When Kevin returned, she reluctantly ordered a brown sugar oolong milk tea and Taiwanese popcorn chicken on rice. The soup was better than the chicken, but sacrifices had to be made.

But maybe she was imagining weirdness that wasn’t even there. Because as soon as their orders were in, Rohan smiled a normal, casual, not-at-all-awkward-because-they-had-kissed-and-not-talked-about-it smile. “It’s handy I bumped into you, Kam. I was planning to call you later tonight.”

Call her. At night. Why? Omg, was he going to FaceTime her again?

Kamila tried to ask why, but when she opened her mouth, no noise came out. Smooth, Kamila.

Thankfully, Rohan was so unaffected he just kept talking. “We need to talk about food for the Aim High party. The caterer needs the final menu by Friday. I’d been hoping we could pop into their restaurant to try some of their food, but I don’t think there’s time. Maybe if you have some availability tonight, we can look over the menus and pick the food? I’m heading for a workout after this, but I can put it off. Or do you need to get home to your dad?”

He wanted to speak to her alone. Did he actually want to talk about kissing and not menus? Or, holy crustaceans, did he not want to talk about the kissing and actually do more of it?

Kamila bit her lip as she felt her panic rising. Why was she reacting this way? She didn’t normally overthink things. She needed to get over this. She couldn’t think straight.

“Maybe we can have a drink or”—he chuckled, looking at the bright tea in front of him—“more tea and discuss?”

Asha’s foot kicked her under the table. Her friend was clearly noticing Kamila’s little panic attack and was offering a little footsie support. Kamila was grateful. “Oh, I mean, yeah,” Kamila said. “I guess we need to do that. I’ve got a lot going on right now…You know how it is, with the prom, and Dad—”

“I get it, Kam,” Rohan said. “If you don’t think you have time, I can handle this. You need to look out for yourself and your father first. I’m sure Anil would understand.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Kamila said. “I’m not backing out. It’s just tonight…” She needed an excuse right away. “I was planning to take Darcy to the dog park. The floral backpack I ordered for her came in, and I need some pictures for her Instagram.” Okay, that excuse didn’t do much to make Kamila seem like a normal, well-adjusted person. But it was the truth. She shrugged. “Darcy always looks great at dusk.”