Page 61 of Worth Fighting For

“The other way around?” Mushu lifts an eyebrow. “Uh. You mean, you tried something and he didn’t want it? Oh, girl. Okay, I know you must be humiliated right now, and it is pretty humiliating, I won’t lie to you, but you’ve done much worse things.”

“No, it’s not—Wait, I have? Like what?”

“Like the time Cousin Joey celebrated his birthday and you got so excited you blew out the candles?”

I snort. “I was six years old.”

“I’m just saying, I don’t think Cousin Joey’s forgiven you for that one. You know, he’s in therapy.”

“Because I blew out his birthday candles when we were kids?” I say flatly.

“I’m not saying that’s the reason, but I’m notnotsaying it isn’t, either.”

There is a pause as both of us regard what she just said.

“I think you used triple negatives there, so you went full circle,” I say.

Mushu looks ponderous. As she opens her mouth to argue, I continue: “Anyway! I didn’t—we didn’t—well, we did, but then I stopped and it got all weird.”

Mushu’s eyes grow so wide they look like they’re about to pop right out of her head. “Oh my god. Go back. What do you mean you did? What? You can’t just casually drop that in there.”

I release a long sigh. “We were making out, okay? Nothing else.”

“Nothing else?” Mushu screeches.

“Shh!”

“Sorry,” she whispers. “Oh my god.” Her mouth turns into a thin line and she looks like she’sthis closeto actually exploding. “Making out!” she squeals.

“You wanna shout that a little louder? I don’t think his entire family heard it.”

“Sorry, I’m just so excited for you! Wait, so why did you stop? Oh no, is Shang a bad kisser?”

“No.” My cheeks warm up as I recall those incredible, earth-shattering kisses. God no. “Far from it. But at one point he said my name—”

“Oh, I love it when they do that. That’s so hot.”

“He called meZhou,” I say flatly.

“Ah.” Mushu deflates and flops onto the bed. “Damn, talk about a mood killer.”

“Yeah. It made me feel so guilty I just had to stop.” I look out of the window, unable to face even my cousin. “God, what am I doing here? Deceiving him, not to mention his family. All these people who have been nothing but kind to us.”

Mushu sits back up. “Um, nothing but kind to us? Okay, hold up. I mean, are you deceiving them?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Okay, technically yes. But do you not remember why we had to do this? His family is so patriarchal you couldn’t have done this as Mulan. And even as Zhou, you couldn’t just convince them with your flawless track record, because they’re so sexist. No, you’ve had to bend over backward to prove that you’re man enough to do whatever it is needs doing around here. They’re hardly innocent in all this.”

I sigh. “Yeah, but Shang isn’t like that.”

“Really? Stoic hunk of a dude isn’t like the rest of his family?” Mushu looks very skeptical, and I find myself wanting to defend Shang.

“He really isn’t. At least, I don’t think he is. I don’t know, I had this image of him as—well—someone like James or Uncle Hong, but he keeps doing things to contradict that image.”

“Yeah, well, most people don’t fit neatly into one category. Anyway, I get it, it’s not the ideal situation, but you’ve gotta remember what’s truly important here.”

“The acquisition,” I say, at the same time that Mushu says, “Getting laid.”

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