chair and started pacing.
“Oh God,” Nisha said, and Yash stopped to catch her horrified expression. “Why didn’t you say something? You’re having cold feet. Yash, listen, I know exactly how you’re feeling.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Haven’t you noticed how similar our situations are? Neel and me, and Naina and you? Family friends, best friends since childhood.” She didn’t mention that Neel had dated someone else for seven years before he’d found his way back to Nisha. Or that once they’d gotten together they’d never left each other’s side if they could help it. They hadn’t lived continents apart for over a decade. “I know exactly what you’re feeling.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do. It’s terrifying when something is so right. I think I finally understand why you’ve both stayed away for so long.”
“We’ve stayed away because we’ve both loved our careers too much.” And because being able to stay apart was the point of us getting together. Because he’d needed control over his feelings, and with Naina there were none.
“That’s the conscious reason. The subconscious reason is that you’re too afraid that your perfect relationship is too good to be true.”
Yash groaned.
“Did you know that I had serious cold feet before my wedding? I almost didn’t go through with it. In fact . . . Never mind.” Standing up, she faced him, the look in her eyes so filled with understanding, for a moment he thought she knew the truth about Naina and him. “You know how I know how much you love Naina?”
Well, there went that theory. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
She grabbed his arm and looked at him the way people did when they wanted you to know that they knew a secret you thought you’d hidden well. “I saw you. I saw you when you first realized you were in love. You remember the night before my wedding?”
Yash’s heart started to thud like a military parade.
“The night of my mehendi, I saw you in the gazebo with Naina.”
“With Naina?”
“Yes, I remember the look on your face to this day. I’d never seen you look like that. You looked so totally smitten, like you’d been hit on the head with something, like you’d found your purpose in life. That’s why when everyone else was shocked when you and Naina sprang your relationship on us, I knew you knew what you were doing. If you’re scared, just remind yourself of that time, of how that felt. You’ll find your way back to it. I promise. It’s what I do with Neel.”
Stepping away from her, he squeezed his temples. His head felt like a million little explosions were going off in it.
Nisha shook his shoulder. “What’s wrong? What did I say?”
What she’d said . . . she might as well have driven a car into him. Before he could tell her that Naina wasn’t who she’d seen in the gazebo with him that night, the door flew open after a cursory knock.
“Hai hai, Yash, beta, badhaiyaan badhaiyaan!” Naina’s mother was an intimidatingly tall woman with a personality entirely at odds with her strapping physical appearance. She flew into the room, then stopped with her odd mix of anxiety and effusiveness.
Naina followed her in, her expression as tortured as it always was when she was in the presence of her parents. Behind her was the venerable and portly Dr. Kohli, who walked straight at Yash and grabbed him in a hug.
“Finally I am to have a son.”
Naina’s mother looked like she’d been kicked. She hung her head and smiled, even as her eyes teared up. This was in line with every interaction Yash had ever seen between Naina’s parents.
Naina looked like she’d like to kick her father. Instead she put an arm around her mother.
Yash was sure today was the day he would explode, just blast out of his skin and splatter on the walls.
Nisha’s hand stroked his back.
Behind the Kohlis marched in the Rajes, Mina leading the parade and welcoming the guests, even as she studied Yash the way she’d done when he was a boy trying to get away with something.
You’re thirty-eight. You’re a thirty-eight-year-old former state senator, former U.S. attorney, who’s going to be the governor of California. What the hell is wrong with you?
“You okay?” Ashna came up to him. She, too, studied him like a particularly challenging chai blend she was trying to decode.
Would they stop asking him that question when they really didn’t want an answer? If they kept at it, he was going to tell them