“Kareena?” her grandmother called out. Before Kareena could respond, Dadi was already opening the door. She took one look at Kareena and her lips pursed.
“Beta, if you’re wearing a dress for the first time in years, could you put on something with a little more color? Black invites negative energy.” Dadi’s Hindi, Punjabi, and English mixed together like language soup.
And the criticism hit her just as Kareena was feeling herself, too. She stood in front of her floor-length mirror and turned side to side. Damn. She should’ve just worn her sweater vest. “Dadi, I’m going to meet up with Bobbi and Veena.” The lies came easily to her, just like when she was young and first started dating.
Dadi shook her head. “You can’t tonight. You have to help your sister with her sagai party decorations. She wants some flower wall. She has dinner with some work people she has to go to and needs this done.”
“And I have plans,” Kareena said. The fact that she was automatically the person everyone expected to pick up the slack was so irritating. They never tried to help her when she had a problem but had no qualms about asking her for assistance in return.
Kareena slung her giant tote and overnight bag over her shoulders. “I’m going downstairs to get a car to the train station.”
“Kareena, I said your sister needs help,” her grandmother called out, hustling behind her. Dadi twisted the hem of her faded floral kurta between her fingers. “You’re the older sister and your mother isn’t here. You should be focusing on the engagement party and the wedding.”
Kareena checked her phone and thanked the lords that there was a car service nearby. She only had to wait a minute or so in front of her house, which meant less time listening to Dadi. After confirming her location and the car service pickup, she hurried down the stairs. “Where is Dad?” she asked. “Why isn’t he helping?”
Her grandmother paused. “He’s meeting with the real estate agent.”
Kareena stumbled over the bottom step. “He’s what?”
“You know that he’s planning on listing the house right after your sister’s engagement party,” Dadi said. “The agent needed him to sign some paperwork.”
Kareena wheezed like she’d just been sucker punched. “Why am I always left out of the loop?”
Her father was meeting with real estate agents. Her time was already so limited, and now it was speeding up at an exponential rate.
Dadi motioned to the wallpapered walls in the foyer. “Beta, it’s just a house. Once you’re married, you can find another home and decorate it however you want. And this is good for you. It’ll force you to be more independent.”
“I thought I was too independent already?” Kareena said, yanking open the front door. “My mother built this house. She dug the first hole and decorated every corner. And before she died, she’d made plans to do so much more. Then she said that it would go to me. I’ve done so much more with this house to carry on her legacy.”
Her grandmother’s lips puckered, accentuating the deep wrinkles around her mouth. “Oh, don’t be such a drama queen. Why can’t you do what we ask of you and just help your sister, and be a good girl?”
Kareena hated that every time they had this conversation, a piece of her heart cracked. “Because I’m not the hired help here.”
“Watch your tone with me,” Dadi snapped. She looked so much older than the last time Kareena really looked at her. She had deep-set lines in her face, bracketing her permanent frown. “I may be old, but I haven’t lost my senses yet. You’re being disrespectful now.”
And that was how almost all their arguments went, Kareena thought. Dadi would call her disrespectful just because Kareena didn’t agree with her. As much as she loved her grandmother, there was something fundamentally wrong with their relationship, too.
She remembered her conversation with Prem the weekend before. He’d mentioned how difficult a relationship he had with his mother, and Kareena had to wonder why it was so much harder for South Asians to break ties with those who loved yet caused the most hurt.
Kareena strode through the house as she checked the location of her driver. She couldn’t do anything about her relationship with her grandmother right now. She had too many other things on her mind that she had to sort out. She needed some space, some time to just think.
Prem’s offer lingered over her head like a dark cloud. If she saw him now, then he’d definitely convince her to accept.