“Does this happen often?” Ammu asks after so much time has passed that I’m drawing flowers at the edge of her fingertips, and her palm and forearm are already covered in henna.

“Henna?” I look up to see her staring at me a little too intently.

“No, not henna.” She nods at my bare table. “The thing that happened to your stall.”

“Oh.” I take hold of her palm again and draw a flower on the tip of her ring finger. “Not this specifically.”

“But other things?”

“Sometimes, yeah.” I feel the prick of tears in my eyes and blink them back. I don’t want to be having this conversation with anyone, least of all Ammu when it finally seems like we’re reconciling our relationship in some way.

Silence hangs between us until I finally finish her henna. Then she stares at her hands like it’s the first time she’s seeing them.

“You know your Nanu will try to make a museum out of your henna designs when she sees your handiwork, right?”

I bite down a smile, but I can’t help the way warmth spreads all over me.

“You like it?” I ask.

“It’s beautiful,” Ammu says.

I’m somewhere between relief and sadness when the day finally comes to an end and I can pack up my things and head home.

“You know, the other businesses aren’t as original as yours,” Abbu tells me in the car, between Rabindranath sangits.

“And not as talented either,” Ammu adds with a nod toward Abbu.

“They’re obviously very jealous of you to have done what they did,” Priti says, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out the window. She’s probably talking about Ali. But I doubt any of it was because of jealousy.

“It doesn’t matter,” I sigh. “Only a few more weeks …” Considering the way my customers had swiftly dwindled from few to none, I seriously doubt I’m in the running to win. No matter how original my idea is, or how talented I apparently am.

To my surprise, a few minutes after we get home, the bell rings. When I swing the door open, Flávia is standing in the doorway, her face flushed from the cold.

“Hey …” she says. I saw her out of the corner of my eye a few times during the showcase today, but our stalls were so far apart, and after I found my stall trashed I couldn’t face going up to hers.

“Hi.”

She gives me a hesitant smile and says, “You know it wasn’t Chyna. She was with me the whole day today.”

I shake my head. “Come inside.” I step aside to allow her through, and close the door behind us.