Curvy Girls Can't Date Bad Boys - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,3

said.

“Are we at this again?” he asked. “I hear five words from you all day and half of them are ‘good’?”

“Technically, that would be one-fifth.”

He eyed me across the table and let out the world’s heaviest sigh. He thought I was being difficult? How about him?

“Until we can revisit my arrangement with Ryde, I don’t see anything to talk about.” I stared at my plate and the food that suddenly looked unappetizing.

Dad put his silverware down and folded his fingers. “Enlighten me. What is so wrong with this multi-million-dollar movie star who thousands of girls would kill to marry?”

“Nothing.” I stabbed at my chicken.

“Zara,” he pleaded. “I miss talking to you. Since your mother’s been gone, it’s always been the two of us—”

“And the nanny,” I muttered.

“—I miss having you as my partner in crime.”

I looked up at him, the hope in his eyes nearly tearing me apart. “I used to be your partner in crime, but lately I’m nothing but a pawn in your business. You want me to marry the most vapid, shallow, judgmental, self-obsessed—”

“I tried to pair you with our head of PR! He’s helped allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity!”

“He’s thirty years old!” I cried. “That’s gross!”

Dad frowned. “And what about the director’s assistant? A young twenty-five, and on his way to—”

“A bald head and a bad attitude?” I finished. “And don’t even start with the parade of ‘suitable’ Indian men who just want me to be a sari-wearing housewife.”

He stood with his plate. “I try. I go outside our culture to find you a match, I listen to you in ways my parents never would have considered listening to me, and this is the repayment I get? An ungrateful attitude and constant argument.” He shook his head with all the disappointment he could muster. Which was a lot. “Ryde is a perfectly fine young man. He shows up to work on time. He doesn’t throw a prima donna attitude like most of the other actors, and he’s good at what he does. With a career that’s shaping up like his is, you will be well taken care of and have plenty of opportunities to pursue what it is you want.”

The resolution behind his words shattered me, and it took all my strength to lift my chin and say, “But what if what I want is to find true love?”

“Then you will be always disappointed.” He sighed. “Love isn’t something you find. It’s something you create.”

“That’s not—”

He shook his head. “I’m eating dinner in my office.”

Without Dad here, the dining room felt too large. I clung to the feeling of isolation, though, because soon I wouldn’t have that option. I’d be married—to Ryde if my dad had his way—and I’d never get a chance to see who I was by myself ever again.

I knew girls even younger than me were getting married all the time in my parents’ home country of India, but hadn’t he come to the United States to start a new life for himself? And he’d created a good one. Who would have thought the son of an engineer and a homemaker would eventually create his own movie production company? One of the fastest growing and most successful in Hollywood at that.

Not feeling hungry anymore, I took my plate to the kitchen and set it in the sink before going upstairs to my room. For a while, my homework was enough to distract me, but there were only so many references you could site on an English composition research paper about fifth-century literature.

When I finished and uploaded the document, it was nearly time for me to go to sleep. To relax, I lay back on my bed and flicked through channels on the TV. I hadn’t expected to hear my name.

“Zara Bhatta and Ryde Alexander are the latest ‘it’ couple on the Hollywood scene. Spotted this morning at a café in his hometown, they seem to be getting quite cozy. I suppose it pays to have connections. Bhatta is the daughter of Viraj Bhatta, owner of Bhatta Productions...”

I almost flipped it off, until a video of Ryde and his friend Ambrose flashed across the screen. Reporters were shoving mics in their faces, trying to get the best question in.

“Ambrose, how do you feel about your best friend coming off the market?”

His friend sent a sultry smirk at the camera. “More girls for me.”

I rolled my eyes. These were everyone’s heroes? Their crushes? Sure, Hollywood, acting, fame seemed so alluring from a