Page 19 of Four Aunties and a Wedding

“Ma, don’t—” But short of pouncing on her and tackling her, I don’t know how else to stop my mother. I watch helplesslyas she barrels into the living room before I follow, my cheeks burning. I can’t quite meet anyone’s eye.

“Sir Chris, I so sorry about what happen,” Ma announces.

Sir? What in the hell.

“I tell you what make it better, I make you my famous TCM drink, okay?” Ma turns to Annie and adds, “That’s traditional Chinese medicine,” very loudly, as though Annie were hard of hearing. “You know? Chinese medicine using all-natural herbs and roots and animal, not like Western medicine always using chemical.”

Annie nods weakly. “Yes, I think I mentioned before that Chris sometimes takes traditional Chinese medicine. Um, I suppose if you think it might help...”

Ma beams, practically shivering with a sense of purpose. “Very sure it will help, pasti, will help! I got packet of TCM in my bag, you wait here—”

“No, Ma,” Nathan says quickly. He knows very well what happened to Tom Cruise Sutopo’s groomsmen after a dose of Ma’s TCM. “Please don’t bother yourself, Dad will be just fine.”

“Is okay, not a bother.”

“Ma, really—”

A gasp from Annie makes us all stop and turn to look at her. She’s staring at Nathan as if he’s just punched a baby in the face.

“Mum? You okay?”

Annie’s expression is that of utter betrayal and pain. Slowly, softly, she says, “You call her ‘Ma’?”

Why do I keep thinking that this evening can’t possibly get any worse when it so obviously can? Our families are simply too different. Both sides are obviously baffled by the other. They’d been expecting some similarities, given Chris is not only Asian but of Chinese descent like us, but instead tonight has only highlighted how different we are.

We leave quietly not long after that, having not eaten much at all. Nathan says he’ll stay here for the night, make sure his dad’s okay, and I whisper, “I’m so sorry.” He nods and gives me a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. My stomach is just a large, tight knot.

The goodbyes are painful. I’m not sure if I should try to hug Annie. When I step toward her, she visibly stiffens, so I simply stand there and nod at her, smiling apologetically. “Thank you so much for the meal.”

The corners of her mouth lift ever so slightly. “Thank you for coming,” she says to us all. “We’ll see you at the—ah, well, we’ll see you at the—the wedding.” She spits out the word “wedding” as if it were stuck in her throat, as if she can’t believe she’s saying it.

And part of me can’t believe that there will be one either, especially not after tonight.

7

“I’m so glad you guys made it!” I say for the fourteenth time that night. What can I say, I’m on my fourth Pimm’s and I’ve gone from slightly buzzed to happy, loving drunk.

Selena grins as Seb squeals and hugs me. “Of course,” Selena says. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. My bestie, getting married!”

“Uh, excuse you, Meddy ismybestie?” Seb says.

“You guys are adorable,” Staph says, taking another gulp of her Pimm’s cocktail. “And these are amazing.”

“I can’t believe you’re getting married in one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” Seb says, “and I don’t get to photograph it!”

“Hush, you’re here as my guest.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to send you all the bad shots,” Staph says with a wink.

“Hey!” I groan.

“I like you,” Selena says to Staphanie. “Meds, you chose a great photographer. I thought Meddy was never going to be able to settle on a photographer. It’s like, you know how they say doctors make the worst patients? Well, wedding photographers make the worst brides. She kept finding fault with every photographer we found. I was beginning to think that she was going to do her own photography.” Selena mimes me setting up a camera on a timer and then running back in my huge wedding gown to strike a pose, and we all burst into laughter.

“You are such an ass.” I hug her tight. God, I’m so grateful for my friends, especially after the day I’ve had.

Nathan and I had spent the whole of today on various last-minute tasks: going to city hall to confirm our wedding registration, going to Christ Church College to go over the last-minute details, and sitting with Ama to go over the finer details of the wedding tomorrow. We also picked up Annie’s dress from the dry cleaners. She showed it to me at her house, obviously pleased with how the tailoring turned out. It’s a lovely dress—a knee-length gray number with little yellow flowers at the hem. It’s nice, but next to my mom and aunts’ outfits, Annie is going to look so underdressed. But maybe it’s not the case that she’ll look underdressed, more that my family will look insanely overdressed.

Under normal circumstances, spending the whole day running errands with Nathan would be a pleasant affair, but today, there was an undercurrent of... something. I could tell he was stressed out. It felt like there was a wedge between us, an invisible electric fence that would shock us if we overstepped. I asked him once or twice if everything was okay, after which he kissed me on the head or the cheek and told me everything was fine.

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