"Shanti!" Daya yelled the moment she stepped over the threshold. "Shanti, do you have a pair of sneakers with white soles? For the gym?"
Shanti looked up from a paperback in her lap. Her feet rested in a shallow steaming basin. The kids were staying overnight at Sameer's place, so she was intruding on an impromptu me-time.
She took the bubbliness down a notch. "Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay. And I have thirty-something pumps, four pairs of sensible work shoes and two dozen sandals, some of them even matching. But gym stuff... unless you want it baby-sized, you're out of luck. You should have brought your own. I can't believe you thought you could go for a week without a gym. You should have asked me. I would have told you, 'no, Daya, not gonna happen.'"
Daya sat cross-legged on the floor by Shanti's armchair. "I can take a week off gym once in a while. It's just something came up, and I wanted to practice for it."
On the cover of Shanti's book, a couple wrapped each-other in a passionate kiss, and a curly font along the bottom said Passionate. Shanti's thumb covered the rest of the title, but Daya figured that the book had nothing to do with accounting.
"Pavel wants to do a dry run for pairs. It's crazy, but—"
"I'm intrigued, but I don't follow," Shanti interrupted. "Pavel who? Wants to do what?"
Daya backtracked, explaining Sorokin, his minuscule role in her life to date, and his last-kick-at-the-can plan.
"Wait a minute. I thought you wanted to go small and local in Calgary?"
"I still do," Daya muttered to her sneakers. She felt like a naughty child asking for candy after she had already had had ice cream. "But there is no harm in having a Plan B, you know? Besides, it probably won't work. I haven't done anything with a partner in forever, and Pavel is dreaming in technicolor, and... maybe you're right, I should call him and say it's off. No reason to lead him by the nose if I am not truly invested and—"
"I didn't say you should not go," Shanti said. "It's just you are so excited that someone appreciates you, that I am afraid you'll build a fairy tale around it. Like that time with India. It ended up in tears."
Daya sighed. "I would have qualified for the international competitions if I had switched the flag. But it is in the past, and I know our family could never have afforded it."
"Sorry to bring it up, Daya, but it's relevant."
Shanti opened her book again where her forefinger saved her place. The full title revealed itself. Passionate Snare.
How appropriate, Daya thought.
"So go and try out with Pavel the Cool Guy, just don't expect miracles."
Daya suspected that Shanti used that same tone of voice on the twins.
"I'm too old to believe in miracles." If only! The cloud castle in the back of her mind was already sprouting turrets and unfurling banners.
"What did I tell you about calling yourself old? Now go buy yourself a pair of gym shoes. Go, go, before your fiddling gives me a nervous tick."
Shanti was right: despite making conscious efforts to simmer down, Daya bristled with energy. She jumped up and dashed out of the house like a rocket-propelled grenade.
***
Pavel was half an hour early for their meet up. Daya knew that because she was an hour early.
YOU ARE READING
Winners Don't Have Bad Days (Watty 2020 Winner, Romance)
ChickLitWhen a total stranger knows what eats you, maybe they are your one true love. Even if you don't know it yet. || On Friday the 13th, two twenty-something, Daya and Mike, end up in a mutually beneficial arrangement: she is his caregiver after he break...
