Chapter 2: Brotherly Love - Spiced Sabotage
The air in the cramped booth was thick with cumin and turmeric, a warm, heavy blanket that clung to the inside of the lungs. Priya shifted, and the wooden seat groaned beneath her. The fine silk of her emerald sari, a garment she’d worn with effortless grace just months ago, now felt like a cage. The pallu, the decorative end-piece she draped over her shoulder, pulled taut across the new, insistent swell of her bust.
“You’re not eating, Priya,” Raj said, his voice a lilting tease. He scooped another generous portion of lamb rogan josh, all rich, crimson gravy and falling-apart meat, onto her already crowded plate. The ghee-laced rice formed a soft, yielding mountain. “You’ve barely touched your second helping.”
“I’ve had plenty,” she retorted, but her eyes were fixed on the steam rising from the plate, her stomach giving a low, traitorous rumble. The scent was intoxicating, a complex melody of yogurt and spices that bypassed her brain and spoke directly to a deeper, hungrier part of her.
Raj leaned forward, his smile knowing. “Come on. You need to keep your strength up. All that… stress… must be exhausting.” He let the word hang in the air, oily and suggestive. “Stress-eating over losing Leonard probably burns a few calories, anyway. So really, it’s a cycle.”
Her head snapped up, eyes flashing. “I am not losing anyone. And I am not stress-eating.” The denial was sharp, automatic. But even as she said it, her soft, manicured hand, its fingers now looking slightly plump, reached for a piece of garlic naan. She tore off a piece, the bread fluffy and blistered from the tandoor, and dragged it through the pool of butter chicken sauce on her plate.
She ate it slowly, deliberately, her gaze locked on her brother’s smug face. The flavors exploded on her tongue—creamy, tangy, with a subtle heat that built at the back of the throat. It was comfort. It was defiance. It was a temporary salve for the memory of silk buttons pinging off and skittering across Leonard’s floor.
She took another bite, larger this time. Then another. The structured bodice of her choli, the sari’s blouse, dug into the soft flesh of her sides and back. A fine sheen of sweat bloomed on her upper lip, partly from the spice, partly from the effort of containing her expanding form. She could feel the precise points where the seams were straining, a silent, desperate protest against the feast she was consuming.
“See? You were hungry,” Raj murmured, watching her with an unsettling intensity as she forked a chunk of lamb, the meat so tender it barely required chewing. He pushed the bowl of rice closer. “The basmati is especially good tonight. Don’t waste it.”
Priya didn’t respond. Words felt like too much effort. Her focus had narrowed to the plate, to the act of consuming. Each rich mouthful was a rebellion against Penny’s smirk, against the humiliation of the gaping blouse, against the unsettling, hungry look in Leonard’s eyes that she couldn’t quite decipher. She filled the hollow, anxious space inside her with food, her movements becoming less graceful, more urgent.
By the time she pushed the empty plate away, a profound, heavy fullness had settled in her. It was a familiar feeling now, a weighted anchor in her gut. She felt… substantial. Grounded. The sharp edges of her anxiety had been blunted by a pleasant, drowsy lethargy.
She went to adjust the pallu, to pull it gracefully over her shoulder as she always did, and felt a distinct, terrifying resistance. A sharp, internal pop of a thread, then another. The delicate embroidery along the seam of the choli, right under her arm, had given way. It wasn’t a dramatic rupture, not like the buttons. It was a subtler, more insidious failure. A quiet surrender.
Her breath hitched. She kept her arm pressed tightly to her side, hiding the small, undeniable tear.
“Ready to go?” Raj asked, his mission clearly accomplished.
Priya just nodded, not trusting her voice. She slid out of the booth, her movements careful, conscious of the new fragility of her clothes and the heavy, ripe fullness of her own body. The sari felt different now. It wasn't just tight. It was a lie, and it was starting to unravel.