| |
Although the restaurant was called Congee Princess, Charlotte’s family hadn’t ordered any congee. Nor had any of the nearby tables, from what she could see. There was, of course, a whole page of congee in the menu, but the menu was as thick as a book.
She and Julie had let their parents order, as usual, and now their table was weighed down with massive amounts of food. Seafood chow mein. Fried eggplant with minced pork. Fried bean curd with vegetables. Scallops. Duck.
The server put a plate of vegetables with oyster sauce on their table. Fried rice appeared a moment later.
“You always order too much,” Julie said.
Mom clucked her tongue. “I make sure you have leftovers. I am a thoughtful mother! You are too skinny. Not eating enough.” She served Julie some bean curd.
“You know I don’t like that. You only order it because it’s Charlotte’s favorite.”
Charlotte, naturally, was in the middle of eating a delicious piece of bean curd.
“The seafood chow mein is for you, Julie,” Dad said. “Your favorite. We remember this.”
“We could also try new things,” Julie said. “We’ve only tried, like, one percent of the menu. Or we could go to another restaurant. There are lots of Chinese restaurants in Toronto.”
“But why go somewhere else when we know this place is good?”
Charlotte remembered coming to Congee Princess back when she was in high school, when they’d go to Toronto for a day. Her parents were creatures of habit in some ways.
She looked around at her family and felt thankful she hadn’t grown up in a situation like Mike’s. Not that she’d say such mushy thoughts out loud. Her parents would probably think she had food poisoning or had secretly gotten a brain transplant.
She grabbed another piece of eggplant with her chopsticks and stuffed it in her mouth.
Eggplant. Heh.
“What are you smiling about, Charlotte?” Dad asked.
“I wasn’t smiling,” Charlotte protested.
“I bet she was thinking about her new boyfriend,” Julie said.
All eyes were immediately on Charlotte.
She sent her sister a death glare. “Didn’t you say you’d had your best month ever on your Etsy store?” She needed to deflect attention away from her.
“Yes.” Julie beamed, though she was clearly bracing herself for what would come next.
“And I hear you got a new job?” Dad said. “At a cider bar?”
“The one where Charlotte drinks with her friends. Yep.”
“It’s time you got a real job. Like Charlotte.”
Charlotte felt guilty for turning the attention to Julie’s work, but she really hadn’t wanted to talk about her boyfriend. Plus, their parents were going to talk about Julie’s employment situation at some point anyway, though maybe it wouldn’t have happened for another ten minutes if Charlotte hadn’t mentioned her sister’s Etsy store.
“Charlotte’s boyfriend is Mike Guo,” Julie said.
“Julie!” Charlotte hissed.
“Is this true?” Mom asked.
“Yes.” Charlotte stabbed a piece of bean curd with her chopstick.
“Why do you sound angry? Is he not treating you right?” Dad’s voice had an edge to it.
“No, he’s treating me well.”
“She just doesn’t want to deal with all your questions,” Julie said.
Yeah, and if you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have to.
“You don’t want us to ask questions?” Mom turned to Charlotte. “Wah, you know this isn’t possible. We have so many. What’s he doing now?”
“He’s a financial planner at a bank.”
“It’s good to marry a financial planner. He will know what you should do with your money. Good for retirement.”
Charlotte choked on her chow mein. “Thanks, Mom. That’s exactly why I’m dating him.”
“Unless he’s bad at his job,” Julie said. “Then you might lose all your money.”
“I’m sure Mike is not a bad financial planner,” Dad said. “He was a smart boy. This is a good career, don’t you think, Julie? You should consider it.”
Julie smacked her face with her hand.
And Charlotte, as annoyed as she was that Julie had mentioned Mike, understood her sister’s frustration.
She and Julie didn’t have much in common. They’d both enjoyed arts and crafts as kids, but that was about it. They were otherwise completely different in interests, skills, and temperament.
Charlotte couldn’t imagine being a waitress or doing any kind of job that involved customer service. That sounded like a nightmare. But Julie didn’t seem to mind, and their parents were hung up on the fact that she’d never had a “prestigious” job.
Fortunately for Julie, the conversation quickly turned back to Mike.
“Is he handsome?” Mom asked. “I bet he’s handsome now. Show me a picture.”
“I don’t have a picture,” Charlotte said.
“There might be a picture of him on the bank’s website. Or Facebook.” Mom pulled out her phone.
“Fine, fine.” Charlotte grabbed her own phone. “I’ll show you his Facebook profile.”
“Ugh. Facebook,” Julie said. “You guys are so old.”
“What’s wrong with Facebook?” Mom frowned. “I thought it was cool and hip.”
Charlotte and Julie looked at each other, similar expressions on their faces for once.
“I used it to find my university classmate,” Mom said. “We hadn’t seen each other in thirty years, and she’s in Tokyo now... Oh, is that his picture? Handsome, yes. Nice smile. You should find a man like this, Julie.”
Julie heaved out a sigh. “I won’t date a financial planner.”
“That’s okay,” Dad said. “We will settle for a doctor or pharmacist.”
“Settle for a doctor. You’re funny.”
“Mike had such a crush on Charlotte when you were kids,” Mom said.
“He told me,” Charlotte said. “Apparently everyone knew but me.”
“How could you not know? He followed you around like a lost puppy! And when you told him to shut up and draw in silence at the other end of the room, he listened.”
“I did not tell him to shut up.”
“Yes, you did. I scolded you for it.” Mom reached for the scallops. “How are his parents?”
It was inevitable they’d come to this topic eventually, which was part of the reason Charlotte hadn’t wanted to talk about Mike yet.
“He doesn’t speak to them anymore,” she said.
“What do you mean? Only once a month?”
“No. Not at all. His parents were terrible—did you know that? They were awful to him and his sister.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other.
“Sometimes we wondered,” Mom said, “but we didn’t know anything for sure.”
“You could have called the Children’s Aid Society,” Charlotte said. “Asked them to look into it.”
“We weren’t raised in this country. We didn’t know much about these things, and whether they would treat families like his—or ours—fairly. Whether they would understand. And we heard bad stories about the foster system.”
Charlotte couldn’t help wondering what might have been different for Mike and Angela if there had been some kind of intervention. But what would talking about it do? It was the past.
“That’s why we let him come over so much,” Mom said. “We wouldn’t have let you have friends over on school nights, but I thought maybe he was avoiding something at home and it was better for him to be with us when his parents let him. Plus, he didn’t distract you much. You would do your homework together, and he was nice and polite. Why don’t you invite him to meet up with us today? Where does he live?”
“No, I’m not ready for that.”
“Okay. In two weeks, then.” Mom poured everyone more tea.
“Two weeks?” Charlotte sputtered.
“You have a wedding next weekend, yes? The following weekend, you and Mike will come to Ashton Corners, what do you think?” She elbowed Dad, as if to say, Isn’t this clever?
Charlotte sighed.
“You can even sleep in the same room,” Mom said.
Charlotte choked on her shrimp. “What? You never let Brad—”
“But now you’re over thirty.”
“That’s the age requirement to share a room with a man?” Julie asked.
“I don’t know what you do in Toronto.” Mom waved her hand away from her. “Don’t tell me. But in my house, that is the rule.”
“I thought the rule was not until we’re engaged. You just made this up because you like Mike, and Charlotte is getting old.”
“Hey!” Charlotte said.
“Well, I’ve been thinking,” Mom said. “It’s the twenty-first century. Maybe I should be flexible.”
“It’s been the twenty-first century for most of my life,” Julie grumbled.
“So, you will bring Mike to visit us?” Mom asked Charlotte.
“I’ll see what he thinks. He might have plans.”
“I’m sure he’s still like a puppy, eager to please you. Except with grown-up muscles.”
“Maybe I don’t want to go.”
“But it would be so good to see you at home, and it’s supposed to be a nice September. You can go to the beach and sunbathe. Even swim. The water will be much warmer than when you visited in June.”
Reluctantly, Charlotte admitted it sounded a bit appealing. Especially the thought of seeing Mike in a bathing suit, though she could see him shirtless any night she wanted.
“You should come, too,” Mom said to Julie.
“I have to work. And remember, I’m also working tonight, so if you want to go shopping, we should get going.”
“Ah, you are right. You sure you don’t want to come, Charlotte?”
“I’ll pass, thank you.”
“Might be for the best,” Mom said. “You would just sulk in the corner the whole time.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”
“Julie has better taste than you, and she’s a better sport. She would not be sulking.”
Julie stuck out her tongue at Charlotte, and Charlotte rolled her eyes.
Sometimes they still acted like they were kids.
“Though I know what size you are,” Mom said. “Perhaps I will buy you something nice to wear on a date with Mike.”
“Please don’t.” Charlotte shoved some bean curd in her mouth. “Last time you bought me a shirt, it had tassels on it.”
“Why are you complaining? They were very stylish tassels. Weren’t they, Julie?”
“It wasn’t a completely terrible shirt, although I wouldn’t have bought it for myself.”
“You see?” Mom said to Charlotte. “Julie agrees it was just your style.”
Charlotte shook her head. “That’s not what she said. If you must buy me something today, how about another pair of pajama pants?”
“You’re trying to mess with me.” Mom shook her finger. “I know you don’t need more pajamas. Or shirts with bad geology jokes.”
Julie snorted.
“I can take care of my own clothes,” Charlotte said. “Sometimes Nicole helps.”
“Well, we will see if any cute tassels catch my eye.”
“Mom!” Charlotte said, before realizing her mom was just trying to get a rise out of her.
Dammit, she hated when she fell for her family’s bait.
Dad looked around the table. “Is everyone done eating? I’ll ask them to pack up the food.”
“I’m finished.” Charlotte was stuffed.
“What are you doing for the bachelorette party tonight?” Mom asked. “I hope there will be lots of dancing. You always like dancing.” She held her arms in the air and swayed.
“Very funny.” Charlotte glanced around to see if anyone was looking at her mother. Fortunately not. She felt like a teenager embarrassed by her parents. “I’m not sure what we’re doing. Sierra planned it.”
Whatever they did, Charlotte hoped it would wipe the memory of this painful family lunch from her mind.
But no matter what, she would not be dancing.