“What is it?”
My mind went blank as I pushed a fork through the vegetarian dish. “Um. Curried chickpeas.”
Liya asked dryly, “You mean chana masala, chole? Anything but curried chickpeas.”
“Couldn’t think of the word. Sorry. Sheesh. Do you want to take my Indian card?”
“Um, yes. I think I have to.”
“Fine. I don’t have many cards left anyway.”
She laughed. “You don’t. But you at least like Indian food. Eat your chole in peace.”
“You know, I’m a doctor. I can’t remember everything at all times. Anyway…are you feeling better?” I asked, my gut twisting as I remembered the night of Reema’s wedding. Going after Liya that evening had meant being the only one there for her when her prick of a father and an elder in the community had tried to destroy her. It was the final straw that pushed my dear childhood friend out of town.
Her tone seemed relaxed, calm when she replied, “Yeah. Actually. Moving to Dallas was the best decision for me, you know? Don’t get me wrong, I miss you girls the way I’d miss cheese if I had to go vegan, but Houston is too toxic for me. I feel like I can breathe here. It’s a new start, but not too far. I make more money with this job and it’s not nearly as stressful as the last. Jay is moving here, helping me cope.”
“I wish I had known. Liya, all this time you’d been suffering at the hands of a man who everyone else respected.”
She scoffed. “Except you.”
“Well, he did spread vicious lies about me when it came out that I was dating Daniel,” I said, skipping a breath from having said his name aloud, both a soothing balm for the burnt remnants of our past relationship and a tormenting memory of how things had ended.
“We all know your fois lit those fires. But let’s be real. A lot of folks here were racist to begin with, not just your aunts. That crap doesn’t rear its head just because one of their own is sullied.”
“I hate him for what he did to you.”
“Me too. But things are good, Preeti. They really are now. The only way they could be better is if you moved here,” she said, hopeful.
I laughed. “The only thing I can promise is that I’m looking for work in Dallas. But who knows?”
“You haven’t heard back from any interviews?”
My shoulders slumped. A panic attack brewed at the edges of my thoughts, creeping closer and closer as my unease turned physical. Anxiety was like soft, annoying fingers pressing down on my brain. If I didn’t take care of myself now, that soft but unnerving stroke would turn into a harsh, suffocating grip. “No. I’m so tired of interviewing and wonder if I’ll ever get a job at this rate.”
“You’ll get the one you want. Look at everything you do, Miss Chief Resident!”
“I really hope so. All those hours doing side projects and scheduling and filling in for sick call at the drop of a hat and mentoring new residents better be worth it.”
“Don’t worry. They will be. Reema and Rohan are back this Saturday night, right? I’m driving down. We’ll get your mind off job hunting.”
I beamed. “That would be fantastic!”
“By the way, did you find a new place? In all my drama, I don’t think I asked where you’ll be living.”
“It slipped my mind to turn in my lease for the new apartment with all the chief resident duties. In the chaos of the wedding and you leaving and work and seeing Daniel…” I muttered.
“Oh? Did you speak to him at the reception?”
“No. I managed not to.”
“Did you run? Like, literally, run?”
I was an expert at running from Daniel: dodging calls and texts, ignoring his knocks on my door, making my friends evade his questions, and, more times than I could count, literally just walking away. Avoiding confrontation wasn’t my best feature. Quite possibly one of the worst things about me, actually. If I had better conflict management skills, I would’ve shut down my aunts at the first accusation and maybe I’d still be with Daniel.
I admitted, “I ran as fast as I could in my chaniya choli.”
“Ah. Since I took up my new job’s offer of living arrangements, I still have two months left on my Houston lease. Why don’t you stay there?”
I gasped. “Are you serious?” Liya’s apartment was the perfect location for work, and when else would I ever get a chance to live in such a posh place? Oodles of stress immediately drained out of me at the knowledge that I would have a temporary place to live and more time to find a permanent residence, and could get my butt out of this apartment before Reema and Rohan returned. It was perfect timing, too. Her apartment lease would be up when my residency ended, so no long-term commitment if I didn’t secure a job nearby.
“Yes! And my new company provides a furnished apartment because they wanted me here on short notice. I won’t need my furniture for a while. It’s just sitting there.”
“You’d be saving me! I would pay rent, of course.”
“Oh my god, Preeti. No. You’re not paying rent. But for full disclosure, someone else just asked me about it, too.”
My shoulders slumped. “If you gave it to someone, then no worries.”
She quickly rebutted, “Do you have another place to live?”
“No…” I bit my lip.
“Then maybe you two can share the place? You take the bedroom, he can take the couch?”
“He who?” I sat up pin straight. I couldn’t believe Liya would seriously suggest I share an apartment with a stranger, much less a man.
“Um. Daniel,” she replied, sounding a little like a kid saying oopsie—but more like a giddy woman executing a setup.
I nearly choked on my water and almost fell off the barstool. Please, lord, tell me she’s joking. “How is that a good idea?”
“It’s temporary. He needs a place for three weeks. That’s all. He can take the couch. You can have the entire bedroom. And if y’all work it out and get a little busy, then hey, icing on a very delicious cake.”
“Liya!” My skin heated at the thought of all the very intriguing, sexy things that could, but would not under any circumstances, happen. “I’m dating Yuvan! Our parents are expecting us to get engaged.”
“Do you even love Yuvan? Or rather, don’t you still love Daniel?”
I opened my mouth to protest the validity of that question, but she quickly went on, “And don’t even try to deny. You are the worst liar in Houston. You’ve been in love with him since college, and I don’t know who Yuvan is, but he’s not Daniel. And that’s all anyone needs to know.”
I groaned into the phone, but there was no argument to have. No one compared to Daniel.
“You could live with Reema. But Rohan will be there. And when your parents find out, they’re going to make you move all the way to their house in the suburbs. And you can’t live with Sana because she’s living in a full house with her family.”
I pressed my lips into a tight line. Liya was right. Even if I wanted to squeeze into a bunk bed with the fourth member of our girl group, Sana was already losing her crap from the lack of privacy.