“Yeah, but I mean, this is so random. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but shouldn’t we at least talk about this? You really want to get married? Married?” Natasha asks, like she’s learning the word for the first time. “And now? We’re so young. . . .”

“Yeah, I guess we are.” Karan frowns. “But I know this is what I want. I always have. We literally played together in our diapers. And I’m ready to start our lives together. Our real, adult lives. And you’re the one who said I need to be more exciting and spontaneous.”

“Yeah, I meant in little ways, like getting late-night McDonald’s on a whim.” Natasha shakes her head. “This is not McDonald’s!”

A heaviness lingers over them like a cloud. She tries to see things from his perspective. Maybe he really is ready to start his adult life. He just got the job as senior accountant at Buckhead CPA and moved into a high-rise on Peachtree Street. They picked out furniture from IKEA and took some of her parents’ hand-me-downs. Oh my God, was all that because she was supposed to move in there? How could she have missed the signs that he was planning this?

“I’m sorry, I really don’t see myself as a wife right now, or even soon. I was going to tell everyone I’m moving back home today . . . to focus on my comedy full time.” Natasha struggles to find words that seem good enough.

“You’re moving back home? And making comedy your job?” Karan shakes his head. “Why?”

“Because. I want to. There are a lot of things I plan to do before I even think about getting married.”

“But if you know you want to marry me someday, then what’s the problem with doing it now?” Karan raises his eyebrows.

Natasha wants to tell him that employing his high school debate skills isn’t going to get him far in this type of situation. But she stares at him and says, “Because I just don’t want to. And I definitely don’t think it would be right if I said yes just because I felt forced. C’mon, you’re my best friend. We don’t need to rush this.”

More pictures flash on the laptop. Their families at Baskin-Robbins, Karan pushing Natasha on a tire swing, both of them sitting in the nearby laundromat next to a massive container of Tide. Karan has always been a part of her family. And he’s right. This has always been the plan between them and, maybe even more so, between their families.

“You’ve seemed so out of it lately. And it’s affected us,” Karan adds. “I thought this would make you feel better.”