Page 39 of Just Another Meet Cute
“Thanks. Live for nothing or die for something, right?” After quoting one of our favorite Stallone lines, she let out an airy laugh and straightened. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just anxious about my biscuits.” With her arms crossed, she leaned one shoulder against the refrigerator. “Which reminds me, do you want to tell me why you’re treating my poor dough like your own personal punching bag?”
Even though I knew she was deliberately changing the subject, I let out a deep sigh. “Do you even need to ask?”
“Does it start with anIand rhyme withbein’?”
I gave her a skeptic look as I headed over to the sink. “Bein’?”
“Yep. Like you’rebein’crazy,” she said before sticking her tongue out. “I dare you to find another word that rhymes with his name.”
Challenge accepted. “European. Korean. Demon.”
She tossed a bit of flour in my direction. “Demondoesn’t rhyme.”
“Close enough.” My face scrunched as the powder tickled my nose, and Iwaved at the air in front of me. Flecks of water flew off my hands. “Or how aboutdiênorphi?n?”
Crazyandannoyingactually described Ian perfectly.
“Okay, if we’re going into Vietnamese, how about that boy is so hi?n?”
“If Báwas still here, she’d knock you on your head for talking in half Vietnamese like that. And Ian is nothi?n. Aniceguy would not order me to pick up his dry cleaning, the ‘super important book’ from Barnes & Noble, and ship his clothes back to H&M at the post office like I’m his personal butler.”
“You forgot about making you pick up burgers for him like you’re an Uber Eats driver, too.” Linh stopped cleaning the counter and frowned. “Although, I guess butlers can pick up lunch for their bosses, so maybe you’re right.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond to her technicality.
Buzz. Buzz.
Right on cue, my phone shook, and I could see a message flash from Ian. Here we go again. I wiped my damp hands on a dish towel and grabbed the phone. Instead of reading it though, I flipped it over to cover the screen.
“Yeah, ’cause that will make him go away,” Linh said with a snort.
I glared at her. “Since we’re family, you’re supposed to be frustrated on my behalf.”
“You would think that, but I think it’s entertaining.”
My hand balled up the dish towel to throw at her as my phone rang. We both glanced down at the phone. “I wonder who that would be?”
Without looking up, I hurled the towel in her direction and snatchedup my phone. My finger punched in the speaker button so Linh could hear for herself how rude Ian was. “Seriously, what do you want now?!”
“Uh, sorry, is this a bad time?”
What?
The voice on the other endsoundedlike Ian, but it was hesitant and way too polite to be him. I quickly glanced at the screen and groaned inwardly. Linh’s eyes widened, and she had to shove the dish towel against her mouth to muffle her laughter.
Cheeks flushing, I turned my back to her and turned off the speaker. “Oh, hey, Ryan. Sorry, I thought you were …” My mind drew a blank and I let my voice trail off. “What’s up?”
He laughed lightly. “I wanted to see if you wanted to go to the movies with me this afternoon. There’s an early viewing of the new Spider-Man movie, and I have a few tickets. Thought you’d want to see a fellow superhero on the big screen.”
Sigh.I kind of wished that Ryan would stop bringing that up. “Sure, that sounds like fun. Are you going to pick me up?”
“Do you think you can meet me there in two hours instead? I’m still running some errands, and with the crazy traffic right now, I don’t know if I could swing back to pick you up in time.”
“I guess Linh could drop me off …”
“Why doesn’t she come, too? I have an extra ticket that she could use.”
“Let me ask.” I peered over my shoulder and jumped a bit when I found Linh’s face inches from mine. She didn’t even bother pretending that she wasn’t eavesdropping. “Do you want to come to the movies with us?”
