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Iris took off her shoes in the front hall of her grandmother’s house and put down her bag before entering the kitchen.
“You’re home!” Ngin Ngin was stirring something on the stove. “At last. You said you’d be home at six or six-thirty, and it’s seven now.”
Seven o’clock was the time Ngin Ngin had said she’d have dinner ready every weekday.
“Sorry,” Iris said. “I had to get something out today before I left, and I had to spend longer than expected at the hospital.”
Ngin Ngin frowned. “Why were you at the hospital?”
“We’re doing an addition at East Markham Hospital. I have to stop by every now and then to make sure everything is going well.”
“Is that the Charles Fong Cardiology Wing? I heard about this.”
Iris nodded. “That’s it.”
“Charles Fong has three sons. Little older than you. Maybe you will meet one of them. I think the oldest is a billionaire. Maybe you prefer billionaire over man who owns landscaping company?” Ngin Ngin frowned again. “Actually, I think the oldest son has a girlfriend now, but third son got rich from selling tech company.”
“Ngin Ngin! Enough with the matchmaking.”
“Just saying. It’s a possibility.”
“I doubt his sons will be there, and I am not up to date on the gossip. I have no idea whether they have girlfriends or not.” She paused. “It smells really good in here.”
“Pad Thai,” Ngin Ngin said. “I learned to make it at the Thai cooking class I took last summer, remember?”
A few minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table with their food.
“Wow,” Iris said after her first bite. “This is amazing.”
“I know. I make good Thai food.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
“It’s nice to have you here for dinner,” Ngin Ngin said. “I looked forward to it all day.”
Aw. This was why she was living with her grandmother. Comments like those melted her steel heart just a little.
No more thinking of steel, Iris.
“How was your day?” Ngin Ngin asked. “You do good engineering work?”
“I spent most of the day writing a report.”
“You have to do much writing as an engineer? I thought engineering was all about numbers.”
“I often have to write reports, too.”
“How about trip to hospital? How was that?”
“It was...fine.”
“You hesitated. I think it’s not fine.” Ngin Ngin picked up some noodles with her chopsticks.
“Just the site supervisor I have to work with.”
“You don’t like him?”
“You could say that.”
She didn’t hate Alex. She just hadn’t planned on ever seeing him again, and he’d been rather infuriating today. Their conversations had been completely different from when they were at The Thirsty Lumberjack. She didn’t remember there being this much sniping three weeks ago.
Ngin Ngin grinned. “This could be an enemies-to-lovers story. I know all about these things. I see it in movies and read it in books. I started reading Harlequin romance novels, did you know? They’re short and easy to read. Well, I assume they’re easy for you to read. For me, still a bit of a struggle, but I can do it. And many books have a man and woman who are enemies, then go to bed together.”
“Alex and I have already gone to bed together,” Iris muttered.
Shit.
She was having dinner with her grandmother, not Crystal or Rebecca, and she didn’t need Ngin Ngin knowing about her sex life. She’d spoken quietly, though. With any luck, her grandmother hadn’t understood.
“Wait.” Ngin Ngin dropped her chopsticks. “You already slept together?”
Well, today just wasn’t her lucky day, was it?
“Just once,” Iris said. “Before I knew I’d be working with him.”
Actually, they’d had sex twice, both times on the same night, but Iris wasn’t going to correct herself.
“He’s not good in bed?” Ngin Ngin asked. “Is that why you only did it once?”
“This conversation is ending. Right now.”
“Aw. I thought it was a great conversation!”
“Not a great conversation to have with my grandmother, no.”
Ngin Ngin drew her eyebrows together. “Can’t think of the right word. Just a minute. I wrote it down yesterday—I found it in the book I’m reading.” She hobbled to the living room, then came back a minute later with a sheet of paper. “Vicariously. Yes, that’s the word. I live vicariously through you.”
“I’m happy to tell you about certain things,” Iris said. “Like going out to the bar and going dancing. But some parts of my life are off-limits.”
“Where did you meet this man the first time?”
Iris looked down. “At a bar.”
“So you can tell me all about it!”
“Nope. Not happening.”
“What’s his name?”
“Alex.”
“Is he a white man? Like Elliot and Connor and Robert Redford?”
“No.”
“Black man like Jonathan?”
“No.”
“You know who Sidney Poitier is? He made movies many years ago. I think he’s handsome. What do you think?”
“Alex is Chinese,” Iris had another bite of pad Thai. “What did you do today, other than making me dinner and looking forward to eating with me?”
Ngin Ngin shook her finger. “I know what you’re doing. You changed the subject. I will let you, just for tonight. While you were at work, I read the newspaper, plus chapter of Harlequin romance novel. Then I went to see Mrs. Yee and buy bean sprouts for pad Thai. Then I ate lunch and had a nap. Then I watched the weather channel and tried to figure out how to make Netflick work so I can watch more Robert Redford movies, but could not figure it out. You show me after dinner, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Maybe afterward, you can also tell me more about Alex?”
“There’s no reason for me to do that.”
“You know, I won’t be around forever. Am very old. One day, I will be dead, and you will say, ‘I wish I told Ngin Ngin about hot Chinese man I slept with!’”
“Somehow, I don’t think I’ll ever say that,” Iris said, “and I suspect you won’t be dying anytime soon.”
“You’re right. I will be like Kirk Douglas and live to triple digits!”
* * *
Alex scowled at his beer. He’d ordered a stout with raspberries because it was the only stout on the menu, but it was too damn fruity. Not like the alcoholic juice Iris had ordered, but still. He didn’t like fruit in his beer. He should have gone with the smoked porter instead.
It had been four weeks since he’d met Jamie and Eve at the bar, then brought Iris home with him. He hadn’t seen his friends since—and he hadn’t spent very long with them last time. He’d suggested they go to The Thirsty Lumberjack again, since it had twenty-four beers on tap, but now that he was here, he regretted it. He kept thinking about Iris, and besides, there wasn’t anything great on tap. Too many damn IPAs.
Jamie and Eve came in and sat across from him, their hands linked.
“Hey, man,” Jamie said. “I hope you don’t plan on deserting us after fifteen minutes again tonight.”
“I’m sorry about that. I—”
Jamie waved this off. “No, no. It was fine. Eve and I still had a great night. Did you see that woman again? What was her name?”
“Iris. Just a one-night stand, but apparently she’s one of the engineers for the project I’m working on now. She’ll be coming to site every week or two.”
Jamie slapped the table and laughed. “Oh, man.”
Alex had a sip of his subpar beer, then looked toward the bar, half-expecting to see Iris in her midnight-blue dress. If he was honest, the main reason he’d suggested meeting at The Thirsty Lumberjack was because Iris might be here. He desperately wanted to see her again, and at the same time, he desperately didn’t want to see her. And of course he wasn’t counting down the days until her next site visit.
Of course not.
“It was bad,” he said. “I accidentally told another guy at work that we’d slept together, and she was pissed. I may have also said some inappropriate things to her.”
Eve gave him a look. “Alex!”
“I know.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It was a mistake. I won’t do it again.”
It hadn’t been like him to say such things, to make lame jokes about vibration and steel erection. There was just something about Iris, something that made him crave getting a reaction out of her. She had an expressive face, and she was easy to annoy, and... It was just so much fun, and he didn’t have much fun these days.
Well, that was no excuse. He needed to act professional on site and make sure he didn’t make her feel uncomfortable, no matter how many jokes about pipe and drilling and steel erection were just begging to be told.
“So.” Alex needed to change the subject. “How have you two been?”
As soon as he asked the question, the waitress appeared, and Jamie and Eve placed their orders before Jamie answered Alex’s question.
“We’re good,” he said. “Looked at a bunch of venues for the wedding.”
“There’s an old theater on Mount Pleasant that’s now an event venue,” Eve said. “That’s probably what we’ll end up doing. Edwards Gardens was my first choice, but they’re booked up for the dates we want.”
“What about you?” Alex turned to Jamie. “What’s your first choice?”
Jamie shrugged. “They’re all nice. I’m happy with whatever Eve wants.”
“When he said I could do whatever I wanted,” Eve said, “I threatened to book a petting zoo.”
Jamie looked over at her and smiled.
Alex wasn’t jealous of what they had. He’d never been particularly keen on settling down, much to the frustration of his mother, though it wasn’t like he had a wild bachelor life.
What he wouldn’t give to have his mom bug him about girls again. It had always annoyed him, especially when she’d tried to set him up with the daughters of her friends. Unlike Alex, his mother had been a social person who’d had a lot of friends, and there was never any shortage of women she wanted to fix him up with. He’d always said no, and now he wished he’d said yes once or twice, even though he was certain nothing would have come of it.
Because now his mother was gone and they’d never have an argument again.
“Alex?” Eve said. “Are you okay?”
He’d never get to tell his mother about Jamie and Eve, either—they’d started dating a few weeks after her death. His mother had regularly asked for updates on Jamie.
He’s getting married! Can you believe it? He’s never dated a woman for more than two months before, and now he’s engaged after six months and he loves his fiancée so much that he would even get married at a petting zoo if that was what she wanted.
Alex had taken the fact that he could talk to his mother for granted. He’d never been terribly enthusiastic about giving his mother updates on his few friends and hadn’t understood why she kept asking.
His dad, on the other hand, never asked and didn’t even know the names of his friends. A few months ago, Alex had been talking to his father on the phone, and after a long pause in the conversation, he’d mentioned Jamie’s new girlfriend, not sure what else to talk about. His dad’s reaction had been, “Who’s Jamie?” Which wasn’t what Alex had been looking for, though he shouldn’t have been surprised.
He wasn’t adjusting well to his so-called “new normal.”
“I’m fine,” Alex said.
Eve looked skeptical, but she let it go.
Jamie had a sip of his beer, then leaned forward. “Got a question for you,” he said, a little more stiffly than usual. “Will you be one of my groomsmen? It would mean a lot to me.”
“That’s awful mushy, coming from you,” Alex said.
Jamie shrugged. “Will you?”
“Of course.” He smiled at his friend.
They chatted for several minutes about wedding food and flowers and favors, and other things Alex had never thought much about before. He tried to provide thoughtful opinions, but his mind wandered.
Hey, Mom. I’m going to be one of Jamie’s groomsmen. And you’ll never guess what happened to me. I met a woman at a bar called The Thirsty Lumberjack. Stupid name for a bar, don’t you think? Her name is Iris, and we...well, we went on a date. Now we have to work together, and I act like an idiot when she’s around. We piss each other off. I think you’d like her. You two would come up with great plans to annoy me.
Not that he would have said those exact words to his mother, and of course he never would have mentioned something like a one-night stand.
But dammit. He wished she was here to try to drag information out of him again.
He missed a lot of things that, only a year ago, he never would have imagined missing.