Leave and Come Back
Prologue
There’s nothing the universe enjoys more than upending the plans of a carefully constructed life.
Take Simran. She has always thought of herself like the heroines in her favorite Bollywood films—strong-willed, tenderhearted, and one hell of a dancer.
She just never imagined that she’d act like one.
But here she is, running through an airport to stop the man she’s hopelessly fallen for from getting on his flight.
Her lucent, parrot-green sari streams behind her like a windblown flag as she rushes past bay after bay of check-in counters, sidestepping wayward carry-ons and dodging confused travelers, head craned to spot that familiar crown of dark hair.
He’s not here. She might have already lost him forever.
In any other situation, she would roll her eyes at herself for thinking in dramatic declarations like a movie character.
But it’s him. He’s the only person who can make her throw away that marrow-deep instinct for isolated self-protection.
She doesn’t know how it all got so turned around, but she knows it’s her fault and she can’t let her family be the end of them.
Finally, the train of trolleys in her way clears and she rushes forward to the security check area. There are hundreds of people standing in the snaking line, with more joining every moment, and, crucially, more stepping through the body scanners and disappearing from her sight.
Please be here, she thinks. Don’t become another person it hurts to remember.
Her gaze moves frantically over the people clustered in front of her: stone-faced men in pristine corporate uniforms, teenagers wearing jeans so ripped they’re practically disintegrating, couples twinning in luxury-brand monogrammed sweat suits.
So many anonymous bodies shifting and crouching and bending and stretching and shuffling, until, smack-dab in the center of the line—
He appears, his silhouette like a city skyline, a head taller than everyone around him. In that movie she’s acting out, a touching acoustic version of the theme song plays in the background and every single thing except the two of them fades away.
“Leo!” she calls.