Everyone stops talking and turns toward her. There’s a mixture of curiosity and hesitation on their faces. Bina’s surprised to feel a tingling in her cheeks. Maybe this isn’t a good idea. After all, she can’t deny that she’s also interested in the toupees. And what if Anita was right about this being a bad idea?

She considers bringing up Anita’s name, asking if anyone has heard from her. Everyone here knows Anita and Bina apologized to each other for how things went at the wedding reception. Everyone also knows they haven’t spoken since. Bina started and stopped three different texts to Anita over the past week. Last night, she scrolled through their shared photos on Facebook. Why does she resemble such a breakup cliché? This is not how things were supposed to be.

But there’s no point in mentioning any of that now. Everyone has finally gotten over Natasha and Karan’s disaster of a proposal. Mentioning Anita would only shift the attention back onto Bina’s life and that’s not why they’re all here today.

“Right. You have been telling us to focus.” Kavita smiles. Thanks to the recent Botox she thinks nobody knows about, the crow’s-feet around her eyes are fainter today, as though someone ran an eraser over them.

“Yes, I have. Multiple times. And we keep getting off track,” Bina says. Is this how her teachers felt all those years? How did they stay sane? She should send them a long overdue apology for every time she made it her mission to not pay attention. “Anyway, it’s my fault for making this a potluck lunch and discussion. We should probably just stick to chai next time. Let’s refill our cups and sit in the living room.”

There’s a buzz of agreement as all four of them collect around Bina’s black marble island, which is covered with an assortment of plates.

“Bina, you always have the perfect spreads,” Mira says as she admires the clearly-made-from-scratch pecan pie, avocado dosas, and spicy tandoori pasta. “We shouldn’t have even brought food. I’ll take a Pyrex full of your leftovers and give them to Chand for dinner. He’d rather eat anything you cook anyway!”

“Same with Bipin!” Kavita nods as she and Mira add extra teaspoons of sugar to their cups.

The mention of Bipin’s name brings the conversation to an abrupt halt.

“Sorry,” Kavita says as she pretends to focus on adding mint to her chai.

“I’m not sorry. I was wondering what was going on with your husband,” Mona says in the same refreshing, unapologetic tone she had with Bina when she approached her at the end of the wedding reception.

Like every other Indian in Georgia, Mona also saw the Instagram post the kids put up. Bina told anyone who asked that Chats Over Chai was still a work in progress.