The room had stopped spinning. She pulled her hand back from his and wrapped the apron tighter around it. She felt weird about Rohan seeing her freak out there, but it was fine. They were friends.

The landline phone rang, and she heard Dad answering it upstairs.

Kamila turned back to the food so she wouldn’t break down again. She lined up the uncut sweet potatoes on the board. “You’re ordering the biryani for next week’s movie night, right?”

“Yep.” He plunked another cherry tomato into his mouth. “I scoped out a new place. We will be feasting on Burmese biryani.”

She raised one eyebrow. “Burmese? Trying to one-up me for the Kashmiri?”

“It looked interesting. The biryani is served with a dried shrimp topping.”

Kamila was skeptical. “At least it’s my turn to choose the movie. Enough of your epic oldies. I have the perfect film picked out for next week. Jab We Met. It’s about a buttoned-up businessman and the free-spirited woman who makes him want to live again.” Kamila wrinkled her nose. “Now that I think about it, that’s really sexist. Like, the only purpose for the quirky woman is to be an object that teaches the uptight man to enjoy life? But anyway, the scenery in it is supposed to be amazing. And I checked—the lead actress dances soaking wet in the rain. I know you’re not happy unless you see at least one dancing-in-the-rain scene in an Indian movie.”

He blinked, blank faced.

“You know it’s true, Rohan. I swear, if I ever find a man who looks at me the way you look at a woman in a wet sari, I’ll be set for life.”

He laughed, turning to look at the food on the counter. “Is there an issue with how that child you’re dating looks at you?”

“Ernesto is twenty-three. And we were hooking up, not dating. It was an FWB situation.”

“FWB?”

“Friends with benefits. But the benefit period has now ended. His internship is done and he’s heading back to Brazil today. That’s why he left before the movie last night.”

Rohan’s head tilted in what looked like genuine concern. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You okay?”

Kamila shrugged. “We had fun, but like I said, casual.” She frowned when she remembered Ernesto’s goodbye last night. “It’s probably for the best he’s leaving now—the guy was growing a little too…enamored. I would have had to have broken it off anyway.”

“Honestly, Kam, I don’t get how you can only want casual. You don’t want people feeling things for you?”