Page 148 of Snap Shot

“Sheena,” I whisper. “He rubbed my cramps away.”

“Awww. That'ssosweet,” she coos, swooning. “He sounds so great—”

“It felt so good I came.”

Her jaw goes slack, long, dark lashes cartoonishly blinking five times. Behraz nods in agreement. Surprised at her lack of involvement in this conversation, I turn to see she's moved on from gulab jamun to scarfing down soan papdi. “Iknow! Isn't that the craziest—?”

“He's in love with you.” Eyes wide with glee, her face tears into a bright white smile.

My heart jumps up into my throat, pounding up a storm.

She pumps her eyebrows once. “You heard me, Indira.”

“Pfft. No, he's not.” I wave her off. He's not. “We're justfriends.” I've been telling that lie to myself for so long, the sting it leaves on my tongue doesn't hurt anymore.

“Nope. Sorry to break it to you.”

Her comforting pats on my shoulder do nothing to soothe me.

“He's in love with you. After all that, how are you not in love with him?”

All blood drains from my face as my poor heart descends to my belly.

Waves crash in my ears, vision going blurry as Sheena rephrases the question. It comes out sounding like she's underwater. “Are you in love with him?”

“Girls!” Mom shrieks through the entryway of the room. “Look who I found.”

Gabe appears next to her, clad in a classic white and gold Anarkali gown. “Thanks for inviting me, Anju Aunty.” She hugs my mom before she leaves to make her a plate. “Happy Diwali, ladies. Indi looks like a ghost. What'd I miss?”

Sheena goes to answer but refocuses across the room, where Akhil motions his eyes to the door. “Ooh, I'll let her explain. I gotta go.”

“Where are you going?” I pout.

My best friend winks and blows us kisses. “I'm ovulating and Daddy's ready to roll.”

Bea snorts, sending a spray of soan papdi on the floor.

Gabe and I cringe.

“Ew. Please don't call him that in front of me ever again.” Grabbing both of her shoulders, I spin her around and push her toward her waiting husband. “But good luck!”

“You're not off the hook yet.” Gabe throws me a suspicious glare before Mom interrupts us again, guiding us into the large foyer where a few others do rangoli on the marble floor.

“I'm gonna watch from over here.” Bea points toward the grand stairwell. “I'll probably trip and send the colors everywhere.” The zari work on her Parsi-style sari catches the lights strung from the curved banister as she makes her way to sit on a step, her chest controlled by the high-necked blouse worn underneath. Gabe joins her. Bea murmurs something in her ear while glancing my way.

“Indi, we need to talk.” I don't like Gabe's stern tone. I'm a lawyer, but she's a reporter. Her investigative powers match mine.

“Uh-huh, sure. What about?”

“Yeah. What do we need to talk about?” Esha pipes in, gracefully sweeping a white outline of a petal in the larger flower pattern she and Anika work on. Two girls behind us create a mandala design with paisley. I shush my sister.

“Nothing. I'll fill this section with rani pink. That purple will go well next to it.” No back talk for once, because I'm right. The chit-chat quiets to allow for concentration on our art, but my mind is anything but focused. It wanders through Sheena's question,“Are you in love with him?”and replays conversations from earlier in the night.

“You gonna tell me how Diwali works?” Landon kissed the exposed skin bordering the shoulder seam of my blouse as I neatened up my sari.This man wore me like a hat and now he wants to know more about Diwali? What is my life?

“It's not like Christmas,” I said, bending my neck to indulge him further. “It's Hindu New Year. Jains and Sikhs celebrate, too, but for different reasons. And there are five days. We decorate our homes and make special foods together as a family.”

Landon hummed and nodded, stopping the kisses only for a moment to help fix my skewed necklace.

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