“Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.” She kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.
“Ahem.”
Nimita pulled back. “Reena.”
“We have guests,” her sister said, her mouth pressed into that line.
“Right.” She nodded to Roshan to follow her.
Just as she was greeting the first guest, she got a text. From Steve, the balloon animal artist. He was sick and was not coming. He had no backup as this was his side gig.
Oh. NO.
“What’s the matter? You look terrified,” Roshan said.
“The balloon guy canceled,” she said in a hushed voice.
Of course, Reena was walking by at that precise moment. “What do you mean canceled?”
“Like he’s sick. He’s a one-man show, and there isn’t a balloon guy now,” Nimita said.
She waited for her sister to fume, to growl, to shake her fist at her. Reena did none of those things.
What she did was worse.
“No problem, there’s a game of Twister on the side table and a bunch of candy-filled plastic eggs. We’ll play Twister and have an egg hunt. Easter’s in a month, they’re toddlers, they won’t mind.”
Nimita stared at her sister. “You just happen to have those things on the side table?”
Roshan stepped away, but Nimita barely noticed. She figured he was getting out of the line of fire.
Reena shrugged. “I thought this might happen, so I made sure to have a backup. My assistant filled forty eggs with mini chocolate bars last week.”
“You assumed I would botch this?” Nimita said.
“No. I had a backupjust in caseyou botched this. With your new boyfriend, I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen.” Reena shook her head. “Don’t look so surprised. You say you’re going to make dinner, then you don’t.”
“That happened like twice.”
“We eat dinner every night,” Reena quipped. “You’re preoccupied with your boyfriend and what I can only hope is job hunting. I had to make sure I had some form of entertainment for my daughter’s party.”
Nimita was fuming and hurt all in the same minute. The balloon guy canceling was hardly her fault.
Just then, Mali came up. “I have balloons. I’m ready.”
“What?” Reena said.
“Bhaiya told me the guy you hired canceled. I can do balloon animals. I learned while stuck in the hospital when I was kid. Bhaiya and I found YouTube videos and spent hours practicing. There was nothing else to do,” Malini said.
“You never mentioned,” Nimita said, trying to get her jaw off the ground.
“You seemed so excited about Steve.” Malini shrugged. “Bhaiya went to get supplies. He’ll be back in like fifteen minutes. Just do cake first.” She grinned. “Then I’ll make the balloon animals.”
The party was a success, but Nimita could not shake the feeling that maybe Reena was right about her. Reena clearly still saw her as a screwup, even if her boyfriend had basically saved the party.
Maybe her focuswasoff. She had been job hunting but certainly not with any real passion. She had been home for over a month now. She needed to find a source of income, especially if she wanted to be serious about getting her own place.
