Her mother’s eyes shone with pride. She winked at Ashna after a quick look at Rico.
Ashna searched the audience for Zee, but he wasn’t there, and her heart twisted.
As soon as they went to break so the contestants could mingle with their families, China brought Rico an iPad with Zee on live video chat.
Zee and Tanya were squeezed tightly together in the frame. Tanya was even more stunning than Ashna had imagined, hair in braids and beautiful black eyes that swept up at the edges. They were supposed to fly out last night, but Tanya had felt sick and they had gone to the hospital and found out that Rico was going to be an uncle.
“Another godchild, Uncle Rico,” Zee said.
“Bring it on, mate,” Rico said, joy brightening his face.
Just as Ashna and he said bye, her niece flew at her. “Ashi Maushi! Can you introduce me to Danny? He was so amazing!”
“Why thank you, darling.” Ashna squeezed her. “I’m so touched to have you rooting for me.”
“Well, of course you’re going to win. Because everyone loves you and your new boyfriend.”
“Mishka!” Nisha said.
“Come on, Mom! You and Dad said it too. Don’t you always say we don’t have to pretend with family?”
Nisha let out a resigned sigh.
Yash and Rico pumped each other’s hands like they were long-lost loves too, and it made Ashna giggle.
Mom and Mina Kaki both squeezed Rico’s cheeks and kissed his forehead.
“That’s how desi grannies show their affection,” Mishka said, and this time her father ruffled her hair and asked her to behave.
“What? At least I didn’t say anything about how excited everyone is that Ashi Maushi finally found a boyfriend.”
Ashna squeezed Rico’s hand. He looked entirely unfazed by the circus, which made her press into him. A move not a single one of them missed.
“So actually.” Ashna cleared her throat. “He’s not a new boyfriend.” She looked up at Rico and his eyes were intensely focused on her, his breath held. “Rico and I knew each other in high school.”
“Knew?” Trisha said.
“Biblically?” Mishka said, and this time Nisha gasped and slapped a hand across her daughter’s mouth. “What?” Mishka said, undaunted. “Trisha Maushi said she and DJ Kaka knew each other biblically when you guys were talking.”
Rico started shaking with silent laughter against Ashna.
Ashna ruffled her niece’s hair. “We were in love. We still are.” She went up on her toes and kissed his lips, quick and full and tender, right there in front of everyone.
Shobi was the first one to start laughing. “All right then.”
Mina turned to her. “She told you?” She sounded somewhere between offended and delighted.
An avalanche of questions came at Ashna. “You didn’t tell us!” “So this was your junior year? See, I knew something was up. You were never home.” “Did you go to Paris with him?”
“We’ll talk later,” Ashna said. “But we broke up at the end of senior year.”
The mention of her senior year silenced everyone for a moment.
“Did you get on the show because of her?” Yash asked.
Rico’s arm was still tight around Ashna. “Never stopped missing her. Googled her. Saw the announcement for the show and bullied myself in.”
“That explains a lot!” Ashna said and kissed him again.
One of the assistants made an announcement for everyone to start getting back to their seats. The judges had finished deliberating and had their results.
Yash threw Rico a look Ashna couldn’t quite interpret. “Thanks for the email you sent me about the news pieces being the start of a smear campaign. You were right, we’ve been able to trace some pretty tenacious digging. I was wondering if you had any ideas about how to address it. And, well, if you had any interest in helping with the campaign.”
Rico looked at Ashna like a child thrown into a ball-pit of candy.
Really? She widened her eyes at him.
He shrugged. You okay with that?
Was he kidding? This was perfect.
“You’re bringing him to dinner tomorrow,” Mina Kaki declared before everyone was ushered back into place.
“Welcome to the family,” Shobi said, and gave Rico a hug.
When they were lined up in the staging area again, Ashna could barely bring herself to care about what the judges thought. Then their plates were in front of the judges and adrenaline started to pump through her. Reaching for Rico’s hands, she pulled his arms around herself.
His heartbeat thudded against her back. They were up first.
“What on earth was that?” the food editor judge asked, mimicking (very exaggeratedly) Ashna’s knife move.
The rom-com director stood up and clapped, setting off another round of hooting applause. “That, my friend, was fabulous television.”
“Looks like we’re witnessing the beginning of something here.” The chef judge who had been most critical of their food threw a suggestive look between them.
“What gave us away?” Rico said lazily, and Ashna laughed.
“So, we’re not wrong, then?” the other chef judge asked.
Ashna shrugged at the camera.
“As a matter of fact . . .” Rico said, his tone insanely reckless.
Ashna’s heart started to hammer. Her entire family was in the audience. The entire world was watching.
His hands rubbed up and down her arms. “There is something I’ve been meaning to ask Chef Raje, and it makes sense that you’re all here to witness it.” His hand went to his pants pocket.
Every single person in the audience gasped.
Ashna thought she was going to faint.
“Ashna Raje, would you do me the honor of—” he said with far too much sincerity and anticipation as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out his phone. “—of giving me your number? Because it’s about damn time.”
Ashna pressed her face into her hands, her heart falling back in her chest. Laughter exploded in the room. Nisha and Trisha were on their feet whooping.
Instead of dying of mortification, Ashna burst into laughter—clean untainted laughter. “I thought you’d never ask,” she said, bringing the audience to their feet again. Then, taking Rico’s phone from him, she entered her number.
Finally, the judges tasted their dish, and loved it, but no one seemed to care.
The other two dishes were just as spectacular. Danny El had managed to make some sort of turducken, which was creepy and amazing at the same time.
When he won, Ashna could hardly begrudge him.
“I came here to prove something,” she said when they shot reactions to the results. She sought her mother out in the crowd. “And to get people to discover Curried Dreams. What I’m taking away from here is something I never thought I’d find again.”
If that wasn’t the understatement of her life, she didn’t know what was.
After a long few hours of celebrations and interviews, Ashna and Rico made their way back to Rico’s hotel.
They started kissing in the elevator and Ashna was convinced her life had turned into a movie. They stumbled into the suite, still kissing.
Ashna hadn’t been this breathless, this excited ever, and it had been a breathless few weeks. They kissed like they hadn’t seen each other in centuries. Like parched earth in a cloudburst.