Anderson smiled sadly. “Is Shayne … you know … dating anyone right now? I mean, like, seriously dating?”

Reena blinked. He wasn’t going to expose them? All Anderson wanted was to maybe hook up with Shayne again?

She was relieved but knew she couldn’t tell Shayne about Anderson’s fact-finding here. What would happen if Reena and Nadim won the whole thing, and Shayne and Anderson became a couple again? Anderson would realize his boyfriend’s friends weren’t actually engaged or married. Reena would have to stop hanging out with Shayne, which would mean seeing less of Marley. A family rift would start, and she wouldn’t be able to explain to Mum why she could no longer go to Marley’s parents for their annual Eid party, and—

Nadim leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry, this is fine.”

Reena exhaled. Anderson was still watching her with an adorable, hopeful expression. He ran his hand through his hair. “I just … well, I mean, with the contest I need to stay fair, so I won’t call him now. But … ” He looked away, a slight tremble on his lower lip. “You ever get scared when something fits a little too perfectly? Like maybe it’s just not humanly possible for something to work so well, so you look for problems that aren’t there?”

Reena blinked at Anderson, not sure she liked this mirror put up in front of her.

“Shayne’s really into you,” she said. “You should talk to him.”

Anderson bit his lip. “I will, I will. Just … do me a favor—don’t tell him what I said here. I need to figure out how to fix things. Oh, here’s Lana!”

Saved by the makeup artist.

Lana was chatty, too. As she brushed powder on Reena’s nose, she said, “You two make a cute couple. How’d you meet?”

“Through my parents,” Reena said, relieved she could tell the truth.

“Cute! They set you up?”

“Yep,” Nadim answered.

“Have you set a wedding date yet?”

“Not yet. Reena wants a big Indian wedding, so there is a lot to plan.”

Reena raised a brow, which elicited a censorious frown from Lana, who had moved on to touching up Reena’s eye makeup. “No, I don’t,” Reena said.

“Sure, you said you wanted a designer salwar and full mehndi.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean a big wedding. I can wear full mehndi to city hall if I want to. If we have a huge wedding, you’d have to invite all your friends and family from London and Tanzania.”

“And why would that be a problem? I’d want to invite them. It’s my wedding,” Nadim said.

“Really? After the way they treated you? And do you really think all your bougie rich-snob friends would even come?” Okay, that wasn’t very nice of her, but she was annoyed he thought she’d want a big wedding. Didn’t he know her better than that?

“How do you know my friends are bougie rich-snobs? You’ve never met any of them. I’ve never even told you about any of them.”