Dating Dr. Dil (If Shakespeare was an Auntie #1)(62)

Kareena: Okay.

Prem: Pick you up at 6:30 from the train or your house?

Kareena: From my house. I’ll drop my work stuff off.

Prem: And pack an overnight bag?





Kareena: copies Prem’s text and sends to friends

Kareena: He wants me to spend the night again!!

Bobbi: Men.

Veera: Aww!

Kareena: Anything more helpful than that?

Bobbi: Fuckboys are tricky, but they have their uses.

Veera: Do what your heart desires!





Kareena: If I pack an overnight bag, then I’m going to have to go back to the train station. I can’t be seen with my bag getting into your car, otherwise Dadi and my dad will have a field day.

Prem: I think at 30 they encourage this kind of behavior.

Kareena: Ugh, probably, but I’m not taking chances.





Kareena didn’t know what she was doing with Prem, but she wasn’t exactly sure she was ready to stop, either.

She stood in her closet, examining the rows of sweater vests. She knew that Prem liked them, but it was over ninety that day. It felt weird for her to wear one even though that was her preferred date outfit. Prem had seen her naked. And if she was spending the night, she was probably going to get naked again. There was no point in wearing something uncomfortable.

Sweater vests had never been uncomfortable to her before. “That’s a first,” she mumbled.

It freaked her out that for the first time in a long while she didn’t want to cancel her plans to stay home and read. That she felt sexy and turned on and excited to be with a man. Even though there was a time limit.

No, she wasn’t going to think about that right now.

After scanning the row of hangers, Kareena stopped when a piece of fabric caught her eye from the back of her closet. It was an emerald-green sundress that she’d bought on a whim one day. It reminded her of the one her mother wore in a picture taken on the front stoop when she’d finished renovating the house.

No. She couldn’t wear that.

Kareena kept pushing aside clothes until finally she found a simple black maxi dress. She could pair it with the payal that she’d worn at Sonali Aunty’s party for Dinesh Uncle since she knew that Prem liked that so much. Good lord, now she was dressing for him.

She pulled it off the hanger and slipped it over her head. It fell around her ankles in a soft waterfall of fabric just as a knock came from her bedroom door.

“Kareena?” her grandmother called out. Before Kareena could respond, Dadi was already opening the door. She took one look at Kareena and her lips pursed.

“Beta, if you’re wearing a dress for the first time in years, could you put on something with a little more color? Black invites negative energy.” Dadi’s Hindi, Punjabi, and English mixed together like language soup.

And the criticism hit her just as Kareena was feeling herself, too. She stood in front of her floor-length mirror and turned side to side. Damn. She should’ve just worn her sweater vest. “Dadi, I’m going to meet up with Bobbi and Veena.” The lies came easily to her, just like when she was young and first started dating.

Dadi shook her head. “You can’t tonight. You have to help your sister with her sagai party decorations. She wants some flower wall. She has dinner with some work people she has to go to and needs this done.”

“And I have plans,” Kareena said. The fact that she was automatically the person everyone expected to pick up the slack was so irritating. They never tried to help her when she had a problem but had no qualms about asking her for assistance in return.

Kareena slung her giant tote and overnight bag over her shoulders. “I’m going downstairs to get a car to the train station.”

“Kareena, I said your sister needs help,” her grandmother called out, hustling behind her. Dadi twisted the hem of her faded floral kurta between her fingers. “You’re the older sister and your mother isn’t here. You should be focusing on the engagement party and the wedding.”

Kareena checked her phone and thanked the lords that there was a car service nearby. She only had to wait a minute or so in front of her house, which meant less time listening to Dadi. After confirming her location and the car service pickup, she hurried down the stairs. “Where is Dad?” she asked. “Why isn’t he helping?”

Her grandmother paused. “He’s meeting with the real estate agent.”

Kareena stumbled over the bottom step. “He’s what?”

“You know that he’s planning on listing the house right after your sister’s engagement party,” Dadi said. “The agent needed him to sign some paperwork.”

Kareena wheezed like she’d just been sucker punched. “Why am I always left out of the loop?”

Her father was meeting with real estate agents. Her time was already so limited, and now it was speeding up at an exponential rate.

Dadi motioned to the wallpapered walls in the foyer. “Beta, it’s just a house. Once you’re married, you can find another home and decorate it however you want. And this is good for you. It’ll force you to be more independent.”

“I thought I was too independent already?” Kareena said, yanking open the front door. “My mother built this house. She dug the first hole and decorated every corner. And before she died, she’d made plans to do so much more. Then she said that it would go to me. I’ve done so much more with this house to carry on her legacy.”