“Well what happened next?” asked Aarush.

“They kept meeting at that same cafe every week,” said Karthik. “Finally, in the last week of the semester they exchanged contact info. Rani went to Amit-anna’s house for winter break as usual, and throughout the break they kept calling and texting each other. One fine day, Rani realized she’d fallen in love with Elena.”

“Awww!” cried Aarush. Karthik continued.

“So when the next semester began Rani decided she had to confess to her. I think I remember how she told it happened.”

*******

Rani Shivaram walked down 7th Ave, completely bundled up for the cold. It’d been three years since she moved here, but somehow she still wasn’t used to these murderous winters. And the forecast said it was going to snow today. Again.

Though it’s not all bad, she thought. She was going to meet Elena at the cafe today, which, for the two-hundredth time this morning her heart leapt at the thought of seeing her again. She couldn’t stop thinking about her all throughout the break. What was she going to say to her? How will she even react? Rani still didn’t even know which way Elena “swung”, but based on their interactions last semester she had a pretty good idea… and if Elena reacts positively then great, but if she doesn’t, well, Rani's been through heartbreaks before. What’s another?

Rani crossed 18th St and entered the cafe. Elena was already sitting at their usual table and enthusiastically waved at her with a big smile. Her heart leapt again.

“Hey Rani!”

“Hi Elena!”

The two girls embraced each other, then sat down. Rani’s heart started to calm down as they both settled into their usual new-topic-every-two-seconds conversations. This went on for about an hour or so, until Rani suddenly went quiet and began staring at the table while fiddling with her hair.

“Okay, so, uh, I wanted to– to talk to you about… something,” said Rani. Elena nodded, intrigued.

“I, um…” began Rani.

“What happened?” asked Elena, smiling.

Rani turned back to her. Elena’s eyes seemed to look even bigger somehow. Her heart started pounding again.

“I… I couldn’t stop thinking about you over the break.”

“Oh.”

“Y-yeah.”

Rani took a deep breath. It's now or never.

“I– I think I’ve fallen in love with you Elena.”

Elena’s eyes widened with surprise.

“Oh!”

Rani stared at her. Elena stared at her back. What is she thinking right now? Rani, her heart racing, wondered if she said the right thing. She really hoped that she said the right thing…

Elena’s lips slowly curled into a smile.

“Took you long enough.”

She put her hand on Rani’s hand. They gazed into each other’s eyes as snow began to fall outside.

“I love you too.”

Rani grinned, then started laughing. Elena also started laughing.

“So… what now?” asked Rani.

“I think this is the part where we, I don’t know, start dating or something,” said Elena. “But you know what? I think that’s what I want now.”

“So that’s it then? We’re ‘official’?”

Elena giggled.

“I think we are, yeah!”


The next morning in her dorm room, Rani opened up her laptop and started her weekly video call with her father. He answered, sitting on the sofa between Ravi and Sandhya.

“Hi Dad.”

“Hey Rani,” said Arun. “Settled back in?”

“Yeah. It is WAY too cold here.”

“Are you eating properly?” asked Sandhya.

“Yes, Mom.”

“Good you’re at least doing that.”

Rani hesitated.

“Oh by the way, I uh... I have some news.”

Arun and Sandhya looked at each other.

“What is it, ma?” asked Arun. Rani took a deep breath.

“I, um… I… I met someone.”

“Who did you meet?” asked Sandhya, furling her eyebrows.

“We’re… involved.”

Sandhya looked at Arun, confused.

“I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

Rani rolled her eyes.

“I’m dating someone now, Mom! Holy…”

Sandhya widened her eyes in shock, and then horror.

“Dating someone? So this what you do then? You go all the way to US and run behind boys?? Ridiculous!”

Rani frowned.

“Yeah, well, I’ll have you know that I’m not dating a boy, I’m dating a girl!”

Sandhya stared at her, her face contorted with pure disgust.

“But why do you want to date a girl?”

“Because we’re in love...?” said Rani, softly. “Her name is Elena, and–”

“No. I don’t understand how you can date a girl like that.”

Without another word, Sandhya just got up and walked away. Arun turned to her, surprised.

“Sandhya...?”

Arun also got up, leaving only Ravi left on the call.

“What?” asked Rani. Ravi seemed stunned.

“A girl, Rani? Really? Why?”

“Did you not hear me the first time?” said Rani, glaring. “Because we’re in love, you moron.”

Ravi scoffed.

“Why do you still insist on acting like a child?”

“Well why do you still insist on being Mom’s stooge?”

Now Ravi was getting mad.

“Look, all I’m saying is I had these weird ‘homo’ urges too when I was growing up, and I outgrew them! Why are you still clinging to that crap? It’s– it’s not normal!”

Rani blinked, unable to process that her brother had just said that. She then slammed the table.

“Because I actually believe in love, unlike you!”

Ravi crossed his arms.

“You’re such a girl.”

“And you’re an ass.”

Rani slammed the laptop shut. She knew Ravi and her mother would react like this, so what was the need to even tell them?

*DING*

Rani glanced at her phone. It was a text from her father.

Hey Rani, I know you didn’t get to talk about her much, but from what I understood it seems like Elena means a lot to you and makes you happy. I wish you both all the best, and I hope we can meet her someday :)

“Dad…”

Rani put her phone away and quietly started crying.

*******

Aarush was speechless.

“But how– how can Avva talk to her like that? How can DAD talk to her like that?? Their story is so cute and romantic, could they not see that??”

Arun and Karthik glanced at each other. Aarush covered his face with his hands.

“How come no one told me their story before? No one ever tells me anything…”

“I think your grandmother is still convinced that Rani is ‘wrong’ and doesn’t want you to be ‘ruined’”, said Arun.

“And your Dad will follow Sandhya-pinni only,” said Karthik.

“But I’m not ruined,” said Aarush. “I remember when they came to Bangalore for Karthik-chinnaana’s wedding, they were so nice to me!”

“And I agree with you,” said Arun. “Live-and-let-live as I always say, even if it's your own kid.”

Aarush turned his head down while fidgeting with the bedsheet.

“So then what happened? It was Rani-attha’s final semester when they started dating, right?”

“Correct,” said Arun. “During her final semester she was noticed by a highly reputable designer. He offered her an apprenticeship in his studio here in San Francisco, and she accepted it immediately.”

“Nice!” said Aarush. “Oh, so that’s how she ended up here.”

“Yeah. She graduated from the fashion school in spring 2016. But as she expected, Sandhya refused to go and Ravi just did what his mother did, so once again, I was the only one who came. Incidentally, that’s also when I met Elena for the first time.”

“What did you think of her?” asked Karthik. “You probably thought of her as some ‘skater-punk’ like I thought!”

Aarush stared at his uncle. Arun chuckled.

“You’re not wrong! The tattoos made me think that, yes, but when I spoke to her I realized she was actually a very shy, but nice girl. Although I didn’t know she was that talkative until you mentioned it!”

“She only does that around people she’s comfortable with I guess,” said Karthik. “Even I didn’t believe it until I saw how she was when alone with Rani.”

“I see,” said Arun. “But moving on, after the graduation I stayed for a bit longer to help Rani move to San Francisco. She and Elena said their goodbyes to each other, but promised to keep their relationship ‘alive’.”

“Amit-anna also helped her with moving,” said Karthik. “He’d started working in Irvine by then.”

“Right, thank you Karthik. Almost forgot about that.”

“Getting old, Arun Uncle!”

Arun laughed.

“When did Elena finally get here?” asked Aarush.

“Only a year later,” said Arun. “She got a marketing job at a social media company here, and that’s when they started living together.”

“‘Live-in-relationship’ as they say in India,” said Karthik. 

“It’s a big step in any relationship,” said Arun, nodding. “It’s basically marriage without the ceremony, though even that they're finally doing now.”

“Tomorrow’s gonna be fun, isn’t it?” asked Aarush.

“Hopefully,” said Arun, smiling. “But there’s still a lot more left of the story. We haven’t even gotten to your Dad’s stint in the US yet!”

Aarush sat up straight.

“Tell me then. I’m listening.”