Reena giggled. “Was it painful or not? From the way you’re smiling, it almost seems like you enjoyed it.”
Annika curbed the smile that had crept across her face. “No. I mean yes, it did hurt.” She held up her beer. “I should probably cut myself off.”
Reena shook her head but seemed to accept that Annika’s grin was due to too much alcohol and, thankfully, dropped the subject.
Annika glanced once more at her hand, and her thoughts quickly drifted back to Daniel and his confession that he had in fact been in her room at the ER. Try as she might, Annika could not remember his face. She did recall having a sense of peace and finally crying herself to sleep, but no recollection of Daniel. Honestly, she needed to move on. No way should she be involved with someone of such questionable character.
The conversation around her shifted to medicine, and she attempted to appear engaged, even as her thoughts drifted back to that kiss. Sadly, she had absolutely no problem remembering how his lips had felt on hers. Or the fact that she’d never been kissed the way he had kissed her.
She was jostled out of her daydream by a playful bump to her shoulder. Naya stood next to her, gorgeous in skinny jeans topped with a deep purplekurtatop. But it was the sparkle in her eye that made her look. A very handsome man with a trim beard and nearly black eyes stood a few inches taller than Naya, his shoulder grazing hers as if he couldn’t bear not touching her.
Annika raised an eyebrow at her cousin. Naya widened her eyes. “Ravi—” she tilted her head toward him “—this is Annika.”
Ravi immediately turned his gaze to Annika and smiled broadly as he extended his hand. “So nice to finally meet the big-sister-cousin-best-friend I’ve heard so much about.”
Annika shook his hand. “Very nice to meet you, too. I’ve heard quite a bit about you, as well.”
Ravi’s whole face lit up with adoration as he turned to look at Naya. Annika’s heart melted for her cousin.
“Only the best things, though,” Annika added with a laugh.
Ravi chuckled. “I’m just thrilled she’s talking about me at all.”
Naya rolled her eyes, but it did nothing to hide her flush. Naya was completely smitten with Ravi, and clearly Ravi was just as taken with Naya.
Annika turned to Naya and hugged her close. “Where have you been?” she whispered.
Naya responded with a small, mischief-filled grin as she pulled back from the hug. She flicked her gaze to Sajan and whispered, “Doesn’t look like you were too bored. Introduce us.”
Annika treated her cousin to a small eye roll as she spoke. “Sajan, this is my cousin Naya and her boyfriend, Ravi. Naya, Sajan.”
Naya shook Sajan’s hand with a knowing look in her eye that irritated Annika. Ravi remembered Sajan from their high school days, so they immediately started playing the do-you-remember-so-and-so game.
Annika teased her cousin with that same knowing look that had irritated her, the way only sisters can. Naya flushed and shot her a mild glare. There was a small lull in the conversation as Ravi and some of the guys went in search of more beer, and Annika could hear the aunties next to them talking.
“You wouldn’t believe—she was nearly three months along, and she missed.”
“Oh,hai. How terrible!”
Annika tensed. The accents were thick, and Annika could envision the hand movements and judgment-filled scowls that accompanied the words.
“Well, maybe for the best. She was engaged to adhoriyo, and they broke up after she missed.”
They had to be talking about her. She was the only one who had been engaged to a white guy and had a miscarriage. How could they possibly know this? She felt the heat rise to her face, even as fresh tears pricked her eyes. Naya leaned imperceptibly toward her in support.
“Ah, so it was for the best that she missed.”
“That is why Usha-ben is so keen to get her married quickly, before all of this gets known, eh? They have even approached Poorvi Shah about her son. As if.” The auntie sniffed. “Who would give their son to such a girl? Pregnant before marriage? It is disgraceful.”
She felt Sajan tense beside her and heard Reena’s intake of breath. Poorvi Shah was his mother. There was only one Usha-ben in the group, and everyone knew she was Annika’s mother. Annika could not bring herself to look up at any of them. Twenty-seven years old, living on her own, working two jobs, but the shame of having a miscarriage and being dumped had her unable to make eye contact.
Before Annika realized what was happening, Naya had spun around to face the aunties. They exchanged glances and pursed lips, even as their faces flushed from being caught gossiping by the daughter of their host.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves, gossiping in such a manner in my parents’ home, about their niece!” Naya’s eyes were ablaze. “My cousin has done nothing disgraceful, nor should she be ‘grateful’ for her loss. It’s you who are disgraceful.”
The aunties had the decency to appear abashed as Naya reprimanded them, but as their gazes drifted over to Annika, she clearly saw their disdain. Daniel’s words came to her, clear as if he had been standing next to her: she had nothing to be ashamed of, and no one should make her feel so. Annika turned and looked them in the eye, forcing her chin up in defiance she hardly felt, daring them to continue judging her. Maybe they were right. Shehaddodged a bullet in Steven—he wasn’t right for her—and maybe it had been careless to get pregnant before she was ready. But she’d be damned if she was going to let them know that.
She felt Sajan’s hand on her shoulder, but she couldn’t face him. Facing Sajan was different from facing a bunch of gossiping aunties. She stepped aside from him and made for the door. She couldn’t imagine how the aunties had found out—her family would never discuss this as gossip. That she had been engaged to Steven was common knowledge, but her pregnancy and miscarriage were supposed to have been a well-kept secret.
