Meghna grimaced. She hadn’t really found someone. She was still all alone.
“But I found your dad. And you found Karthik,” her mother continued. “With our help, of course.” She let out a tinkling laugh, her eyes filled with genuine warmth. “We’re both so happy for you.”
Meghna took a deep breath. “Thanks, Mom. But I was just looking for Ankita. Have you seen her?”
Meghna’s mother opened her mouth, but her father quickly interjected. “She was looking for you. I think she said she was going to get dessert.”
Meghna gave her father a look of gratitude, and he winked back at her. Her mother frowned, clearly about to say something else, but before she could, Meghna’s father turned and kissed her mother on the cheek. Her mother laughed, and then her father whispered something that made her mom blush.
Meghna had no desire to know what had been said, but she was thankful for the distraction, using it to slip away and head toward the dessert table. She couldn’t see Ankita standing anywhere near there, but she decided that she needed some ras malai anyway. After that conversation, she was certainly entitled to it. She may have even earned a gulab jamun or two.
She spooned a ras malai into her bowl but was interrupted by the voice of a man behind her.
“Beautiful jewelry,” he said. She turned around. The man was older, clearly an uncle, but she couldn’t remember if they had met. If they had, she couldn’t recall his name.
“Thank you,” she said politely.
His gaze crawled over her, starting at her necklace, then roaming over her chest.
“Our women look best in Indian clothes,” he said. “I’ve always thought so.”
Gross. Meghna was looking around for an exit strategy when a warm hand suddenly closed around hers.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Karthik said.
She relaxed at the sound of his voice, soft and somehow already familiar.
“Are you her husband?” the uncle asked.
“Fiancé,” Karthik bit out.
An oily smile came over the uncle’s face. “You’re a lucky man.”
“I know,” Karthik said firmly. He nodded curtly and tugged on Meghna’s hand, gently pulling her with him. Once they were a safe distance away, he stopped and faced her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. No. I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, it’s nothing. That guy was just being a creep.”
Karthik frowned. “Well, that’s not nothing, then.” He looked away for a second, then back at her. He blew out a loud breath. “I’m sorry.”
She scrunched her nose, confused by his apology. “For what?”
“I shouldn’t have cut in like that. I’m sure you could have handled it. It’s just…I was coming to see if you were done talking with Ankita, and then I saw you there and you looked uncomfortable and…”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I wanted to get out ofthere. Actually, it’s probably time for both of us to get out of here. I promised we could try and head out after dinner. I still need to find Ankita, but after that we can call it a night.”
Karthik inclined his head toward the dance floor. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay longer? Just for one dance?”
She started to laugh at his obvious joke, but stopped when she realized there was no hint of humor on his face. He was serious. She tried to picture him dancing but couldn’t conjure an image of it. She was almost tempted to say yes, but the night had worn her out and she was more than ready to go home.
“No, I’m sorry. I’m just too tired. Let’s find Ankita and then we can go. All right?”
He nodded and joined her, walking around the room, searching the crowd for her friend. Finally, they spotted Rishi on a corner of the dance floor. He was dancing by himself, his hands in the air, his body swaying from side to side.
