He straightened. “Yes, it is.” He cleared his throat. “I should start by saying that everything I said last weekend is still true. I don’t plan on ever getting married.”
“Okay,” she said slowly.
“That said, I see some benefit to being engaged and wanted to know whether you felt the same way. I think we could reach a mutually beneficial agreement, so we should discuss your interest and possibly negotiate some terms.”
He paused, as if waiting for her to respond, but Meghna couldn’t make heads or tails out of what he was saying. What agreement? What could they have to negotiate?
“Karthik, I’m not following,” she said.
“I’m proposing,” he said.
“Proposing what?”
He exhaled loudly. “I’m asking you to marry me.”
“What?” Was he joking? Mr. I’ll-Never-Get-Married was proposing? Toher?
“Not really marry me,” he quickly added. “Just to say you’ll marry me. And to tell other people that you’ll marry me.”
That confirmed it. He was joking. Or the lack of sleep was giving her hallucinations. It had to be one or the other.
She stared at him for a moment, waiting for the punch line. But he didn’t add anything further. He just looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.
“You’re proposing to me?”
“Yes,” he said.
“But you don’t want to marry me.”
“No, of course not.”
She gave a humorless laugh and rubbed her forehead. “Right, of course. How silly of me to think you’d want to marry me when you’re asking to marry me.”
He winced. “I’m sorry. I’m not explaining this well.”
“You’re not explaining it at all!”
“I want us to be engaged, but not actually get married,” he said.
Like that makes any more sense.“Why?” she asked. “Why would we do that?”
“That’s why I was calling. To see if there’s any reason that would appeal to you. You already know what I promised my mother. I’ve been thinking that if I was engaged, I wouldn’t have to go to these meetings anymore. I wouldn’t have to travel every weekend. And I could save myself some stress.”
She took in what he was saying. “You want a fake engagement?”
“Yes, exactly,” he said, a note of relief in his voice.
“To get you out of the promise to your mom?”
“Yes.”
Her head spun. “But what would I…. Why would I agree to that?”
He paused. “I was hoping there might be something you would want. Something you could get out of it. Maybe it would get yourfamily off your back? Take away some of their pressure to get married?”
She considered it for a moment. Her parents would like to see her married, but they’d never reallypressuredher. They just wanted her to be happy. Wanted her to find love.
Of course, they wanted a lot of things for her. And so far, she’d done nothing but let them down. Not like her brother, Samir. He’d followed in their footsteps. Fulfilled their dreams by becoming an engineer. Made them proud.
