This clearlywasthe twilight zone. Reena could write a novel of all the reasons why she and Saira couldn’t be normal sisters.
Reena looked carefully at her sister’s dejected face. Maybe it was thanks to the bliss of her new relationship, but she saw her sister differently today. It couldn’t have been easy to be excluded by her older sister repeatedly. Always being told she was too young or too emotional to play with Reena and Khizar. And for months now, Reena had been resenting Saira for something without even really explaining to her sister why.
What would have happened if she’d told Saira about her own cookbook deal? And a bigger question, what would have happened if she’d included her sister back when Reena was blogging? Saira was a registered dietician—she could have been helpful to Reena’s blog. Maybe really supporting her sister should have meant more than just offering her the sofa bed.
She pulled out a mustard seed cracker from the bag and took a bite. Chewing, she analyzed the flavor. “Did you fry the seeds at all?”
Saira frowned. “No.”
Reena smiled as she moved around the breakfast bar and pulled her apron from its hook. “Come, Saira. Let’s see if we can bump up the intensity of these flavors. And while we’re at it, I think it’s time we talked…for real.”
***
Reena couldn’t remember cooking with her sister, not since they were knee-high arguing about who got to stick her thumb in food coloring to decorate nan khatai cookies with Mum. But inexplicably, they spent the rest of the afternoon tweaking Saira’s recipes for crackers. Toasting the spices in oil jacked up the flavor in both cracker recipes, and Reena’s suggestion of adding fresh curry leaves to the mustard seeds while they fried in the grape-seed oil brought a new aroma that made the crackers sing.
Reena had ideas for the dips, too. Adding mint to barely blanched frozen peas before pureeing them in the food processor resulted in a fresher dip, both in color and in complexity. And adding pomegranate molasses to the hummus created the perfect balance of sweet, savory, and acidic. She left the lemongrass white bean dip alone—it tasted so good she found herself in the unlikely position of asking her sister for a recipe.
“This is good. I’m impressed,” Reena said, dipping a spelt cracker into the creamy white dip again.
Saira smiled widely, taking a hot cracker off the tray. “See! Healthy food is tasty!” She crunched loudly on the cracker. “Mum says I have to stop with this diet food or Ashraf is never going to propose. But he loves my bird food, as Mum calls it.”
“You think Ashraf will propose?”
Saira shrugged. “Don’t know. Probably. Neither of us are getting any younger. It’s about time to settle down if we want a family.”
Reena cringed. Saira was two years younger than her, and if she recalled correctly, Ashraf was a year younger than that. Any other day, Reena would have immediately chalked that comment up to another dose of passive aggression—an offhand quip about being thirty-one with no husband on the horizon? Textbook Saira. But Saira looked so focused on cutting out crackers with a pizza wheel, Reena doubted insults were anywhere near the front of her mind. Reena bit her lip. Had she misinterpreted her sister?
Maybe Saira was just selfishly clueless and not actually evil?
“Is that what you want?” Reena asked. “After everything that happened with Joran, is it wise to dive in again?” Despite everything, Reena’s big-sister protectiveness was still on high alert.
Saira sighed as put the cut crackers on the tray. “Yeah, it is what I want. At first it was about proving to myself that I could get a man who would treat me better.” She laughed sadly. “Janeya, my therapist, helped me figure that out. She’s like you and thinks I should stay single for a while. But Ashraf is not Joran. Joran and I…we were never good for each other. He brought out the worst in me. My relationship with Ashraf is not the same. He would never do what Joran did.”
This conversation felt so strange. Reena couldn’t remember talking to her sister before. Really talking, without Mum or Dad butting in with their own two hundred cents.
Twilight zone was getting creepy.
“Anyway,” Saira continued, “let’s talk about you messing around with Dad’s mentee on the down-low.”
What? “How the hell did you know that?”
Saira laughed, slapping Reena on the arm. “Reena, c’mon! I’m your sister! You have a tell…I always know when you have a new man. Your eyes glazed over when Dad was talking about him yesterday at brunch. Don’t worry, they didn’t seem to notice.”
Jesus, was she really that transparent?
It had been a weird brunch yesterday. Nadim hadn’t been there in person, but apparently his echo lived in the secrets they all kept. Dad didn’t mention he’d been to see Reena only a day earlier to gather information about him. Saira didn’t mention she had been tasked with digging up dirt on him. And, of course, Reena didn’t mention she’d left him naked in her bed. “Are you going to tell Mum and Dad I’m seeing him?”
That question prompted another slap from her darling sister. Enough of these playful whacks, and Reena was sure Saira would leave a mark. “Of course not! What kind of sister do you think I am?”
She shrugged.
“Well,” Saira said, “you going to ask me about the dirt I dug up on that picture?” She held up the yacht picture on her phone.
“Fine. What did you learn?”
“Well, first of all, the cousin is apparently—”
“Wait, Saira, back up. What cousin?”
