“We have to have everything in balance. That should be most things. Hot and cold in equal measures. Soft and hard. They are principles in a lot of cultures.”
Emma nodded. “I agree with it all. Although I’m tempted to go into excess from wanting to eat too much of the balance.”
Maybe that was the trick with her. He needed to find what balanced her out. What thawed the ice queen’s frosty exterior? What kind of unique heat did she need to relax and enjoy and be calm?
“Can I ask you something?” she said as she finished her dosa and sat up in her chair.
“Yes?” But it came out as a question. Rishi was poised for potential disaster.
“Do you still resent me for getting the job instead of you?”
“I don’t resent you.” These words came out, and Rishi realized they were true now, even though a week ago he couldn’t have said the same.
She gave him a doubtful look, her eyebrows up and demanding a real response.
He leaned back in his chair and fiddled with the napkin that lay untouched beside his plate. “Look, I was upset because Jas had essentially promised me that job, and I wanted to work in Seattle—well, in the US.” He looked up and met her gaze. The demanding stare had evaporated, and her lips were parted and her eyebrows nestled over her eyes.
“Why? You’re like Indian food’s number one fan, and you told me you didn’t like Seattle.”
While Rishi hadn’t planned on telling her any of this, a weight felt like it was lifting off him. “There are some family things going on, which is part of the reason I need to get married.” He took a deep breath. He didn’t have to tell her the whole story, but at least she could know how much he needed that algorithm to work. “My sister wants to get married. She’s younger, and weddings are expensive. So, I was hoping to have a bigger salary by working in the US and send the money back to my parents to help. But then things changed. That’s why I need to find a wife. It looks bad that I’m not married yet, and I need to make sure my sister doesn’t have yet something else stacked against her in her search for a husband.”
“I didn’t know it was for your family, and especially your sister.” She shook her head, looking down at the space between their two plates. Her lips pressed together again, and she looked up at him, a steely seriousness falling over her face. “I’ll finish your code this week.”
CHAPTER 17
Rishi pulled up in front of the South Indian place his brother had suggested and killed the engine. The week that had passed since Sudhar had contacted him hadn’t really prepared him to see his brother. It had been two years since the marriage. Not that he was expecting him to look completely different, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he looked a little bedraggled, some bags under his eyes, maybe like he’d lost some sleep over what he’d done to their family.
Or they could be bags from waking up with a crying baby. It was hard to imagine Sudhar, the brother who had once pulled Rishi’s pants down in the middle of the street, as a father.
His hands trembled slightly. His breath was heavy. For God’s sake, this was lunch with his brother, not the first time he was meeting his hope-to-be-future wife. They’d eaten countless meals together. They’d gotten in fights, made up, and then fought again. That’s all this was. Except Sudhar was married to a woman who was responsible for stealing his family’s money, and he didn’t care. He hadn’t left her, and they had a baby. There was no real explanation for it.
He walked inside and scanned the tables, wondering if he’d be able to recognize Sudhar after two years. Or if there was some brotherly pull that would just bring them together like a long-lost magnet and a hunk of iron.
“Rishi!” a voice called from behind him.
He turned around. There was a bearded man at a booth, his arm raised in a hesitant wave. A beard? No one in their family had a beard. No one in their community had a beard. Just having this hair on his face made him a different person now. Like he was saying a big fuck you to their traditions and customs and heritage. Maybe it was just facial hair, but they both knew how odd it was for him to have it.
Rishi swallowed and walked toward Sudhar as his brother stood, a little wobbly as he leaned on the table. Sudhar had a bit of a belly now, that was all. Otherwise he was pretty much the same old Sudhar who had tortured him growing up. The same Sudhar he’d always admired.
Until a year ago, when everything had fallen apart. It was absolute irony that the steps his brother had taken to bring the two families together after his marriage were the breaking point that would split them apart for good.
Rishi was at first afraid Sudhar would try to hug him, but he just stuck out his hand like they were meeting each other for a business lunch. Rishi shook his hand back formally. What a strange sensation.
He sat across from him in the booth. “You have a beard.”
Sudhar rubbed his cheeks with the broad expanse of one hand. “Yeah. I just got lazy. I thought about shaving it before we met, but . . . I kind of like it.” He huffed a laugh.
“So, what are you in town for?” Rishi asked. He had to know if it was some additional shady business with Sona’s shady family.
He gripped the metal water tumbler and tapped it gently on the table. “I’m here for business. I work for an IT company in Delhi, doing sales. I have a meeting here this week, and I’m just in town for a few days.”
Rishi nodded. Delhi. So that’s where he was living. “Sales? No more accounting?” His brother had been an accountant, like their dad, at a company in Madurai.
“Well, when you have to move, you have to find a new job. Turns out I’m good at sales.” He shrugged.
“I knew you must still be living up north if you requested we come here.” Rishi shook his head, grinning, but not because anything was particularly funny. It was just comforting that he still knew something about his brother.
“I miss good, spicy Andhra food.”
The server came by, and they both ordered meals. When the server asked “Veg or nonveg?” the two brothers looked at each other. Sudhar said “Veg” and Rishi said “Nonveg,” and they both laughed.
“You’re nonveg now?” Sudhar asked. He shook his head, laughing. “Does Amma know?”
“No way, man. Are you kidding? I figured you’d gone to the dark side as well.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t leave my beliefs behind. I just married outside the community.”
And your wife’s family stole our family’s money. Why don’t you care, again? Rishi wanted to say it, but he wanted to know about his new family member before getting so pissed off at Sudhar that he walked out the door.
“So, tell me about your kid,” Rishi said.
Sudhar’s face lit up. Maybe he did have moon-shaped puffs below his eyes. He pulled out his phone and held it in the middle of the table so they could both look. “Her name is Sejal, and she is now two months old. She is beautiful and she cries all the time.”
The first photo was of a wrinkly red-hued baby just slightly bigger than Sudhar’s hand. Then the next, a less red, cuter baby with chubby cheeks and eyes squeezed tight. He moved on, scrolling through the photos. “These were just taken last week,” Sudhar said as he showed a few pictures of a baby who was beautiful, with almond-shaped eyes and grayish irises.
“Wow, she’s got eyes like mine.” Rishi shook his head. He couldn’t believe it. Like staring at a baby version of himself.
“I know, dude! That’s what I said. I wanted to ask Mom for your baby pictures to see what you looked like when you were just born, but you know . . .” His voice trailed off.
Something hit at Rishi’s chest. Here was this baby, who was a part of him, a part of his family. All the way in Delhi. He’d probably never meet her. But how could he not? It wasn’t the baby’s fault that his brother had fucked up.
“So, she has a Punjabi name?” Rishi asked.
“Yeah, well, it’s like the only family Sona and I have, so . . .”
The server came back
, dishing out rice on their plates with sambar and vegetables and some lamb and goat for Rishi. Sudhar took the spicy dal powder from the table and sprinkled it over his rice.
“Wow, you really missed the spice, huh?” Rishi asked. A niece. A niece who looked like him. He still couldn’t believe it. “I’m going home soon, so I’ll see if I can find the old photos and send them to you.”
“Really?” Sudhar’s eyes beamed with . . . what? Hope?
“Yeah, I’ll text you some pictures of them.”
“Anything is better than nothing.”
Sudhar was right. Any relationship with his niece would be better than no relationship. Same with his brother. But how could that happen? How could he get over what had happened, when Sudhar didn’t even seem to be remorseful over it? He eyed his brother, examined his face. How could that face, the one Rishi thought he’d known so well, betray his family?
Sudhar met his gaze, and like he could follow the train of thoughts rushing through Rishi’s head, his shoulders fell, and his head weakly rolled down to his chest. “Rishi, look. What happened with the bank account . . . I want you to know that Sona and I had no idea. She didn’t know her uncle was making a bad investment. Her family lost money too. It was bad for everyone. I just want you to know it wasn’t like some kind of targeted attack on Mom and Dad.”
Rishi looked up at him. “But you told Appa that the money was a done deal, that it was good, and that Sona’s family wanted to make amends with our family.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know. All I heard them say was what a great investment this land would be. They were building some big shopping-complex, apartment-building thing, and the land was going to skyrocket in price. But it had already been bought. Her uncle’s buy was bogus. He was told it was a sure thing, but it was like one of those real estate scams you see in a movie or something. After buying it, he went to the land, and a construction company had already started building on it. He showed the company his deed, and the lawyers said it was a fake. He spent all our money on a piece of paper that didn’t mean anything.”
“And her family didn’t research it? I mean, our parents trusted you, and you—” Rishi shook his head, amazed at the idiocy of all of it. “I mean, you’re an accountant. All you do, well, all you did, was deal with money. How could you let her uncle make a bad buy like that? How could you get conned and then in turn let your whole family get conned?”
“I know, it sucks. Trust me. I have felt terrible. Sona’s felt terrible, I’ve tried to explain to our parents, but they won’t listen. I swear to you: it wasn’t like Sona or her parents were out to get our family. It was just unfortunate.”
“Unfortunate?”
Sudhar shook his head. “It was horrible. But I can’t turn back time and make it unhappen. I can only ask forgiveness, which they’ve denied me. Now I’ll probably never see Dharini again, or our parents. My daughter will be denied half her family. They just blame Sona and Sona’s family because they’re not one of us.”
Rishi had heard it so many times. This is why you always marry within the community. People don’t treat their own kind this way. This is why we never agreed for him to marry this girl. Her family is not like ours. They don’t respect us, and now they’ve stolen from us. This was only one version of what his mother had said after everything had happened. Before she’d banned their names from being spoken in the house. If Sudhar had agreed to one of the matches we’d found for him, these good Iyengar girls from families we know, who are like us, then none of this would have happened. We’d still have money, and we’d have our son. He’s left us.
It was always Sudhar abandoning his family, rather than Rishi’s parents putting down a decree to never speak to him again. But to them it was the same thing. If you went against the family, then you were not part of the family.
“Rishi, the only thing I can do now is get the money back. I’m trying to save up so I can at least pay Mom and Dad back the money they lost.”
Hopefully Sudhar was a really good salesperson. “How’s Sona doing with all of this?” Rishi asked. She seemed like a nice girl, but he hadn’t had a chance to get to know her. Now she didn’t seem so much like the evil temptress their mother had made her out to be, knowing that her family had also lost a lot of money. If what Sudhar said was true.
But why would he lie about it?
“Well, we have her family to help out, so that’s why we’re in Delhi now. But she’s good. She’d like to get to know you, if you’re interested.”
Rishi sighed. All he’d heard from his parents was how evil Sona’s family was. It had all seemed far fetched to Rishi, but it wasn’t like a hundred movies hadn’t been made about this very scenario.
“Okay, I’ll think about it. Right now I have to focus on my own marriage. Dharini wants to get married, so . . .”
“She’s a baby!” Sudhar said.
“I know, trust me. She drinks coffee now, has a programming job . . .” Rishi shook his head. At least Sudhar understood what it was like to see his little sister growing up.
“Well, Sona has a very pretty younger sister, if you’re interested.” He laughed, like it was a hilarious idea.
Rishi just glared at him. How could he even start joking about that?
Sudhar gritted his teeth in an apologetic smile and raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, I know. Too soon.”
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Rishi rubbed at his eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth as he reached over to see what the emergency was on his phone.
These stupid bugs are driving me crazy. I need master app dev skills. That means you.
Even his mom didn’t message him this early. Of course Emma would. So early that he hadn’t even had coffee.
Why are you working so early?
It’s quiet and peaceful and I can focus. And my favorite conference room is free so I can use the big monitor.
Oh, and I have your algorithm results.
What? Why didn’t she say that first? Ok, be there in 30.
He made it to the office in record time. After seeing his brother yesterday, he was more motivated than ever to find someone who could help him salvage the remnants of his family.
He grabbed a coffee and turned toward her favorite conference room. But paused. The least he could do was get her one too. He pushed the buttons for cappuccino. It was sort of like a cappuccino. Didn’t add sugar. Weirdo.
Two cups of coffee. His laptop bag hung on one shoulder, threatening to slip off. His sunglasses fell from his head and teetered on the end of his nose as he approached the room. He tried to use his hip to push the handle down and splashed coffee on his jeans. “Fuck.” He looked through the glass door. Emma was sitting there, laughing at him.
“Help, please,” he said, a thread of irritation in his voice, through the practically soundproof glass.
She made a big production of sighing and taking off her headphones and rolling her chair back inch by inch, the wheels moving as slowly as bad bandwidth. Yet the whole time, she was still smiling with complete amusement.
She pulled open the door, her arm sliding up the edge and blocking his entrance to the room with her body. “Can I help you? I mean, you look like you need help.”
“Uh, yeah. I got you a coffee. Apparently the last time I’ll do that. Take it.” He thrust it toward her. Now he could slide his sunglasses back on top of his head and save his suffering forearm from his laptop bag, which he was carrying like an old woman with an oversize purse.
“Oh, why, thank you.” Her eyes lit up in surprise as she tasted the coffee, just a sip, and looked up at him through her eyelashes. He tried not to notice how cute she looked, her nose hidden inside the cup, inhaling the coffee. But puppy cute. Like a tiny stray he’d found outside his house who needed help.
Rishi shook his head and glanced up at the projected screen. Now it was his turn to laugh. It reminded him of when his professor had once said, “Done code is better than perfect code.” This was definitely just done.
>
“Wait, are these the bugs you’re trying to address? What is this code?”
“Look, I’m not an app developer, but I’ve been reading up.” She unplugged her monitor, like she could hide the evidence. “I told you I needed help.”
“I’ll fix the bugs in the log. I think you should leave that to us app devs, honestly. You might break something.”
“Oh? Well, hopefully I didn’t break your marriage code.”
Sometimes she really exasperated him. “Emma, you can’t be perfect in every aspect.”
She tilted her head and pursed her lips, doing that puppy thing again. Or maybe like her part-android brain couldn’t process what he’d said.
He didn’t mean perfect in every aspect, of course. He shook his head. What was wrong with him? “I just meant you’re not an app developer. You’re good at web crawls, right? Desktop development? That’s more than most people can say.”
She straightened up and typed on her laptop. “Well, I guess you’ll be the judge of that. Should I put the candidates for the future Mrs. Iyengar on the big screen?” She looked at him before plugging in the HDMI cable.
He looked at the hall, still empty. Still way too early for anyone to be in here. “Sure. I’m ready for the big unveiling.” He took a deep breath and crossed his arms, leaning back in his seat. Was he ready? What if it hadn’t worked? Or what if he felt insta-love just by looking at the screen? Should he pray or something before she showed him what the results had come up with? He’d practically promised his mom he would take care of it. That he could find “the one.” And after his conversation with Sudhar, one of these women had to work.
Rishi’s feet tapped on the floor. Why was a sudden cocktail of impatience, dread, and curiosity swirling in his stomach? A perfect match could be presented to him in a few short seconds. Because if he knew anything about Emma Delaney, it was that she strove for perfection.
And control.
The Marriage Code: A Novel Page 14