“Yes.”
“Because you seem kind of...” She hesitated. “Buttoned-up and proper.”
He resisted the urge to straighten up. He’d heard that before, often from his own brother and friends.Buttoned-upwas kinder thanuptight. Could he help that he found solace in rules and regulations?
“And you have this kind of fancy aura. Like you grew up in an appetizers and drinks family.”
That was new. “What do you mean by that?”
“Like when you went out to eat, your family ordered appetizers and drinks.”
That was what qualified for Ivy League attitude? “Interesting.”
Sejal waved her hand around the waiting room. “Or like you’ve never so much as taken a bus.”
He couldn’t refute her first assumption about him, but he could certainly refute the second. “I’ve definitely taken a bus before.”
“To and from Harvard?”
Well, yes, but he wasn’t going to admit that. “The summer after I graduated high school, I traveled across the country by bus.”
She raised her eyebrows, and now he did sit up a little straighter. Not that he was trying to impress her, but he did enjoy surprising her more than he thought he would.Fit that into your rigid view of me and see if it makes sense.
And maybe you’ll be as confused as I am.
“Where did you go?”
“All over. Niagara Falls, New Orleans, and then back west to stand in the Pacific Ocean.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes. I felt...” It had been the first time in his life he hadn’t felt the shackle of responsibility or the pressure to succeed and live up to the expectations his mother had for him. He’d been able to do whatever he wanted. The trip hadn’t lasted long, but he would always remember those three months fondly. “Free. For a whole three months, until I had to go back to school.”
“Did you want to go to college?”
“Yes. I liked school. Did you?”
“Nerd. No. I hated it. Hated sitting still, hated testing, hated teachers being mad at me for being bad at those first two things.”
“What did you do after high school, then?”
“After my dad kicked me out of the house?”
He paused in eating. “Did he? Why?”
“Because I wouldn’t rob a bank with him and I threatened to turn him in if he did.”
Krish was glad he’d stopped eating, because he would have choked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah.” She fiddled with the empty plastic bag in her lap. “He was a piece of work.”
“Who even robs banks in this day and age?” And who did it with their seventeen- or eighteen-year-old kid?
A Chaudhary, that’s who.
“Robbing banks isn’t about shooting them up with guns and masks anymore. Now it’s keyloggers and hacking. He wanted to drain an account or two of someone who’d crossed him.” Sejalpaused. “Now that I think about it, those accounts may have belonged to my mom. Of course, I didn’t know she was still alive then. Anyway, I refused to help with his plan, and he was livid that I was finally standing up to him. He was used to me helping with whatever he wanted.”
Sejal was being uncharacteristically chatty, so Krish held his breath when he asked the next question. “Why did you say no?”
