and expected to meet Jia. “So it is as wesuspected. The messages leaked—”
“By your idiot cousin,” Katrina said.
“I can think of better words than idiot,” Rhiannon remarked.
“My agent claims that the messages were part of a mass phone hack. The tabloid would have no reason to lie, so it’s possible. But also very probable my cousin leaked them,” he added in a rush.
“We’ll have Jas secure your phone, in case it was yours that was hacked,” Katrina assured Jia.
“In any case, after the messages leaked and Chandu couldn’t get ahold of me, he decided to come up with a narrative that would defuse things as quickly as possible but also allow us to continue seeing each other. Because he assumed those texts were actually between Jia and me, because why would there be any other explanation.” He heaved a giant sigh. “My God, Jia. I’m so sorry.” The guilt and regret he’d been feeling since Arjun’s actions had come to light were increasing at exponential speed.
Jia lifted her chin. Her face was pale, and she looked much younger than her almost thirty years. “Your grandma’s coming here. To meet me.”
Dev shifted his weight. “Yes.”
“To vet me for your bride.”
He sighed. “Yes.”
“Because she thinks we have a romantic relationship already.”
“Yes.”
“Because the texts your cousin sent me became public.”
With every word, Jia’s roommates bristled, but he welcomed their accusatory stares. He felt guilty enough on his family’s behalf to be raked over the coals. “Yes.”
She dropped her face into her hands again. “My parents and sisters have called me fifty times. What am I supposed to tell them?” Her phone gave a faint vibration, and she gave a half laugh that sounded vaguely hysterical. “Fifty-one, probably.”
“We can fix this,” Rhiannon said soothingly. “We release a statement. We flatly deny that any part of this is real, say the texts and photos are made up or doctored.”
“My parents would know I lied about Dev then,” Jia pointed out.
Rhiannon recalibrated. “Then we can say it’s true, but you’re not engaged. It’s not the 1900s. There’s no scandal in two healthy consenting adults dating.”
