“Maybe. But it’s been so long. And I’ve gotten used to it at this point.”
“But do you like it?”
She was quiet for a second. “It’s fine.”
“All right,Meg.”
“Ugh. No. Don’t you dare call me that.”
Karthik laughed. “Fine. I won’t. But you know, you can tell Seth exactly what you just told me.”
“Maybe,” she said hesitantly.
He took his plate out of the microwave and headed back to the couch. “Are there nicknames you do like? Or does everyone call you Meghna?”
“Pretty much. I mean, Mom calls me ‘beta,’ but that’s it.”
“Really?” He brought a forkful of lo mein to his mouth. “You and Ankita don’t have special names for each other?”
“No. Do you have any nicknames?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Well, then, I think we should give each other some.”
Karthik paused, his fork mid-twirl in the noodles. “Like what?”
“Hmm. Kar? Karth?”
No way. He hated both of them. They sounded…fine, but they weren’t him.
“Yeah, no,” he said. “I think we’re both on the same page about not liking shortened versions of our names.”
She snorted, and he smiled at the sound. He took a bite of his food and suddenly thought of something.
“Since we’re engaged, shouldn’t our nicknames be more like terms of endearment? We can use them when we’re at Seth’s wedding. Just to convince people, I mean.”
“I guess…” she said slowly. “Do you have any ideas?”
“ ‘Honey’?”
“Yuck.”
He laughed. “Okay, so not that. ‘Dear’? ‘Babe’?”
“ ‘Babe’? Karthik, please be serious.”
“You try coming up with some, then!”
“Fine! Umm, my parents call each other ‘jaan,’ but I don’t think we should use that one.”
He tried to place the word, but his Hindi was extremely limited.
“What does it mean?”
“Life. Like the other person is their life.”
He considered it for a moment. He couldn’t imagine calling someone else his life. Couldn’t imagine someone else being so vital, so necessary, so…
