The Dating Plan(86)
“He told me he’d been waiting twenty years to find love again and he’d found it with me.” Priya wiped away a tear. “And he asked me to marry him.”
“And she said yes!” Daisy’s father pumped his fist in the air. “Can you imagine? She wants to be with an old man like me.”
“You’re not old, Dad.”
“Not anymore. Priya makes me feel young again.”
Daisy shot Priya a sideways glance. She didn’t look like she felt she’d been shortchanged on her proposal. She was smiling and leaning against her dad’s shoulder like almost choking to death on a ring-stuffed samosa had been the best moment of her life.
“We’re getting married next Friday,” he said. “Just something small. Maybe five hundred people or so. Salena is organizing it all. We’re not getting any younger so we didn’t want to waste time. Then Layla’s wedding is next, and you and Roshan can get married after that. We will have a year of weddings!”
“I’m not marrying Roshan,” Daisy said. “I’m happy being single. I tried the dating thing and it didn’t work out for me. I’m the kind of person who does better on my own.” They were the same words she’d always said, but for the first time they didn’t ring true.
“Get to know him.” Her father patted her back. “He’s a good boy. He’ll look after you. And if you don’t like him, I have a file of marriage résumés for you to see. Lots to choose from. Tall, small, intellectual, sporty, beard or no beard, glasses or no glasses, likes dosas, hates dosas . . . You tell your old dad what you want and I’ll get him for you.”
“We’re talking husbands, Dad. Not takeout.”
Her father handed the spoon to Priya and pulled out his phone. “How about this one: Jamil. Age forty-two. Fitness trainer. Paleo. Gardener. Entrepreneur. Inventor. Breeds ocelots. Cat lover . . . Seeks fit, healthy, garden-loving meat-eating woman who is not squeamish.”
Daisy leaned against the counter and folded her arms. “Is this a joke?”
“Which part didn’t you like, beta?”
“He’s a cat person. Max would hate him.” She bent down and lifted Max into her arms. “You hate him, don’t you Max?”
Max barked his disapproval of the aging ocelot-breeder who had failed the basic test of loving dogs.
“How about someone younger,” her father suggested. “Chetan. Age thirty-six. Grew up in the Bay Area. Two masters degrees and two Ph.D.’s. Enjoys art house films, walks in the park, electronics-free dates . . .”
“Yawn.”
Her father lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a no?”
“I’ve never seen an art house film that I actually enjoyed. And four degrees means he’s spent his life in school and knows nothing about the real world. I’ll bet he’s never ridden a motorcycle or been to a hockey game.”
“One more,” her father said. “Sunny. Age thirty-two. Dog lover. Go Sharks. Appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2019. Loves dosas. Male model. Marvel producer . . .”
“Marvel?” Daisy flew across the kitchen. “He produces Marvel films? Are you serious? Let me see his CV.”
Her father shook his head. “You’re right. He’s not a serious prospect. He has no degrees. He didn’t even finish high school because he went into the movie industry. I’ll just delete that one.”
“No! Dad!” She grabbed for the phone, only to see a smile spread across his face.
“Gotcha.” He grinned. “I knew you didn’t want to be alone. You are just waiting for the right man.”
“You’re not funny,” she huffed.
He scooped some dal from the pot and put it into a bowl. “But I’m right.”
Daisy pressed her lips together and glared. “Maybe I’ve already met the right man and no one else measures up.”
“What man is that?” Priya asked.
“Someone who makes me laugh,” she said. “Someone who can enjoy himself and doesn’t care what people think. Someone who can take me out of myself and make me do wild and crazy things, but who needs me to make sure the boat doesn’t capsize.”
“Roshan is wild and crazy,” her father said. “Did you see his pants? I didn’t think they made corduroy anymore. And he has a big nose. You can laugh at him.”
“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Priya said gently. “I think she wants to laugh with him.”
“You want a clown?”
“I want Liam.” There. She’d said it. And she could tell right away her father didn’t approve.
“There are so many men out there, beta. Men who will stay and deal with a problem instead of taking the easy path and running away.”
“I don’t know if that’s always true,” Daisy countered. “In the developer world, we say ‘disconnect to reconnect.’ It means that sometimes you have to walk away to figure out a problem so you can come back and solve it.”
He tasted the dal and frowned. “You think he’ll come back?”
“I don’t know, Dad. When he told me he’d been offered a position in New York, I panicked. I said all the wrong things and none of the right ones. But in the end, I told him I loved him. I told him I wanted what we had to be real.”