Kareena: Hey.
Xi: Wow, I can’t believe there are still attorneys that WORK as attorneys.
Kareena: ?
Xi: I mean, why would I need you, when I have Legal Zoom? Anyone can argue their own case.
Kareena: BLOCKED
Frank: Hey! You’re that viral girl who went berserk on TV! I can’t believe you’re even online after that incident.
Kareena: BLOCKED
Rahul: Hey.
Kareena: Hey.
Rahul: How’s it going?
Kareena: Ha, it could be better.
Rahul: Yeah, online dating is always emotionally draining.
Kareena: Exactly!
Rahul: Your profile is cute. Would you be interested in talking on the phone sometime instead of messaging through this app? Maybe going out for a drink?
Kareena: Yeah, sure. Here’s my number.
Bindu: Where did you go? I need you here this weekend. I have a to-do list for you. You need to fold all the invitations and programs for the engagement party, stamp them, and mail them for me. Then you need to drop my clothes off to the tailor. I am going to the spa. Daddy is treating me because he knows I’ve been so stressed out.
Kareena: No.
Bindu: WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO????
Bindu: KAREENA??? KAREENA!!! YOU’RE BEING SELFISH AGAIN.
Prem: Hey, so I realized that I don’t have a problem with taking off your clothes. Just your sweater vests.
Kareena: PREM!
Prem: Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Listen, I’m going to be in Edison on Friday for a few hours before I go back to Jersey City. Interested in having dinner?
Kareena: Sorry, I can’t.
Prem: Oh yeah? Working late.
Kareena: Not exactly. Uh, I have a date.
Prem: Seriously?
Kareena: Please don’t make this even more awkward than it already is.
Prem: Too late. But this is what you want, so I’ll respect your wishes.
Prem: . . . I don’t have to like it though.
Kareena spent all day thinking about different ways to cancel her date for that night. She didn’t want to go out. It didn’t feel right anymore. Not when she was kissing Prem. Or when he was giving her explosive orgasms by just touching her. God, that was a first.
After they’d gone back into the house, she could barely concentrate. It was a good thing that everyone was so focused on Bindu and her wedding plans.
But she knew that she couldn’t give up yet. Prem was her Plan B. She just had to keep telling herself that.
The car service pulled up at the restaurant in Woodbridge seconds after she checked her texts for the hundredth time that day.
Still nothing else from Prem.
Kareena thanked the driver, and within seconds of approaching the front door of Harvest Grill, someone called her name.
“Excuse me, Kareena?”
She turned to face a tall, slender man with curly hair, scruff, and thick black-framed glasses. He carried a backpack and wore Chucks with whitewashed jeans, a T-shirt featuring some Star Wars spaceship, and a baggy suit coat.
She pushed her matching glasses up her nose. “Hi, yes, that’s me. Are you Rahul?”
“I am, yeah.” He held out his hand for a shake. She took it and appreciated the firm grip. “Do you want to go in?”
“Sure.”
Rahul held open the door for her and then approached the hostess desk. “Hi, can we have a table for two?”
“Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes, under the name Rahul Dasa.”
Kareena’s mouth dropped. The dude was on time, held open the door, and made a reservation for their date? Okay, that was something that hadn’t happened to her yet. She hadn’t been superattracted to him based on his profile and their initial conversation, but he seemed nice, and she knew that she had to give him a chance. Maybe this was going to lead to something pleasantly surprising.
“Follow me.” The woman grabbed two menus and led the way to the dining area. They maneuvered through tables until they reached a corner booth.
“Your server will be right with you,” their hostess said as she dropped the menus on the edge of the table and left.
Kareena noticed that Rahul’s backpack was roughly the same size as her tote, and he threw it onto the booth bench just like she’d tossed in her tote first. When they sat down, their knees bumped.
This is way too strange, she thought.
Then there was a loud clatter under their table.
“Oh, did you drop something?” Kareena bent to the side to see what had fallen and spotted three twenty-sided dice. Before she could comment on them, Rahul had snatched them off the floor, then shoved them back in his pocket.
“It’s nothing. Sorry about that.”
He sounded a little flustered, so instead of commenting, she grabbed a menu and opened the drinks page.
“Thanks for coming out to Hoboken to meet me,” he started. “I know it’s a pain for you to get home because of the trains, but I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” she said. “I wrapped up work a bit earlier today, so I had the transit time.”
He smiled as they scanned the drink menu.
“What are you in the mood for?” she asked.
“I think I’ll have an IPA. Is that okay with you?”
She nodded. “I drink. I might have a mojito, though.”
“Go for it,” he said. Rahul glanced at her over the top of his menu, then adjusted his glasses. “Can I tell you something without judgment?”
Oh no, Kareena thought. Here it was. The moment when he’d share something truly disastrous, and she’d have to plan her exit. “Uh, sure.”
“My mother put me on the site. It’s a weird thing to admit to, but since you’re South Asian, too, I figured I could tell you the truth.”
She let out a deep breath. “I appreciate that,” Kareena said with a smile.
“Would it be okay if we, I don’t know, acted like friends meeting up instead of a date? It feels weird to be set up online by my mother, and I’d rather ease into this.”
Kareena laughed. “Yeah, that works for me.” She wasn’t feeling any electricity between them, anyway. Like with Prem. The memory of his fingertips along the curves of her anklebone had her shivering despite the warm temperature in the restaurant.
Their server stepped up to the table. “Hi, folks. What can I get you to drink?”
Rahul motioned to her, and she smiled.
After their server jotted down their drinks, he left without another word.
“Is this the part where we talk about ourselves?” Rahul asked, folding his arms on the table.
“I guess so. What do you want to know?”
“Well, I think one of the most important questions for me is, what is your favorite color?”
What in the world? “My favorite . . . color.”
He nodded. “Your favorite color. Preferably choosing between black, white, red, green, and blue. It’s important.”
How was it important? It sounded superficial to her. With superspecific choices. She had to wonder if he was searching for a particular answer.
“I know it may sound strange, but black is probably my favorite out of all those,” she finally replied. Kareena pointed to her black slim-fit pants, and her brand-new black sweater vest that she’d purchased to replace the one that was ruined in the hospital. “It goes with everything, and I think it looks pretty good on me . . . What? What did I say?”
He’d balked, and some of the melanin in his skin faded. “Life drains,” he whispered.
“Um, excuse me?”
He shook his head. “Nothing, nothing. I didn’t mean anything.”
“No, I’d really like to know.”
He looked at his backpack, and then back at her. “You know how I’m a gamer, right? I build video games? That was in my profile.”
“Yes, I do remember seeing that.”
“Well, in one of the . . . er, games that I play, colors often represent personality. If you had told me that your favorite color was green, I would’ve thought that you were open and welcoming as a person. If you told me that your favorite color was white, then I would’ve assumed that you were pretentious and shallow.”
“Oh! Like The Great Gatsby.”
It was his turn to look confused. “Excuse me?”