The Trouble with Hating You

by Sajni Patel

Liya is opinionated and strong and doesn’t take crap from anyone. Maybe the problem here is you and not her. All that judgmental, sexist shaming you’re doing isn’t reflective of her but defining you.”

“You must’ve done something to irritate her.” “She’s like a bear? The slightest movement provokes her? I just smiled.” “That did it, then,” he joked.

“Love is enough. It’s society’s views and old-world thinking that broke everything.”

With Preeti, society wanted to humiliate her because she fell in love with a non-Indian. With me, society wanted to banish me because I wasn’t chaste and polite and un-opinionated.

But there was a critical, heartbreaking question beneath it all: who wanted to marry a broken woman?

But without evidence of his sexual assault against me, his word against mine, the saint against the whore, there was no point. He was the reason I was broken. And he was the reason why I wasn’t welcomed here, with his malicious fueling of the gossip fire that made me stay away.

“That’s a tired excuse. She’s imperfect, too. We all are. Being imperfect isn’t an excuse for you to slander. And she has every right to be here. Sounds like maybe you need to sit in the front row during sermons as much as anyone else.”

And yet, here I was kind of wanting to date her. The real her. This her. The intelligent, funny, talented, free, laid-back woman who didn’t try to put up a hard exterior to keep everyone out.

“You’re intriguing, smart, independent, kind, gorgeous, and no other woman has the ability to make my heart beat so hard when she walks into a room. Why wouldn’t I want to be with you?”

“I see so deep into you, Liya, that you can’t hide yourself from me. Even things you don’t want me to see. I love every piece of beauty, every imperfection, and I can’t get enough.”

Besides, you don’t let a girl like Liya Thakkar get away.”

GAHHHH MY MULAN HEART

You’re the madness I need, the passion I breathe, the spark that brings me to life. I will go wherever you are.”