Accidentally Engaged(66)



“That would be perfect,” she said. “Here, taste.” Tearing off a small piece of flaky paratha, she used it to break open the egg and scoop a bite with a little egg, potato, tomato, and fed it into Nadim’s willing mouth. He smiled as the flavors hit his tongue.

“Well,” she said, bumping her hip on his thigh, “how did I do? Does it taste like your grandmother’s back home?”

“No,” he said, grinning. “Better. It tastes like my new home.” He looked to the camera and hammed it up a bit more. “Local ingredients married perfectly with my beloved African spices. Maybe home is not just one place, but a moving target. Home is where I’m welcomed. And right now, I’ve never felt more welcomed than right here.” He planted a quick kiss on Reena’s lips, before turning to face the camera again. “Thank you!”

Reena waved at the camera as she rested her head on Nadim’s arm. “Bye!”

“Cut!” Shayne said.

*



A few hours later, Reena sat alone on the bed in the guest room at Amira and Duncan’s house. She’d escaped supposedly to change into a more comfortable shirt, but she couldn’t muster up enough energy to lift her arms over her head. Amira, Duncan, Nadim, Marley, and Shayne were all downstairs, crowding around Shayne’s laptop, watching him do his editing magic with the footage from the farm. The bits Reena saw before she had to leave the room were amazing. Perfect. The food looked divine, the scenery breathtaking, and even Agatha the chicken attacking her was charming. Reena and Nadim looked so happy and so in sync with each other. Aspirational. Everyone would want to be the couple on the screen.

And it disturbed her that she desperately wanted to be them, too.

“Hey. Ree. You okay?” Amira stood in the doorway.

“Yeah.” Reena ran her fingers over her hair. “I’m fine.”

Amira smiled gently and came into the room. She sat on the bed with Reena.

“You guys looked great on the screen. This one turned out even better than the last one,” Amira said.

Reena shrugged. “I know. But man, watching that messed with my mind.”

“Hearing him say you feel like home?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “The first one stung to watch because it seemed real, even though we weren’t actually together. He’s a good actor. This time…” Her voice trailed off.

“This time all that talk might be real.”

“Yep.”

Amira was silent a moment. “What’s next?”

“If we move on, we go to the FoodTV studio.”

“You are moving on. Seriously. The Jeffs have nothing on you.”

Reena shrugged.

“What, you don’t want to go to the studio? You wanted this.”

“I know. I do. It’s just…” She sighed. “I know we’re supposed to be just casually ‘dating’ and not seriously committed, but this damn contest is making it feel so much more real. And we’ve only done short videos. If we go to the studio, we’ll have to pretend for longer and in front of real people. I’m not sure I can recover from that.”

“Do you want to be seriously committed?”

“I don’t know. Even if I did, it’s impossible. Those two on the screen have a happy, loving relationship with a full life in front of them. They don’t have our…crap.”

“Everyone has crap. Life is full of piles and piles of shit. I told you last night about everything Duncan and I still deal with.”

“I know.”

“But the difference is, we let each other see the shit.”

“This metaphor is getting a little gross.”

Amira laughed. “Reena, this could work for you! Watching you two together, the way he looks at you. It’s not like any of your other relationships. And I think you know that. But I can’t be the only person in the world who gets to see you…all of you. You won’t scare him away.”

Wouldn’t she, though? The Reena she let people see enjoyed drinks at the bar, fresh bread at home, and no drama. Who’d want the real Reena—the neurotic mess with maladaptive coping skills? Who couldn’t manage to keep a job she hated? With a family who never, ever let her be free. None of the other twelve guys had been interested in sticking around once her true self began to emerge.

Amira didn’t say anything for a while as she looked at Reena with a soft expression. “Reena, are you in love?”

Loaded question. She didn’t know if she even knew the answer to that one.

She squeezed her lips together. “I don’t know.”

“I know your impulse is always to deflect and distract, but I think you need to stop doing that. Give him a chance. Give yourself a chance.” Amira took both Reena’s hands in her own. “You deserve it. Even though I know you don’t think you do.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX



One week later Reena was still no closer to gainful employment. She didn’t hear about the Top Crust job, but she also didn’t hear from her mother about her unemployment or Mum’s covert gambling habits, so Reena considered it a draw.

Nadim still came straight to Reena’s apartment every day after work to kiss her with knee-weakening intensity, before retreating to his place to change clothes. They ate dinner together every night and cooked together several times. And each night was spent together in his bed. Reena swore she’d lost three pounds thanks to bedroom exertions alone, and her skin had never been clearer. In fact, she’d wondered what she’d been thinking when she’d decided that celibacy was a good idea—her body and her mind were just kinder to her when she was sexually satiated.

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