Page 59 of The Love Match

We’re showing them the polar opposite.

And it’s time to hammer the final nail into the coffin.

Fuming, I shove my face an inch from Harun’s and poke his chest. “No, I don’t want it from anyone else. I want it from you, asshole. You couldn’t do one nice thing for me?”

He jerks back, chair scraping and pupils blown wide. “N-not when you’re getting this crap all over my face. What the hell is wrong with you? Princess thing getting to your head?”

“Me?” I seethe, jabbing him again. “You’rethe spoiled rich boy.”

We both hold our breath as time freezes around us for an instant, waiting, waiting, waiting for the inevitable thud of the other shoe dropping. For our parents to acknowledge that this was a terrible mistake. For Amma to take me home and chew me out about humiliating her, but have no choice aside from letting me have my chance with Nayim, since a future with Harun will be out of the question.

It’s not what I hoped for when we began this.

I wanted her to respect my efforts to please her and trustme to make my own choices. If anything, my antics tonight might prove to her I’m not just the opposite of what Harun’s parents want, but the opposite of someone who can make good decisions for herself, like what her future career should be.

I never anticipated falling for Nayim when all this happened, but once I fix things with him, I can figure out how to glue everything else back together again, like I always do.

Ican.

The tension is broken by yet more custard.

Harun yelps as a gloop of it is pitched right into his open mouth by my sister, who is now standing on top of the table like a rampaging sugarplum fairy. Arif’s grip on her knobby knees does little to tame her, the custard smearing her own face transformed into war-paint.

She points at my date and shouts, “Stop being mean to my api, you big jerk-face!”

Harun looks at a genuine loss for words. The one eye that I can see behind his smeared glasses is bigger than the dishware.

I haven’t escaped the custard-splatter either, but the beginnings of a toothy grin are stretching across my face, becausethismust be it.

The point of no return.

There’s no way any of our parents can salvage this wreckage.

“Perhaps,” Amma says tightly, “I should take my children home.”

Pushpita Khala tries to respond but manages no more than a nod, while her husband replies, “Ahem, that might be best.”

If it didn’t mean getting found out, I would fling my arms around Harun and do a victory dance. One corner of his lip twitches beneath all the custard in acknowledgment of the glee that must be glinting in my eyes.

But before the triumph can truly sink in, my mother continues, “I don’t know what’s gotten into Zahra tonight. I think she was upset with me and took it out on Harun, but that’s no excuse. Afa, Bhai, amare maaf kori deo.”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Pushpita Khala answers, smiling tentatively back. “They’re very young and have only been on a few dates. Harun was the one to ask to try this until the summer ended, but clearly, that was a rash decision.”

“Why don’t we see how things are coming along at the grand opening?” Mansif Khalu adds, prompting his wife to clap her bangled hands together, clearly pleased at their ingenuity.

Hanif slams his hands on the table and rises to his feet. “Khala, Khalu, hold on! Hasn’t this gone on long enough? This girl—”

But the rest of his words grow tinny and distant as my stomach plunges to my feet. How can the Emons still want to keep going with this sham of a relationship after tonight? My eyes take in the blurry shapes of the figures around me.

Harun grimaces at this blow, but doesn’t otherwise object.

Resna hides her face in Nanu’s neck while Arif wags a finger at her.

And Amma…

Relief dawns across her face like a sunrise, brightening her rouged smile and flushed cheeks. After everything that’s happened, she has the gall to behappythat the Emons will give us another chance. Despite every awful thing Harun and I said and did to each other.

Despite how I begged her to stop.

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