Celia groaned and let her head fall back, curls brushing the back waistband of her skinny jeans. Her trench coat was lying discarded on the counter. "I guess! I mean, we'd had a spark last summer when we met at all those parties, talking and laughing and flirting and texting, but we hadn't acted on it. I had a girlfriend at the time-not serious, but still. So it just felt like we were picking up where we left off. And we knew you guys were expecting us, so that just added, like, an extra thrill. . . ."
Dimple made a face. "Oh God. Really not interested."
There was a silence, and Celia sighed. "I'm sorry. I know it's not cool to hook up with people your friends are related to, even tangentially."
Dimple shook her head. "I mean, I just feel sorry for you." She laughed a little. "Ashish is a little . . . moody."
Celia frowned a bit. "I hadn't noticed that. Besides, don't feel sorry for me. I mean, I'm not planning on doing it again or anything. It's just so awkward. He kept texting me, because after we hooked up for a bit, I freaked and realized what was happening and ran away. I couldn't respond except to tell him I was fine. I've just been walking around since, trying to clear my head. I feel so guilty."
Dimple wondered if she'd missed something. "Guilty about what? I told you, I don't care."
Celia looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "It's not all about you, you know. Remember Evan? The guy I'm dating?"
Dimple felt like she was in the twilight zone. "You feel guilty about letting Evan down. Evan, who was trying to force you to dance in a bikini with his cousin as the highlight of your part in the talent show?" Evan, who's had a thousand hookups with other girls since you guys got together? she didn't add.
Celia shrugged and fiddled with the thin gold bracelet on her wrist. "It's complicated."
Dimple opened her mouth to say that, yeah, in her opinion misogyny was complicated. Mainly because of the way it was integrated into the very fabric of society, which made it hard to see when a guy was being a total d-bag to you. But she closed her mouth again. "Mmm," she said instead, hoping the lilt could be mistaken for sympathy instead of wryness. "So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Celia said. "I have a feeling . . . like, even last year, when Ashish and I spent time talking and stuff, I got the feeling that it was more than just a hookup thing for him. Like, maybe he had a crush on me. So it just makes me feel crappier, that I took advantage, you know? He's just a high school kid."
"Well, don't make it sound like you're robbing the cradle or something," Dimple said. "You just graduated high school. You're seventeen, he's sixteen. That's not such a big difference."
"There's still a big difference in where we are in life. I'm getting ready to start SFSU in the fall, and he's going to go off and play on his high school basketball team." She made a face.
Kind of unfair, Dimple thought. If Evan was the yardstick for what made a "man," then she'd rather just meet boys the rest of her life. But she held her tongue. "Then just be honest with Ashish," she said. "I mean, he's a nice guy. He deserves to know he doesn't have a shot with you at all. And then maybe you guys can move past the awkwardness."
CHAPTER 45
"Avoid the topic at all costs, Ashish." The boy was lucky he had a bhaiyya like Rishi, who was willing to look out for him. "Seriously. If she tries to bring it up, just change the topic. Walk away. I can run interference for you at the table too. It'll blow over."
"Really?" Ashish said a tad dubiously, which was pretty ungrateful, Rishi thought. "Wouldn't it be better just to talk to her? See what she thinks about all of it?"
"Mistake." Rishi shook his head. "Big mistake. Look, Ashish, you may be a player, but it sounds like you really like this girl." His brother blushed-actually blushed -so Rishi continued. "And that's where I know what I'm talking about." He gestured to Dimple's empty seat in a need I say more? way. "Girls don't want to see a lot of neediness. They want to know you're confident, secure in yourself. Celia will come around when she sees that. All of this awkwardness will be gone." He saw a flash of fuchsia on the other side of the pillar in the center of the restaurant. "Okay, here they come. Remember what I said: Avoid the topic."
Ashish sighed and looked upward, like he was asking the gods for guidance. He doesn't need them, Rishi thought. He has me.