The Boyfriend Wish by Swati Teerdhala

Author:Swati Teerdhala
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

16

The county fair was one of those things that everyone liked to either complain about or pretend to hate but secretly loved. Not me, though.

I loved it completely and totally, ever since my dad had taken me when I was six and I had eaten my first funnel cake. To be fair, the complaints were somewhat legitimate, especially when it came to the local roads that had to be closed off to make room for all the rides and the tractors that carried them in. Definitely a traffic jam in the making.

But the funnel cakes were worth it.

Smokey Grill Farm was the usual host of the county fair, a mere five minutes away from our neighborhood. We made the trek out every year as a family, but recently, with my mom’s workload increasing and the fact that my dad was a local food celebrity, we had split up.

My dad would go earliest, getting there just as the stalls were setting up and helping out at the food corner within the fair. His stall was always the one that smelled the best, especially once he decided to pair up with Smiley’s Doughnuts and they created a jam custard doughnut together.

That’s right, jam custard. Not jelly. The distinction was important to my dad.

The doughnut itself was surprisingly delicious, and as a result, my dad’s stall became the one stall that always sold out. Ratna used to go with my dad to help every year, but apparently she was too old this year. Had friends she wanted to go with.

I’d have to keep an eye out for any friend named Toby.

The thought made me frown into the vat of raspberry jelly I was currently stirring. My mom had a massive deadline for her upcoming book and Mani had something or other. She’d become really secretive recently, but that was part of being fourteen, so I had come early to help my dad, and to sneak in a couple of fresh doughnuts before the hordes descended.

“Aren’t you happy I’m here instead of Ratna? She’d have eaten half of the raspberries and the chocolate for the chocolate drizzle,” I said. I nudged my dad with my elbow, a teasing grin at the edges of my mouth. He wore a backward baseball cap and an apron that said “Always Stirring the Pot.”

“Deepa, you know I would never play favorites with my daughters,” my dad said. He looked up from his steaming tray of freshly fried doughnuts and winked at me. “Though you’re not wrong. I brought Ratna to the spring fair and I had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store halfway through.”

“Chocolate?”

“Chocolate.”

“It’s surprising how she can, and will, eat any form of it,” I said, carefully spooning out raspberry jam from the cooled batch into a tall mason jar. Smiley Chen, from Smiley’s Doughnuts, would come over soon with his famous custard, and that’s where the magic happened. A jammy, custardy doughnut. My mouth watered just thinking about it. “Even white chocolate.”

“That used to be your mom’s favorite, you know,” my dad said.

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