“I’ve never asked my parents about it, but I think they see it that way too. But back to you, what’s your ‘good reason’ for agreeing to meet eight women in one month?”
He grimaced. “Okay, maybe calling it a ‘good reason’ was going too far, but my mother asked me to and I—”
“Couldn’t say no?”
“Yes. No. It’s—” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.“The last few years, all my mother has wanted to talk about is when I’ll get married. Every time she sees me. It’s the only topic of conversation. And I know she means well, but I don’t plan on getting married.”
Meghna cocked her head to the side, studying him closely. As if he were a slide under a microscope. He resisted the urge to fidget.
“You don’t want to get married?” she finally asked.
“No.”
“Ever?”
“No.” He swallowed. He wished he’d been able to bring this up at the beginning. Now he was so off-kilter he couldn’t remember what he usually said. How he usually explained this.
“Oh,” she said. “Okay. Does your mother know that?”
He held back a sigh. “I don’t know how to tell her,” he said. “The way she talks about it sometimes, it seems like my future marriage is the only thing she’s excited about, the only thing she’s looking forward to. I don’t want to take that away from her.” His father had taken enough. Not to mention that the last time Karthik had tried to have this conversation with her, it hadn’t…It hadn’t gone well.
“I love her,” he said. “But I wish we were able to talk about something else. Anything else.”
Meghna nodded, listening intently.
“Last month, she told me that if I agreed to meet a few of the women she had selected, she’d never bring up the topic of marriage again. So, I said yes. I told her I’d meet anyone she wanted for a year.”
“Ayear?That’s so long.”
“It is, but I negotiated her down from three. In the end, it seemed like a small price to pay to never have to hear about it again. I just didn’t realize how efficient she would be. She’s set up two meetings a week for the next few months. And they’re all over the country. I don’t know when I’ll get a weekend to myself again,” he said.
“Can’t you back out?”
“I can. But I won’t. I told her I would do this and I’m not going to go back on my word.” Growing up, he’d watched his father make allkinds of promises to his mom and then break nearly every one of them. Karthik refused to do anything that would make his mother think he had turned out anything like his dad. He had promised himself years ago that he would do his best to be honest. Patient. That he’d try to always be there for his mother. To listen to her. Make her laugh. Do anything that would bring her the tiniest bit of happiness.
“So, you’re going to do this every weekend for the next year?” Meghna asked incredulously.
“I have to keep my end of the bargain.”
“What if you meet someone you actually like?”
“That won’t happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I don’t want it to happen,” he said sharply.
“Really?” she asked, her voice dripping with doubt. “You’re saying you can just will it? Just decide to control your feelings?”
“Yes.” He didn’t understand how it was even a question. Of course he could. He always had.
“Haven’t you ever felt something for someone you weren’t supposed to?” she asked. “Accidentally fallen in love with someone completely wrong for you?”
No. He’d never been in love. And to feel that way accidentally? Absurd.
“No one falls in love by accident,” he said bitingly. “Love takes time. Intention. Commitment. It doesn’t just happen.”
“I think you’re wrong,” she said.
