Accidentally Engaged(57)
“I should go,” Saira said, seeming to understand Reena wasn’t ready to move on from this. “You keep the food. I’ll try and re-create it all later. Thanks for your help, Reena. I really do appreciate it.”
And with that, Saira walked out the door. And Reena was left with a kitchenful of dips, crackers, and a bitter taste in her mouth.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Saira left Reena with plenty of leftovers from their attempt to perfect homemade crackers and dips, a bonus, because probably for the first time in her life, Reena didn’t feel like cooking. She did defrost some lentil soup that she’d stashed last month when she thought some upcoming work projects might mean she’d be too tired to cook in the coming weeks (ha!).
She couldn’t stop replaying that conversation with her sister. Should she have let it all go? Just…not brought up the blog and the cookbook? Maybe they could have forged a decent relationship without working through the bitterness.
But she knew it wouldn’t be right. Like a perfect loaf of bread without any salt—nice on the surface but tastes off.
For now, all she could do was push past the uneasy feeling and prepare for an evening with her boyfriend and friends.
Boyfriend.
Her heart skipped a bit every time that word passed through her mind. He wanted her to call him that. Already. She wanted it, too. After learning nothing useful from Saira’s fact-finding expedition, she was confident that this just-for-fun, only-in-the-present, supportive relationship was worth any fallout that might happen in the future. She’d survived plenty of family implosions, and Nadim was definitely worth risking another.
He came over straight after work, still wearing his suit, a box in one hand and a wrapped plate in the other. He left them on the breakfast bar, then pulled Reena in for a long and leisurely kiss.
“I’ve been thinking about doing that all day,” he whispered into her neck after he had released her lips. Reena hummed with appreciation.
“What did you bring?” she asked as he sucked the soft spot below her ear. She shivered.
He stepped back and grinned, still holding her waist. “We’re still trying to finalize the café for the Diamond building. Met with a guy who owns a few franchises of a lunch counter–type place. He may be interested in opening one in the building. He wants us to put up some capital and be silent partners, but his terms seem far from fair to us. Anyway, he gave me some baked goods to sample. I’m sure they’re nowhere near as good as yours, but…” He kissed her again, long and deep, tongues tangling and hands clutching. Nadim was an aggressive, all-or-nothing kisser. Reena’s favorite kind.
“What was I saying?” he said when they finally broke free.
She giggled. “You were extolling the virtues of my baking.”
“Yes. And I’ll extol it more when I eat it later. Oh, and this.” He pointed to the plastic-bag-wrapped plate he had placed on the counter. “This is proof that your mother likes me. Maybe not as much as you like me, but it’s a start.”
Well, at least she liked someone. “What is it?
“Keema maani. She gave it to your dad to give me.”
Keema maani, or keema paratha, was one of Reena’s favorite dishes, and she had never quite mastered the art of making them as well as Mum. Fragrantly spiced ground beef enveloped between layers of flaky flatbread. When Reena attempted it, the paratha dough always broke while she rolled it, or the beef and the paratha melded to a gummy mess.
Mum knew her keema maani was Reena’s favorite. She always made extras and put them aside for her before anyone else could eat them. At least, she used to. Reena frowned.
“She didn’t make me any?”
“Well”—he put his arms back around her—“I have every intention of sharing them with you.”
He kissed her again, and she forgot all about this newest parental slight and settled into the kiss. He was smiling when he pulled away. “What smells so good?”
“Just lentil soup. Plus, I have crackers and dips for when Marley and Shayne come over.”
He grinned as he walked toward her front door. “Let me change outta this suit. I’ll be back. Gotta say, having a girlfriend who lives across the hall is ridiculously convenient.”
Reena smiled as she heated up the keema maani in a pan. They’d go great with the lentil soup. He was right. It was amazing to have someone to share her meal with, someone who brought her baked goods and lived right across the hall.
One more tick in the pro column with her new boyfriend. Soon the con column would be a distant memory.
*
After dinner, Reena found herself herded to the sofa for a short make-out session. But a door knock forced her and Nadim apart. Answering it, she found Marley, Shayne, and an enormous bottle of pink champagne.
“This,” Shayne said, holding it up, “is celebratory bubbly because I saw the other videos in the contest. You are so making it to the next round.” He grinned before quickly frowning. “Jesus, what have you two been up to? Making out or something? I thought this was a fake relationship?”
Totally transparent. Reena clearly needed acting lessons.
“How did you know?” Reena asked as Nadim took the bottle from Shayne.
Marley laughed as she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at Reena. “You look like you’ve had a shot of collagen to your lips, and he’s wearing your lipstick.”