“Something’s always wrong with Natasha,” Mom says. “That’s no reason to act like a child. She has to grow up and make decisions now—real, adult decisions—instead of just running away at the first hint of responsibility.”

Even though Suhani wonders why Natasha wouldn’t say yes to Karan, she won’t say that out loud. There’s an unspoken agreement between Suhani, Natasha, and Anuj that they’ll never throw each other under the bus to their parents.

“She always has an excuse for everything,” Mom adds.

Suhani shrugs. Mom does have a point. Natasha is always equipped with a reason for why something didn’t go her way. The teacher didn’t like her and gave her a bad grade. The landlord lost her check. Her alarm clock stopped working.

“What she needs is a reality check,” Mom says. “She should go back to Karan, apologize, and make things right. She has no idea how many people she hurts with her rash decisions. How are we even going to explain this to anyone?”

“I don’t think we should be focusing on anyone else’s feelings besides hers. Maybe we should have her see a therapist,” Suhani says, careful to not reveal that Natasha was seeing a therapist until she lost her health insurance.

“Talking to a stranger isn’t going to change anything!” Mom says.

Despite her husband and daughter being psychiatrists, Mom still thinks of mental health issues in the same way so many people from India do: as something “you just get over” and “move on with.” Dad used to say that the stigma toward mental illness in India was one of the reasons he went into psychiatry: Everyone told me not to work with “crazy” people, and at some point, that stuck with me. I knew I had to fight for the people who are misunderstood and overlooked.

Mom stares at her tiny cocktail plate. For a second, her face softens. “She has no idea what being depressed even means. She really doesn’t. If only she knew how bad it could really be.”

“What do you mean—”

“Hey!” Zack says as he slides his hands around Suhani’s slim waist. The only benefit of wearing these painful heels is that she can kiss him without stretching her neck. At six-three, he’s exactly a foot taller than her.

When Suhani pulls away from Zack, she catches some of the conservative, silver-haired attending physicians glancing in their direction with puzzled expressions. For a second, she considers pointing them all out to Zack. See? They’re surprised my husband isn’t Indian.