“But the most important thing, Kaavs, is that I get you. I know this is right. And I’m willing to spend the rest of my life proving to you that this is the best decision you’ve made.”

I thought about my mother and the countless proposals she will continue to bombard me with in the months to come. I thought about the mileage I would get from marrying a handsome, wealthy American man with his own company in San Francisco. I thought about the opportunity to curate my life into something that would really work for me.

“Okay,” I said, finally, after we had finished dessert and had started on our coffee. “Okay, let’s give it a shot.”

I could always get rid of him if it didn’t work out.

20

KAAVI

Two Months before the Wedding

I had expected at least a little pushback from my parents about Spencer’s proposal, but I supposed they had been more concerned about my approaching spinsterhood than they let on, because they welcomed him into the family with open arms.

“If he’s the reason why you turned down all those other boys, then why didn’t you say something?” my mother asked, as she flung her arms around me for the first time in years. Not even a hum about the fact that he’s not a Sinhala Buddhist, one of the key, overwhelmingly racist, traits that were stressed during those teatime drop-ins.

It turned out that Spencer knew how to play his cards a little better than I thought. He’d visited Sri Lanka twice before he proposed—to consult on the setup of Pink Sapphires, he had said—and he’d spent a significant portion of that time getting to know my family. I’d barely paid attention as he had conversations with my father about setting up a business, and complimented his way into my mother’s good graces. He’d dropped enough hints about being in love with me that my father had started to take pity on him. Even Tehani liked him enough to help him plan the whole proposal and convince me to invite him up onstage, which was truly a revelation.

The next few days were well and truly a blur. There were announcements to be made, social media to be updated, photographs to be taken (very important, given how Spencer and I didn’t even have a single photograph together to begin with), and of course, I had to put in a rush order to have my ring replaced. Apparently, Tehani had a hand in the ring Spence had proposed with, so I guess I could forgive the bland princess-cut solitaire on a white gold band. Thank god Fonseka Jewellers had their own workshop and were able to get an appropriate ring out for me quickly.

And then, of course, my mother dropped a bombshell on me.

She’d checked with her astrologers, as was expected, and all four of them came up with the same BS about the most auspicious day to get married being just three months away. I’d looked at Spencer when my mother made this announcement, expecting some resistance. Bad enough we rushed into this engagement, but to rush into an actual marriage? I had thought we’d have a year, maybe even two, to ease into it. Surprisingly, Spencer was completely game. He put his arm around my mother, gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek, and said he couldn’t be happier.