Made of Marigolds

Chapter 3: The Dupatta Rule

Her scarf slips toward a puja flame. He catches it before she registers it falling. The whole thing takes four seconds. He says: I should have come back after the wedding. She thinks about both things for four days.

Chapter 4: Room 7

Her grandmother reorganises the sleeping arrangements. Adjacent rooms, a connecting dressing room, a very old lock. Arjun fails to notice Priya's grief one afternoon. At 2:47am he knocks and says: I got it wrong. You can tell me now if you want.

Chapter 5: Prasad and Pretending

On Ashtami she leads the puja she doesn't fully know how to do. He guides her through it, feeds her the first four words of a forgotten mantra across the sacred fire. Her grandmother watches. Your grandfather would have liked to see this.

Chapter 6: The Rohan Problem

A wealthy family guest arrives and makes his interest clear — and then stays. Garba dancing, a hand-clasp that becomes a campaign, Arjun watching with visible cost. He tells Priya: I'm not particularly calm. I'm being careful. About what I want to do versus what I've agreed to do.

Chapter 7: Karva Chauth

Her grandmother puts the karva in her hands at five in the morning. Rohan is still there, patient and present. Arjun quietly doesn't drink water all day. At moonrise he holds the silver cup to her lips. Rohan sees it clearly and leaves. In the garden, Arjun says: I'm not performing it. Can you give me five days?

Chapter 8: Diwali Eve

They light sixty-three diyas together and Arjun tells her about being twelve and her grandfather and where his firm's philosophy came from. He says he's been counting since the wedding. The kiss in the courtyard — his hand at her jaw, the specific warmth of a man paying exact attention. She decides to trust the answer.

Chapter 9: The Withdrawal

Four days of making herself useful and unavailable. He gives her space without flinching, which is its own kind of torment. She overhears the project meeting from the garden: he tells her father he intends to stay. She goes to find him. I'm done calculating.

Chapter 10: The Last Garland

Her grandmother holds the final garland out to both of them: *You decide. You always could.* The family descends. The grandmother reveals she kept the karva for three years. In the garden afterward, Arjun says he's been thinking about where he's based. Delhi is a city he knows reasonably well. She says: I think you should consider it.

Chapter 11: After the Marigolds

He comes back from Mumbai with his drawings and his books. She decides about London. In December, in the kitchen, she goes to teach him her grandmother's four-in-the-morning chai. He says: she already taught me. Last Tuesday. Priya laughs — the full version. He watches her and the expression is completely unmanaged.

Chapter 12: Groundbreaking

Six months later. The Cultural Centre groundbreaking, the old trees preserved, the east wall of the haveli visible and repaired. Her grandmother hands Arjun the spade. He hands it to Priya. I'm choosing here, she tells him. The answer has been the same for six months. He laughs — the full version, unguarded — and she thinks: that's what correctly assembled looks like.