“Perfect,” Cullie said. “Let’s get profiles set up for both of you on Twinge. That’s the app with the biggest market share. Then we’ll try other apps.” She reached for their phones, and they both pulled them away.
“Not so fast. You’re the number one dating demographic,” Aly said. She hadn’t been skimming those articles for nothing.
“You’re doing this too,” Bindu said.
“I’m too close to this. And stop trying to use this to get me to date.” Cullie crinkled her nose.
“Well, Shloka was such a success because you created it for yourself. So the ‘being too close to it’ argument is meaningless,” Bindu said. “And you’re right. I’ll use whatever I can to get you to date. Both of you. It’s a shame that you live in a time when you can do this and you’re too afraid. It’s time for you to figure out that there are hotter Steves out there. Also better Steves.” She threw Aly a glance. “And finding your soul mate is a gift, but losing one is not an excuse to stop living. Like everything in life, soul mates serve their time, and once they do, it’s time to move on. Our souls are not so limited that they can only have one mate.”
Bindu had to be the world’s strangest mother-in-law.
“Cullie and you can start, and we’ll find more people to join in as we figure out what we’re looking for. I simply don’t have the time for it. Maybe after I get the segment,” Aly said.
“The segment you plan to get after giving your Meryl interview away to Relatable Jess?” Bindu said.
“You gave the Meryl story away?” Cullie raised her voice, and damn it, Aly did not need both of them on her case. “What the hell, Mom! Bharat’s boyfriend pulled all sorts of favors to get you that information.”
“I didn’t give it away.”
“You haven’t yet. But you’re going to,” Bindu said with all the ominous confidence of a soothsayer.
“I may not have a choice. It’s the cost of being in the news business. You have to give the sponsors what they want. Only then can you get what you want.”
Bindu stared up at the ceiling and threw a “What do I do with this girl?” plea at the recessed lights. “They’re telling you the sponsors want all their stories to come from someone who is not a brown woman. How can you believe that they’re magically going to change their mind about that after you give them the story that’s the best chance you have to prove them wrong?”
“This is bullshit, Mom! You have to hold on to what the sponsors want and leverage it to get what you want. That’s business.” Cullie looked like she wanted to shake Aly. “Business is all leverage. Which is why you and Binji have to help me do this. So I can build an app that can be so profitable, they won’t touch Shloka. We need to put an end to having our chains yanked because we happen to love what we do.”
Love so sharp squeezed inside Aly that she teared up. She cupped Cullie’s cheek. “I’m so proud of you. I don’t even know where you got so much wisdom from.”
Bindu cleared her throat. “I know where she gets it from.”
How could Aly not smile? “I can’t get on Twinge. I can’t go out with strange men. I was terrible at it when I was young, and the idea gives me hives now.” She ripped the foil off the wine bottle with more viciousness than she’d intended. “I’ll come up with another way to help you. Just not this. Where is that damned corkscrew?” She yanked every drawer open again.
The look Cullie threw her was equal parts disappointment, frustration, and stubborn disregard for anyone else’s wishes. When Cullie got that look, there was no derailing her. Just as Aly was trying to figure out how to make a getaway before she did something she regretted, the doorbell rang.
“If that’s Leslie, throw him out.” Bindu jogged across the room and hid behind the fridge as though this were a sitcom. Leslie had been pushing for another meeting with almost Cullie-level single-mindedness.
“Gladly.” Cullie marched to the door, hungry for a fight, and pulled it open as though tossing Weaselly Leslie to the curb would fix their problems.
“Surprise!”
“Dad!”
The crash of the wine bottle hitting the floor sounded across the condo. The gasp that escaped Aly was louder than the crash.
The smell of wine flooded the air even as red splattered like blood across Aly’s white trousers.
Her ex-husband beamed at their daughter, picked up the suitcase sitting next to him, and let himself in.
Karen Menezes was not for the faint of heart. But today, Aly really did not have the strength to deal with her mother. After Aly had mortifyingly dropped the bottle of wine, the only way to make sure everyone knew exactly how unaffected she was by Ashish’s unexpected arrival was to let Cullie set up a profile for her on Twinge. As Ashish watched. Because to hell with her fear—she was doing this. Finally, she’d made her exit with all the dignity she could muster and a smile so breezy she deserved an Oscar for it.
The phone rang again. After the day she’d had, Aly should have been able to ignore her mother’s call without guilt.
Usually, the time when Aly got off work and drove home coincided with the time her mother went for her morning walk in Goa. Aly called her mother dutifully every second day. If Aly missed a day, Mummy simply gave her the silent treatment the next day.
She never called Aly herself. This was her third call in five minutes. Aly answered the phone.
“You never told me that your husband was planning to visit you,” her mother opened without a greeting. “You never tell your mother anything.” Naturally, Mummy had to be in her element today.
Aly bumped her forehead on the steering wheel.
Ashish had been on American soil for a matter of hours, and already every bit of peace from Aly’s life was gone.
“Never mind all that,” Mummy continued with the patience of a passive-aggressive saint. “I’m so glad you’re finally seeing sense.”
Their calls always lasted under fifteen minutes, during which Karen found a way to tell Aly that she was praying for Aly to see sense and get back with her husband.
Ashish had obviously filled Aly’s parents in on his plans.
“I didn’t know he was coming. Unlike you. So how was I supposed to tell you?”
“What’s wrong with the fact that he checks up on us and keeps us posted about things? It’s not every day that you find a son-in-law like that. I light a candle and say a novena for the blessing every Wednesday.”
“He’s not your son-in-law anymore, Mummy,” Aly said without heat because no matter how many times she repeated the words, they fell on obstinately unreceptive ears.
“In the eyes of God, he will always be.”
Aly imagined her mother crossing herself and resisted banging her head on the steering wheel again.
“I feel like God’s a little less rigid than that.” The words were out before she could rein them in.
Her mother paused, unused to getting what she deemed back talk from her grown daughter. Usually, when they arrived inevitably at this point in their conversation, Aly changed the subject. With four of her mother’s siblings living in the same apartment building after retirement, it was easy to deflect the conversation to what was happening in one of the aunties’ or uncles’ lives. “He is a merciful God, but you cannot treat His understanding frivolously,” her mother said finally.