Page 45 of Tiger's Quest
Ren stared after Jason. “What was that about?”
“Funny, I was about to ask you the same question. Who’s the girl?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Come on. Let’s talk about it in the car.”
After he pulled out of the parking lot, I folded my arms across my chest and said, “Well, who is she?”
He winced at my tone. “Her name is Amara.”
I waited, but he didn’t add anything else. “And. . . what did she want?”
“She wanted my parents’ phone number . . . so her parents could call my parents.”
“What for?”
“To arrange marriage.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”
Ren grinned. “Are youjealous,Kelsey?”
“Darn right, I’m jealous. You belong tome!”
He kissed my fingers. “I like you being jealous. I told her that I’m already taken, so don’t worry, myprema.”
“That’s just weird, Ren. How can she want to propose marriage when you don’t even know each other?”
“She didn’t exactly propose marriage; she proposed the idea of marriage. Usually, the parents handle it, but in America, things have changed slightly. Now, it’s more like the parents screen potential mates, and the kids get to pick from their choices.”
“Well, you’ve been through it once already. I mean, you were engaged to marry Yesubai. Did youwantto marry her? Your parents picked her out especially for you, right?”
He hesitated and spoke carefully. “I . . .acceptedthe match, and I looked forward to having a wife. I hoped to have a happy marriage like my parents had.”
“But wouldyouhave pickedherfor a wife?”
“It wasn’t up to me.” He smiled, trying to appease me. “But, if it makes you feel better, Ididpick you, even though I wasn’t really looking for someone.”
I still didn’t feel like letting this go. “So you would have gone through with it, even though you didn’t know her from . . .Eve?”
He sighed. “Marriage was and still is different in Indian culture. When you marry, you try to make your family happy with someone who shares your cultural background and who embraces and keeps the traditions and customs important to your family. There are a lot of things to consider, such as education, wealth, caste, religion, and where you come from.”
“So it’s like screening applications for college? Would I have made the cut?”
He laughed. “It’s hard to say. Some parents believe that dating an outsider taints you forever.”
“So you mean justdatingan American girl taints you? What would your parents have said about us?”
“My parents lived in a very different time.”
“Still . . . they wouldn’t approve.”
“Mr. Kadam is like a parent in a way, andheapproves of you.”
I groaned. “It’s not the same thing.”
“Kelsey, my father loved my mother, and she wasn’t Indian. They were culturally from different backgrounds and had to merge different traditions, and yet, they were happy. If anyone from that time would have understood us . . . it would have been them. Would your parents have likedme?”
“My mother would have adored you; she would have baked you chocolate peanut butter cookies every week and giggled every time she saw you, like Sarah does. My father never thought any man would be good enough for me. He would’ve had a hard time letting me go, but he would have liked you too.”
