Page 23 of Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

“Right!” Vera says. “We go around the table and say how we know this Thomas or Xander or John.”

Silence befalls the table. To Millie’s horror, Vera points at her. “You,” Vera says. “You bring the case to me, so you start.”

“Uh—” Millie looks around with the desperation of a trapped animal. “Um, okay. Yes. Right. Thomas was my friend.”

“Who’s Thomas?” Aimes says.

“Thomas is Xander,” Vera says.

Aimes narrows her eyes. “I don’t get it.”

Vera sighs impatiently. “Thomas and Xander and John are all same person. Aiya, how come you don’t know all this about your boyfriend? When I date boy, I know everything about them, even their blood type.”

Millie’s chest constricts. Boyfriend? This beautiful girl with hair like honey and eyes like storm clouds is…Thomas’s girlfriend? Shame curdles Millie’s gut. No wonder Thomas hadn’t been interested in her.

Vera continues her lecture, oblivious to the storm raging inside Millie. “You listen to me, you young people, follow my advice when you date, you will not regret it. First thing you should find out when you dating someone is…?”

“Is that a rhetorical question—oh, you actually want us to answer,” Aimes says. “Hmm, their star sign?”

“No!” Vera snaps. “Although, well, yes, you should find out if they are born in the year of ox or ram, etcetera. But that is not first thing, that is maybe the third thing. Anyone else?”

“What they do for a living?” Robin pipes up.

“No! Aiya, what they teaching you kids in school? Although, well, yes, you should find out that also. Maybe that one should be second thing. Good job. Okay, but first thing you find out is: Who are their family?”

Qiang Wen nods in agreement, but everyone else looks dubious.

“If you know their family, you know a lot about them. Whether they are from good background or not. You trust me,” Vera says, wagging a finger at them. “Aimes, next time you remember, must meet his parents first before you even date him.”

“I…don’t think that’s possible, but thanks for the advice,” Aimes mutters. Then she turns to Millie.

Millie finds herself at a loss for words at the sight of Aimes’s gray eyes trained on hers. She envies girls like Aimes. Girls who are effortlessly beautiful, but more than that, girls who effortlessly belong. And everything about Aimes is so effortless. Even the way her silk scarf drapes over her shoulders so neatly and naturally. Millie has grappled with scarves a million times and still she can’t get them to fall over her shoulders like that.

“So, how did you meet Xan?”

Xan. Just like that, so cool. Millie sounds the word out in her mind, turning the syllable over and feeling the shape of it. Xan. So unlike the Thomas she knew. But that was just it. She didn’t know him, maybe. “Um.” Her mind flails to come up with an answer. “I—well, we lived next to each other.”

Aimes’s eyes widen. “Wow, you fancy.”

“Huh?” Now Millie really is at a loss.

“Xan lived in Haight-Ashbury, right? Houses there cost like, what, five mil at least?”

“What?” Millie can hardly keep the shock out of her voice. “He lived—” She stops herself just in time. Her thoughts race ahead of her. She’s already made a huge mistake telling them that she and Thomas were neighbors. Too close to the truth. She needs to back away from that now.

But of course, it’s too late. Vera, who is apparently an actual investigator instead of a lonely old woman with too much time on her hands, has noticed the suspicious air about Millie. “Thomas lie about where he live?” she says, her sharp eyes on Millie. “He does not live in Haight-Ashbury?”

Millie shakes her head dumbly. “I…I don’t know. Maybe he has another place that I didn’t know about. I mean, we weren’t very close. I hardly knew anything about him.”

“Oh, I think you a lot closer than you say,” Vera says. Then, thank god, Vera turns to Aimes. “Have you not been to Thomas’s house?”

Aimes shakes her head, looking guilty.

“Aiya!” Vera snaps. “What kind of relationship you two in? How can you not go to boyfriend’s house?”

Aimes groans and puts her hands over her face. “Oh my god, it was a very casual relationship, okay? We weren’t ever going to get married or anything like that. We were just dating.”

Vera harrumphs. “I don’t like this word ‘dating.’ Sounds so unserious. Relationships are very serious; they are not just between two people, they are between two families.”

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