6

AMAYA

Four Days before the Wedding

I thought I’d have a moment with Kaavi when I went upstairs. That we’d be alone, even for a few minutes. I wasn’t going to do anything rash just now, of course. That would come later, if things didn’t work out the way I hoped. I just wanted to ask about her email. Why she said her whole family wanted me to come when it was obvious Mrs. Fonseka was horrified to find me in her house.

I wish I’d been able to tell Mrs. Fonseka that. That I hadn’t just barged in here. That I had been invited. That I thought she had invited me. But of course I’d choked. Now all I could do was ask Kaavi what she had been thinking, and hope she’d be able to smooth this over with her mother.

Her bedroom door was open, but I knocked on it before peering inside. I thought it would be a time capsule, like my own room had been, but of course it wasn’t. Not for Kaavi.

The boy band posters and colorful collages of our photographs had disappeared. The bright purple accent wall that her mother detested was painted over in a crisp white. Her wooden double bed where we’d had countless sleepovers was replaced with one that had a padded white pin-tucked headboard. There were pink and rose gold accents everywhere, from the metallic pink light switches to the gorgeous lampshades that flanked her king-size bed.

There was a large bouquet of pink roses in a vase on her dressing table. I snuck a peek at the card that dangled off the side.

I can’t wait to marry you. —Love, Spencer it read. My stomach did a flip. Being here, in her room, it was all so unreal that a part of me hoped this wedding was make-believe as well. Just a figment of my imagination. Just a bad dream that I would no doubt wake up from very soon.

But Kaavi wasn’t in here. I could hear the shower running in the attached bathroom.

“Kaavi?” I called out, tentatively. I’ve been in her room alone hundreds of times, of course, but that was in another life. We were both different people now. She was a person who would marry my ex-boyfriend, and I was a person who would fly across the world to make sure it didn’t happen.

“Hey, sorry, I just hopped in here,” she shouted from inside the bathroom. “Would you mind just hanging out for a bit? I’ll get killed if I’m late for this fitting, since everything is so last minute and all.”

I eyed the large display of roses again.

Sticking my head out of her room, I peered down the corridor. Mr. Fonseka’s office was at the very end. I could go and say hello to him. Maybe he knew about my invitation. Maybe it was even him who asked for me to be included. It made sense. He’d always been so kind to me and treated me like I was part of the family, even when Mrs. Fonseka seemed less than pleased.