“Vansh was just checking on me. Checking to see if I got the stain off. It’s just that red wine is so stubborn, I can’t believe how clumsy I was. But you wear white and this has to happen, right? I mean, why do we even wear—”

“What do you think is going on, Ma?” Vansh cut her off.

“Nothing is going on.” Naina threw him a warning, but he looked so hurt by his mother’s tone, so determined to fix this, it was like she wasn’t even there. Like she didn’t exist in the face of what he wanted. What he’d promised her he’d never want. Even though she’d made it clear it was not what she wanted.

“That’s not what it looked like when I got here,” Nisha said as though speaking to someone who might be taking advantage of her adolescent daughter.

“Nisha.” Vansh threw his sister the kind of look she’d never seen him give anyone in his family. Outright anger. “Stay out of this. This is none of your business.”

“What is this exactly?” Mina Auntie said, voice soft but determined to get answers.

“As I said before, it’s nothing,” Naina said. “There is not a single thing here you have to worry about, Mina Auntie. I was just leaving.” She tried to skirt past Vansh but couldn’t because he had her trapped between his family and the brick wall.

As if that wasn’t enough, he took her hand. “This is not nothing and you know it.”

She yanked her hand away from his. How dare he put her in a spot like this. How dare he manipulate her this way.

She’d known this would happen. She’d known.

What an idiot she was.

She pushed him out of her way and ran around the building.

He followed. Of course he did. “Naina!”

“No, Vansh. You don’t get to decide what is or isn’t nothing for me. I decide that for myself. Thanks for doing exactly what I knew you’d do. And thanks for doing it in front of an audience.” Eyes distraught, he tried to reach for her again, but she held out her hand. “Not now, Vansh, please. I’m walking home. Alone. I need space. Please.”

How dare he look wounded?

Mina Auntie came around the building, Nisha close behind her.

“Go inside, Nisha, Ma. Please.” Vansh angled his body to block Naina from them.

Nisha was at least as stubborn as Vansh. “That poor girl Bipasha—whom you haven’t said one word to all night—was invited here to meet you. The least you can do is say bye to her and let her know you’re not interested.”

“I never asked you to invite her,” Vansh snapped. “And I never told her I was interested.”