Accidentally Engaged(84)

“Um…”

May as well go for broke and tell him the whole story, so she told him about the swindling architect and Mum’s gambling habit. “To think, we owe our introduction to an incestuous Dutchman and my mother’s stellar poker face,” she concluded.

The wall beside her shook with Nadim’s attempts not to laugh. “God, I feel like there’s a lot I don’t know about your family.”

“What you don’t know about the Manjis could fill a crater on Mars. Dad definitely oversold us as a good family. I’m not even going to mention my sister’s threesomes.” She paused a second, thinking. “Too bad you haven’t met Khizar. All the goodness in our family ended up in him.”

He finally turned to look at her, laughing openly now. “God, I’ll miss you. Whoever they promised, I’m glad I got you.” He turned back around, but with that grin still plastered on his face, Reena was gifted with a perfectly framed dimple through the gap. She hated that she couldn’t kiss it.

“I still can’t figure out why Salim Shah would lie about you being engaged to his daughter,” Reena said.

He shrugged. “Maybe he was trying to one-up your dad? That’s all those men do.”

She opened the screenshot of Salim’s post on her phone. Looking at it again told her nothing. Just the picture and some sentimental tripe about welcoming Nadim to their family.

“Let me see,” he asked. She handed him her phone.

After a few seconds Nadim gasped. “He was trying to sabotage your father’s daughter’s wedding!”

Reena frowned. “Saira’s?”

“No. Yours. Did you read the post? He says ‘It wasn’t easy to convince him to leave his beloved Africa, but home can be a moving target. We are so proud to welcome him to ours.’ It’s practically word-for-word of what I said in the farm-to-table video!”

“Holy shit. Salim Shah watches FoodTV Canada online.”

Nadim laughed. “He thought you and I were getting married and decided to stir up a little trouble in paradise for his rival’s family.”

Reena didn’t find it very funny. This stupid rivalry between her father and a man she’d never met effectively had cost her the best relationship she’d ever had.

“So, if that’s why Salim lied on Facebook, why was Jasmine lying—claiming to be engaged—on Instagram? Was that her father’s doing, too?”

He shook his head. “No, that was me. I told her she could.”

“What?” He knew she was going around saying they were still together?

“She started the Instagram when we were together, and she had all these wedding-type sponsorships lined up. After I finally got out of Egypt, she asked me if she could still say we were engaged, but only on Instagram, and never mention me by name, or show my picture, so she wouldn’t lose her sponsorships. I felt bad for her. She was having a rough time—trying to distance herself from her family and all. And my father isn’t exactly tuned in to the Instagram influencer scene, so I didn’t think he’d find it.”

Reena kind of sympathized with her. Actually, Reena was sympathizing with Jasmine Shah a lot right now, more than she thought was possible.

But then a thought made her giggle. “Nadim, are you telling me that I am not your first fake fiancée?”

He laughed. “No, I guess not.”

“So why did she delete the Instagram?”

“That was my father…somehow, he found out about it. Someone on WhatsApp posted screenshots and he was furious. He insisted she delete it or he was going to ruin her or something. I was so pissed…Dad even threatened that he would back out of the investment here and make me leave Toronto if she didn’t delete it.”

“OMG…Rish’s cousin!”

“What?”

She looked at him, trying hard not to laugh. “My sister’s future sister-in-law’s cousin was obsessed with your fiancée and posted screenshots of her Insta all over WhatsApp. Your father must have seen them.”

“Seriously?” He laughed.

Reena nodded. “Seriously. You know, the moral of this whole story is that our parents really need to stay off social media.”

He laughed. “Oh, man. This is actually hilarious. But…”

“But what?”

“The day Dad found Jasmine’s Instagram and gave me that ultimatum—that was the day you found me at the Sparrow. I was in a terrible mood. I was so ready to run off to New Zealand and let Dad cut me off, but you were there. You were so cute and cranky and I had so much fun. That’s when I decided I was better off staying as close to you as possible.”

They were both silent for a while. She wiped her eyes. This was torture. She wanted to see his face. The whole thing at once.

“And now he’s barking orders again. Can’t you just tell your dad Salim is lying?”

“My father is uncompromising. This is all a taint on the family reputation. He had my name wiped from the controversy surrounding the hotel failure, and here is Salim Shah publicly stating I’m marrying his daughter. Whether it’s true or not is beside the point.”

So that was it. Because of stubborn parents and idiotic competitiveness, she was losing him.

“Hey, Reena.” His hand came through the gap and returned her phone. “Don’t be upset.”