“Maybe…Maybe it’s worth calling him back?” she asked hesitantly. “To see what he wanted?”
“Maybe. At the very least, I should stop by the house. Just to make sure Amma’s okay. I don’t know if she’s in denial or what, but she didn’t sound like herself.”
“It’s probably a lot for her to process.”
“You’re right. I guess I just wanted something…more from her. Shock. Anger. Rage. Something.” A frustrated sound escaped him. “But it’s not like she’s ever really reacted to his behavior before. She’s always accepted it. Put up with it.”
“It’s hard for me to imagine that,” Meghna said. “I obviously don’t know her very well, but at that dinner at your house she seemed to speak her mind. Especially when your dad left early.”
“Yeah. But he’s always doing things like that. Leaving early. Not showing up at all. I think she only said something because you were there.” He laughed humorlessly. “Not a good look for the daughter-in-law, you know? Appearances and all that.”
Meghna didn’t think that was the only reason. His mother didn’t seem like the type to care too much about what others thought. And from the way Karthik had described her, she was quite resilient.
“I’m worried about her,” he continued, somewhat quietly. “And I don’t know what to do to make things better.”
“I know,” she said softly.
They were quiet for a moment until Karthik asked her how her work was going.
“It’s going okay,” she said. “The board’s signed off on a larger budget for the spring play. And they’ve asked me to put it together.”
“Of course they did,” he said. “How could they not after your last success?” His praise traveled through her, warm and shimmery, sparking little bursts of pleasure. “Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. I love the kids. And I had fun working with them, but I need to think about it a bit more. The principal’s really trying to convince me, though. She said I could get more volunteer help from the parents this time so I won’t have to do it all alone, and she’s letting me choose the musical.”
“Anything you’d want to pick?”
“I’m not sure.” She hadn’t really thought about it yet.
“What’s your favorite?”
Ugh.Such a hard question. A few contenders came to mind, butFiddler on the Roofjumped to the very top. He wasn’t familiar with it, so she described the plot, and it reminded her why she loved that musical so much in the first place. It wrestled with themes that were all too familiar to her own life. Family and tradition and the conflict that came with changing ideas about marriage and love.
“I think I’d like that one,” he said.
“You should go see it. Or watch the movie.”
“Maybe,” he said.
They talked for a few more minutes until his workout was done and he said he was leaving the gym. She expected him to hang up, but he stayed on the line as he walked back to his apartment. He continued asking her about different plays and musicals until Meghna found herself yawning and growing sleepy. She kept her phone on speaker asshe got ready for bed, discussing her favorite plays and why he needed to see them. When she climbed under the covers, she placed the phone next to her pillow, keeping it in speaker mode, and they continued talking late into the night.
After that, they somehow ended up talking almost every day for the next two weeks. One time, Karthik saw someone walking down the street in a silly, punny T-shirt and just had to tell her about it. Another night, Meghna read an article about the most popular terms of endearment and called him to discuss. They still couldn’t settle on ones to use for each other, but they’d laughed over the silliest ones on the list.
Over the weekend, Karthik looked up last-minute tickets for Broadway shows and went by himself to seeLes Misérables. He called her the moment he walked out of the theater, his voice full of excitement as he described the performance as “gripping” and “gritty” and “breathtaking.” As Meghna listened to him, something soft and tender swept through her. They chatted for his entire walk home about their favorite moments and songs.
He called one night after he went by his parents’ house to check on his mother. They’d played a round of cards and his mother had ended up winning, like she always did. The two of them had spent a lot of weeknights in his childhood that way. After he’d left for college, his mother had joined a local group of women who played twenty-eight, the popular Indian card game. She’d only gotten better and better over the years.
Karthik had tried to press her, tried to bring up his dad, but his mother refused to give him any insight into how she was feeling. She just said everything would work out and that Karthik didn’t need to worry about it. Meghna expressed her sympathy and shared his frustration that his mother still didn’t seem to care about what had happened with his father at all.
Meghna called him after she finished reviewing and editing Seth’s song, saying it was one of his best yet. And it truly was. She didn’t know what had happened with the last one, but Seth’s new song wassomehow sweet without being saccharine, and reading it had honestly given her goose bumps.
Karthik said he was glad the new song was better, then asked her how her own play was going. She evaded his questions, saying she had been too busy to work on it, but he kept digging.
“Does your play have songs in it?” he asked.
“No. It’s not a musical.”
“You know, I’ve only ever seen musicals.”
