**Winner 2024 Amby Awards**
Fiza has everything planned-medical school, a respectable future, and an engagement she never wanted. Determined to escape a loveless match, she creates a checklist to find the perfect husband her father will approve of.
...
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The world snapped into a horrifying focus the second I saw Fiza's face. I broke the kiss instantly, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"I'm sorry, Anna, I need to go..." The words were out of my mouth before I could think.
I put gentle pressure on Anna's waist, trying to get her to move. But she didn't budge. She just stayed curled on my lap, her fingers still stroking my hair as if nothing had happened.
"You have feelings for her," she stated. It wasn't a question. It was a cold, matter-of-fact verdict.
I nodded. What else could I do? Lie? The truth was written all over my face. "I'm really sorry, Anna, I tried."
She slowly rose from my lap, and glared at me. "You think chasing after her will make a difference? She'll see right through you," she scoffed, and in that moment, she sounded exactly like Aarthy.
"You don't need to pretend to care. People can see right through you."
I stood frozen, her words hitting their mark with brutal precision. All my old insecurities rushed up, wrapping around my legs, rooting me to the spot. I had tried. Harder than I had ever tried with anyone. I had taken her on dates—dancing, bowling, movies. I'd been attentive, I'd held doors, I'd played songs for her. I'd tried to be the gentleman, the good boyfriend. And it had all been a performance she'd seen straight through.
"You were the worst boyfriend I've had," Anna spat out. "I was literally bored on our dates. I would wait for them to end."
Her words confirmed my deepest, darkest fear: there was something fundamentally wrong with me. Something broken inside that made me unlovable, that made me incapable of making anyone happy.
"You will never make a woman happy."
I wondered, with a sinking dread, if Fiza would eventually see it too. And when she did, if she would hate me as well.
Anna finally swept out of the jam room, bitterly ending the only real, attempt at a normal relationship I'd ever had.
I finally pushed myself out of the recliner and stepped out of the jam room. And that's when I saw it. Lying near the entryway, screen facing down. Fiza's phone. My heart dropped. I picked it up, turning it over. A spiderweb of cracks spread across the glass. She must have dropped it.
I fumbled with my own phone I pulled up Shahana's number. She'd know where Fiza went.
"Hello!" Shahana answered cheerfully.
"Hi Shahana, have you seen Fiza?" I asked, unable to keep the worry from straining my voice.
"Yeah, she was at the basketball court for her tryouts," she said, sounding confused. "I think she needed to pick up her headphones from the jam room, check there? Is everything okay?"
She'd come back for her headphones. And she'd found me with Anna.
"I'm not sure," I admitted, the guilt making my voice thick. "She saw me with Anna, and she seemed pretty upset."
