“Yup. Mom wasn’t watching the road. Dad broke his wrist. I cut my arm.” She showed Asha the scar. “Which pissed Mom off even more. She said, ‘I can’t handle the drama all the time, Kamila,’ when she saw the blood. Mom basically stopped speaking to me after that. Until…”

“Her heart attack.”

“The next time I saw Rohan after that kiss was at Mom’s funeral,” Kamila said. “We’ve never talked about what happened. He doesn’t know the accident was because of a fight about him. And he met Lisa when he started working at the law firm.”

“After your mom died, that’s when your dad got sick, right?”

“No. He’d obviously had depression before that, but it got a lot worse. Mom had been helping to hide it from everyone. He finally got a diagnosis and meds then.”

They were quiet for a while, then Asha put her hands over Kamila’s. “You aren’t to blame for your mother’s death. Or your dad’s mental health.”

Kamila nodded. “I know.” She did—and she had therapy to thank for that. She knew her mother didn’t take care of herself. She knew there was a history of heart disease in Mom’s family. She knew Dad’s depression was an illness and not caused by his difficult child. And Kamila knew she herself had more value than her mother had believed.

But she’d spent enough time blaming herself that the scars were still there. Just like the scar on her arm.

Asha squeezed Kamila’s hands. “I didn’t know you then, but Kamila, what your mother said, that you would have ruined Rohan’s life, that’s also not true. He did see you back then, like he does now.”

“We had one innocent make-out session on the couch. Neither of us wanted more.”

“But what about now?”

“Now we’re friends again.”

“Just friends?”

“I was very upset last night. And really, really lonely. I didn’t want to sleep by myself, so I went to him. We’re adults and we’re close. Something like this was bound to happen. It honestly didn’t mean more to me. I needed to feel something…and he was there.”

“You slept in the same bed all night?”

She nodded.

“You say you don’t feel that way about him anymore, but are you sure that he doesn’t feel that way about you?”

“What? No. He even admitted right away it was only because we were tired and emotional. Rohan does not have feelings for me. He was just…too polite to push me away.”

“Oh, of course, Kamila. Sticking his tongue down your throat is just the good manners his mother taught him. You’re delusional.”

“Gee, it’s so great to be able to talk to my supportive best friend about my problems.”