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The doors opened, and Mike walked from the subway platform onto the train. He wasn’t meeting Charlotte today—she had a bachelorette party—but he was going to have some late-afternoon drinks on a patio with Mason and Cody. Mason had been raving about the beer selection at this place.
Mike sat down on one of the red subway seats and was about to pull out his phone, maybe play a stupid game, when he noticed the older Asian man sitting across from him.
It looked like his father.
Mike clenched his hands into fists as his heart started beating uncomfortably fast.
Do you know how hard it is for me? To have a son who is such a disappointment?
He took another long look at the man, who was engrossed in a book and thankfully didn’t notice him staring.
No, Mike didn’t think that was his father.
But he hadn’t seen his father in eight years, not since he’d told his parents that he wouldn’t be speaking to them anymore. They’d hurled insults at him and tried to make him feel guilty for abandoning them.
Mike’s gaze shifted to the right, landing on a woman of about sixty who looked nothing like his mother. She had a big sun visor perched on her head and was also reading a book.
Though it was possible his parents had gotten divorced and his father had remarried...
The man glanced up and caught Mike looking, and Mike offered him a small smile and nod, which the man returned before looking back at his book.
Definitely not his dad. Merely a doppelgänger.
Still, Mike couldn’t help feeling unsettled, and those old feelings of guilt returned.
Good sons were not supposed to abandon their parents as they got older. They were supposed to take care of them. His parents were likely spinning sob stories about how their adult children refused to talk to them, gaining sympathy from people who didn’t know the whole story. They would portray Mike as a monster and say they didn’t know why they’d been cut out of their children’s lives.
But this was what he and Angela needed. He did not owe anything to people who had treated him so horribly. He should not let himself feel guilty.
I am okay.
I did the right thing.
Sure, he wasn’t one of those men with a crappy childhood who’d built an empire to prove everyone wrong. Mike’s life was modest, but it was a good life. He had an apartment and a job that he was reasonably good at. He had friends. He even had a girlfriend, and she got rid of spiders for him and thought he was pretty great.
When he got off the subway in the east end, he was still slightly unsettled, even though he’d spent many minutes trying to give himself positive self-talk.
He was nearly at the bar when his phone vibrated. He took it out and smiled when he saw the text was from Charlotte.
My parents invited us to visit them in two weeks. We can stay overnight and they’ll even, shockingly, let us share a room. They’re very excited we’re dating and want to see you again. I didn’t mean to tell them yet, I promise, but Julie opened her big mouth.
Meeting his girlfriend’s parents—yeah, they definitely weren’t taking it slow. But he already knew these people. True, they hadn’t seen him in twenty years, but still.
They wanted to see him.
When he was a child, these were the parents he’d wished for. He wanted to see them, too.
This would be easier than meeting a girlfriend’s parents whom he’d never met before. In that case, he’d be really nervous, afraid they’d treat him like his own parents did.
You can say no, Charlotte texted. It’s soon, I know. And I’m not sure how fun it would be, though we could go to the beach, if the weather’s nice.
He was already thinking of Charlotte in a bathing suit.
Well, he wasn’t sure Charlotte would wear the sort of bathing suit he had in mind, but he was sure she’d look great nonetheless.
Sure, I’d be happy to go, he replied.
He got to the bar and snagged the last table on the patio. Mason and Cody weren’t here yet, so when he got another text message, he looked at it immediately.
It was from his sister.
You want to visit us on Labor Day weekend?
Sorry, I’ve got a wedding, he replied.
Who’s getting married?
A friend of my girlfriend’s.
YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?
Quit yelling.
He wasn’t surprised when his phone rang a minute later.
“I wasn’t yelling,” Angela said, by way of greeting. “It was a text message.”
“Well, you’re yelling now,” he said.
“I’m just surprised, that’s all. What about the weekend after Labor Day?”
“We’re, uh, going to see her parents. You know Charlotte Tam, she lived next to us—”
“You’re dating Charlotte?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. We met at a bar, and she asked me to teach her how to date—”
“She asked you to give her dating lessons? You?”
“Stop laughing. She thought I was some kind of dating expert because of my charm and good looks.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, at some point we decided to start dating for real.” After she proposed we have practice sex... And because it was on his mind, and he wanted his sister to stop laughing, and she was the one person who’d understand, he said, “I saw Dad’s doppelgänger on the subway today and it freaked the fuck out of me. All these ridiculous thoughts started running through my head. The words they used to say to us.”
“You’re too sensitive.”
Angela didn’t seem to be in the mood to empathize today.
“Sorry,” she said a moment later.
He sighed. Any conversation about their parents put them both on edge. “It’s okay. We’ll see each other soon, alright? But the weekend after we go to Ashton Corners is Charlotte’s birthday, so probably not then.”
He ended the call, and a few minutes later, Mason and Cody slipped into the chairs across from him. A nice afternoon with his friends. Just what he needed to forget about his parents.
He wondered how Charlotte’s bachelorette party was going. She’d be meeting her friends around now, too.
God, he’d been so shaken just from seeing a man who looked like his father. Had he really moved on from his past enough for a relationship?
* * *
“We’re having a food crawl?” Charlotte asked Sierra.
They were sitting in the living room of Sierra and Amy’s house, the one that Amy had inherited from her great aunt. Once she was married, she’d move to Victor’s house, which was right next door. The plan was for Rose to live at the house with Sierra once Rose’s lease was up—she’d recently talked to Sierra and Amy about it.
Amy was currently upstairs, getting ready.
“Yeah,” Sierra said. “We’ll go to lots of small plates and dessert places. There will be alcohol, too, don’t worry. What’s the problem? Amy will like it, and it’s not like we’re doing karaoke.”
Charlotte bristled at the thought of karaoke. Saying karaoke was not her thing was an understatement.
“There’s no problem,” Charlotte said. “It’s a good idea. It’s just that I had lunch with my family, and I’m still full. Not sure how much I’ll be able to eat.”
Amy walked down the stairs, wearing a polka dot dress and a sash that said “Bride-to-be.” She had a tiara perched on her head.
“Let’s get this night started!” Amy said. “Where are we going first?”
They met everyone else at a place called Unicorn Bar. In addition to Charlotte, Sierra, Nicole, and Rose, there were a few of Amy’s friends from the university where she was currently doing her master’s degree.
Amy squealed in delight over her seven-layer rainbow cake—each layer was a different color. Charlotte didn’t need any food, but she tried to get in the spirit by drinking something called a Glitter Bomb, which contained a truly appalling quantity of edible glitter.
Next, they went to an izakaya. Charlotte still wasn’t hungry, but she couldn’t help herself from eating takoyaki. She did love octopus balls.
Then they all crammed into a place that served Japanese soufflé pancakes. No alcohol here; instead, Charlotte got a coffee, and she helped herself to some of the tiramisu pancakes.
“Victor and I come here every few months,” Amy said. “It was one of our first dates.”
Charlotte couldn’t help thinking about her own bachelorette party. They would not, of course, go to Unicorn Bar. Or do karaoke. And she would not wear a tiara or a goddamn sash. But it could be fun to do something other than hanging out at Ossington Cider Bar with her friends. Maybe they could go to Nautilus, which had been one of her first dates—well, practice dates—with Mike Guo.
“How are things going with Mike?” Amy asked.
“What?” Charlotte jumped and practically spilled her coffee—now that would have been a disaster. “We don’t need to talk about my dating life. This is your bachelorette party. Your night.”
“And I want to hear about Mike. As the bride-to-be, I demand you tell me.”
Charlotte sighed. “It’s going well. He cooked for me and brought me triple chocolate cake and flowers when I had menstrual cramps.”
“Aw.”
She didn’t mention Mike’s past, or how they both seemed to find it too good to be true.
Or how he’d caught her singing “Beauty and the Beast” in the shower.
“How are you feeling about getting married?” Charlotte asked.
“Oh, I’m so excited!” Amy said. “It’s going to be a great day.”
Even Charlotte found Amy’s energy a little infectious today, and she smiled.
Sierra certainly did have a full night planned. They had tapas after the soufflé pancakes, and Charlotte ate too many olives and bacon-wrapped dates. This was followed by a place that specialized in Indian street food.
But they still weren’t done.
They went to an ice cream shop, where Amy got a black cone with coconut ice cream that was also black thanks to activated charcoal, and she asked for it to be covered in rainbow sprinkles.
Charlotte ordered the same thing. Without the sprinkles, of course.
She was sure it tasted good both ways.
By the time they rolled into Ossington Cider Bar, they were absolutely stuffed and rather drunk, and Amy had put her tiara on Nicole’s head. Sierra, the weirdo that she was, still insisted on ordering her caramelized Brussels sprouts, but Charlotte stuck with a dry cider. Rose rested her head on Charlotte’s shoulder.
“How are you doing today?” Charlotte asked quietly.
“Better, thanks. Just tipsy now. I’ll find someone someday, won’t I?”
“Of course.” And Charlotte believed that. She was in an optimistic mood. If Rose wanted love, she was sure she’d find it.
It was nice to be out with her friends, celebrating with Amy, who’d be a married woman at this time next week.
Yet despite Charlotte’s busy day, she was still looking forward to going out with Mike tomorrow, rather than spending all day at home in her pajamas.