Ashna’s only response was a twist of the mouth.

Her aunt cupped her cheek. “The real question is, do you want to do it?” She paused, weighing her next words carefully. “You have to start giving a little more thought to what you want, Ashi.”

Ashna pulled her hand away. She didn’t want her aunt to feel her hands go clammy.

“You don’t have to figure that out right now. Just think about it, that’s all.”

Ashna wondered if she would bring up selling Curried Dreams, or offer to bail her out again. Like everyone else in her life, Mina Kaki believed that Ashna’s obsession with Baba’s restaurant was unhealthy. Ashna knew they meant well, but they didn’t understand. Her family was everything to her, but Curried Dreams was hers and hers alone. She had to be the one to save it.

“Trisha is right,” Ashna said. “It could help pay off the debt on Curried Dreams once and for all. Give me a clean slate if I win.”

Mina Kaki blinked as though Ashna had spoken a foreign language.

She stood and pulled Ashna up to standing. “Well then, you’re doing this.”

They ran up the remaining stairs—Mina Kaki, probably because she was excited, Ashi, because moving helped curb her anxiety.

“Ashi is going to be a TV star!” Mina announced as they emerged into the suite of rooms Ashna’s grandmother and her cousin Esha shared.

Aji, Esha, and Nisha were lounging on the white leather sectional and turned to Mina and Ashna as though that announcement were a simple hello.

The first thing Ashna did was lean over and squeeze her grandmother in a hug.

“It’s been a full week!” Aji said indignantly, returning her hug. It was her way; she always counted off how many days it had been since she saw her grandchildren. She also always exaggerated the time. It had been five days since Ashna had been by to see her. But of course it was futile to point that out, because Aji would only tell her that five days was a working week, or that it felt like seven days, or something else no one in their right mind would argue with.

Instead, she said, “Sorry, I thought about coming to see you every day”—the truth—“but a lot’s been going on at the restaurant.”

Sadness flickered in Aji’s eyes. She was the only one in the family who saw the value in holding on to Curried Dreams. It was a link to her youngest child. “A lot should always be going on at one’s workplace,” she said with a smile that crinkled her nose.