During the week it wasn't so bad. Work kept her busy, and she and Laxmi had begun having lunch
together at a new Indian restaurant around the corner, during which Laxmi reported the latest status of her
cousin's marriage. Sometimes Miranda tried to change the topic; it made her feel the way she once felt in
college when she and her boyfriend at the time had walked away from a crowded house of pancakes without
paying for their food, just to see if they could get away with it. But Laxmi spoke of nothing else. "If I were
her I'd fly straight to London and shoot them both," she announced one day. She snapped a papadum in
half and dipped it into chutney. "I don't know how she can just wait this way.