Meghna’s eyebrows rose. “You really think she’ll make you do more meetings after the engagement ends?”
“Why wouldn’t she? I promised her—”
“A year. I know. But with the broken engagement…I mean, it’d be believable if you were heartbroken. If you told her you needed time. And space. If you said you weren’t ready to meet anyone new.”
A few seconds of silence passed. Then he nodded crisply. “Okay. Three months. Do we have a deal?”
He sat very still, waiting for her answer. No hint of emotion on his face. He was stoic. Calm. Composed. And his arms were crossed, making the muscles there more visible. God, even hisforearmswere hot.
“Yes,” she said. “We do.”
Surprise, or something like it, flashed across his face, but he quickly masked it. “Good,” he said with another nod. “I think this willwork out very well for the both of us. I haven’t drafted any terms yet, but I could send something around by the end of the week.”
“What kind of terms?”
He shifted in his seat. “I…I’m not sure,” he said. “But I’m sure we’ll need more. Beyond what we just discussed. Eventually.”
She grinned. “I’m sure we will.” And to her surprise, he smiled back.
“Nice shirt,” he said.
“Thanks,” she said instinctively. She glanced down and almost laughed. She had forgotten she’d slept in this. It was one of her favorites: bright blue with two cartoon bananas talking to each other.
“Can you even read it?” she asked.
“I can make some of it out,” he said. “Just enough to get the joke.”
“You know Hindi?” she asked with some surprise. She wouldn’t have expected Karthik to know any Hindi at all. His family was Tamil, just like her father’s side of the family, so if they spoke anything besides English at home, it would be Tamil. Meghna only knew Hindi because it was her mother’s native language, and even then, she could only understand some of it. She had grown up speaking mostly English, since that was the only language her parents had in common.
“I only know a few words,” he said. “But I’ve heard this one before.”
On the shirt, one banana asked, “Why am I always alone?,” and the other answered, “Because you are a kela.” “Kela” was Hindi for “banana” and “akela” meant “alone.” It was a silly play on words, but it had been a gag gift from her brother. And it had started a fun tradition.
“My brother and I have a bunch of these,” she explained. “He found one and thought it would be funny to give it to me for my birthday, so I found another one and sent it to him. Now we can’t stop. We’ve even started designing our own. I’m thinking about making one with two glasses of milk and some joke involving “doodh” and “dude,” but I haven’t figured it out yet.”
The corners of Karthik’s mouth tilted up, and the tension in Meghna’s shoulders started to fade. Maybe thiswouldwork out for both of them. Maybe somewhere beneath that yummy, stern, Captain Von Trapp-esque exterior, there was some warmth. Maybe he actually had a sense of humor. Maybe…
“Well, I’ll let you go, Meghna. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. We can circle back on those terms this weekend and discuss how we want to inform our families. Talk to you soon.” The call abruptly ended, and his face disappeared from the screen.
Or maybe not.
Karthik buried his head in his hands. That had been a train wreck. His carefully prepared script had gone out the window the moment the call began. He’d tried to recover, but his brain had switched into auto-pilot once he’d noticed she was calling from bed. In her pajamas. He couldn’t even remember half of what he’d said. Though he did remember lying to her. Well, half lying.
The reason he needed to be engagedwasbecause of his family. Maybe it wasn’t due to tradition like he’d said, but he’d already told his dad he was getting engaged to Meghna and he couldn’t take it back now. Not without seeing some smug, superior look on his father’s face.
At least it had all worked out in the end. He just hoped she wouldn’t change her mind.
“You all right, man?”
Karthik lifted his head as Paul, one of this semester’s college interns, entered his office and placed Karthik’s usual coffee order on his desk. Paul had started at the engineering firm just a few weeks ago, but after his fourth day on the job, he’d dropped his major. Apparently,that was all the time he needed to be sure that he never wanted to be an engineer. But since it had been too late for him to find another internship, he’d asked to stick around. He’d been relegated to lunch orders and coffee runs but didn’t seem to mind. As long as his paycheck cleared every week, he was fine doing whatever they asked of him.
Karthik picked up the steaming-hot lavender latte in front of him and took a sip. He closed his eyes briefly, the tense muscles in his shoulders relaxing as the lavender scent calmed his earlier anxiety. He wouldn’t have ever thought to try this flavor on his own, but Paul had mixed up the drink orders last week, and instead of his normal black coffee, he’d gotten this instead. Now Karthik looked forward to the subtle, floral flavor every morning.
He took another sip, then answered Paul’s question.
“I just got engaged,” he said.
“That’s awesome,” Paul said, balancing a drink carrier with the remaining orders in one hand and raising his other for a high five. He quickly withdrew it. “Itisawesome, right? You don’t look like you think it’s awesome.”
