Page 80 of The Love Match

Dani’s jaw snaps shut. Both panting, she and Mr. Tahir stare each other down. At last, she says, “I know that legally, I can do whatever I want.”

I shrink at the ice in her voice, but when Mr. Tahir replies with an equally cool, “Go ahead, break your mother’s heart, you ungrateful girl,” the gravity of the situation sinks in.

The two of them march off in opposite directions, Dani slamming the bathroom door in time with the thud of her father’s private office door. All the utensils around the kitchenshake on their hooks, and another teacup falls and breaks. For a minute, Dalia and I are rooted in place.

Then she sniffles, and I drop to my knees next to her, putting my arms around her shoulders. “Oh, Dal. What happened? I thought your parents had come to terms with Dani and Mena’s relationship years ago.”

“Everything was going fine until the slumber party,” she mumbles wetly into the crook of my neck. “It was already hard enough for Dani to accept that Mena wouldn’t be coming to Rutgers with us, but now Mena wants to go back to the island.”

Oh no…

Guilt sweeps through me.

I never checked in with any of them after that conversation at the sleepover. If I’m completely honest, I may even have been envious of howsurethey’ve always been of each other. Remembering the tight hug Ximena gave me a couple of nights ago, I recognize it for what it was at last: a goodbye. An attempt to etch me into her memory. What kind of friend am I that I didn’t stop her then to make her talk?

“What happened?” I whisper.

Dalia’s voice is equally soft. “Yesterday during the fair, Mena asked Dani to come with her if she wants to stay together. Going to Haiti and her summer helping at the wheelhouse made her feel like there are more important things she’s meant to do than go to college. Her uncle is opening a school in Pedernales and invited her to teach art there.”

I sigh. “Dani took it hard, huh?”

Dalia nods against my neck. “We’re supposed to move into our dorms in a couple of weeks. Tuition has already been paid. But she kept repeating how Mena said she still loves her. Dani thinks she can fix this if they just go together. She wants Abbu to give her back her half of our college savings for the trip.”

Oh, that must not have gone over wellat all.

Like most Asian parents, Mr. Tahir is dead serious about his daughters’ studies. In fact, for as long as I’ve known them, I’ve known about the Tahir Twenty-Year Plan: the girls would go to college, get their MBAs, take over the shop together, franchise it, and make Chai Ho a nationwide name that would put Starbucks out of business, allowing Mr. and Mrs. Tahir to retire comfortably in Pakistan.

“Okay, we can fix this.” I help Dalia up and dust off her skirt. “You go talk to your dad and I’ll handle Dani. Once they cool off, things will be easier.”

“Do you really think so, Zar?” she asks hopefully.

I give her one last squeeze. “I know so.”

After releasing her, I advance into the den of the dragon—also known as the bathroom. Dani stands in front of the sink, splashing her tear-streaked face. She doesn’t see my reflection in the mirror but must hear my footsteps, because she growls, “Go away, Dalia. I don’t want to hear you make excuses for Abbu.”

“It’s not Dalia….”

“Zahra!” She spins around and wilts, but despite her next stony remark, I’m not sure whether she’s disappointed orrelieved. “Oh, good. At leastyouunderstand how unreasonable he can be. How much of that did you hear?”

I shuffle next to her, close enough that she can lean against me if she wants. “Enough to know you need a friend. Wanna talk about it?”

Dani props herself against the rim of the sink, raking both hands through her bubblegum-pink hair in clear frustration. “Argh! He’simpossible. When I told him and Ammu about visiting Mena, she said we could discuss it, but Abbu immediately forbade me. It pissed me off so much, I told him I’d use my college savings to go. And why shouldn’t I? The world isalreadyout there. What’s stopping us from experiencing it now, instead of in four or six or however many years it takes to get a piece of paper that gives us permission?”

I cringe imagining how that conversation played out.

Although she sounds like she’s reciting Ximena’s speech from the slumber party back to me, neither of them is wrong. But Dani and her dad have a similar temperament, and when you fight fire with fire, you tend to get a bigger flame. No wonder Dalia looks like a husk of herself.

Scooting closer to Dani so our hips bump and make her lips twitch, I say, “So do you not want to go to college at all? I know you love Mena. I’ll miss her if she goes too. But I thought you were excited about dorming with Dalia. You’ve been dreaming about being college roomies forever.”

What happened to the fairy lights and furniture? The posters of her favorite anime series that she’d convinced hersister to let her put up on their dorm room’s walls?

“I am! Iwas! I—” Dani drags a palm over her haggard face. “I’m not like you or Dal or even Mena. You’vealwaysknown what you want to do.” I shake my head, eyes wide, but before I can tell her none of my plans have ever worked out, she continues, “I was so amazed with the way you just… took charge after your dad died. Suddenly, you were a real adult with real adult problems, while the rest of us were still kids. But then college admissions happened and it became obviouseveryonewas growing up without me. Dalia has all these plans for herself and Chai Ho. Mena has her art. What will I have if she leaves me?”

That’s when it hits me that I’m not the only one who’s been terrified of what tomorrow will bring. No longer fighting the urge to hug her, I pull her into my arms and whisper, “Dan, you’d have us, no matter what. Even your parents will come around to it, whatever you decide. I’ve seen how much they love you. How much we all love you.”

“But love isn’t always enough,” she chokes out. “I don’t think Mena and I could survive a long-distance relationship. That’s why she’s giving me this ultimatum. Either we’re together or we find other people.”

I rub her back. “I know you don’t want to hear it right now, but your dad’s right about one thing.”

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