Page 55 of Just Another Meet Cute
“It’s … you know that we’re engaged. And while we’re not in a rush to get married or anything, wewerehoping—well, planning—to move in together. Maybe even get a house instead of renting another condo. Those are getting too small for us anyway.”
“Move in together,” I repeated with a blank look on her face. My half-eaten cookie was forgotten in my hand. I could feel the chocolate melting on my warm fingers. “All of us?”
“Well, yeah, unless you were planning to move out next month,” she joked half-heartedly. “And then maybe, when we’re living together, things can change.”
Her voice may have been casual, but she had that determined look in her eye. The look that indicated that she wanted to have the TALK. Last time she had the TALK about our future, she convinced me to start calling him Dad. The time before that, we moved to Houston to be closer to him.
I didn’t want to know what she had up her sleeve now.
“I don’t know. Maybe I should get my own place. The real estate market isreally hot right now. And the interest rates are low, so that’s always good,” I said, changing the subject to distract her.
It worked like a charm. She loved to talk about houses. Sometimes it helped to know her so well.
Mom laughed. “And what do you know about the real estate market and interest rates?”
“Only what they say on HGTV. I only understand half of it, but I figure that people on those shows are always buying new places, so it can’t be that bad, right?”
“You can barely afford a car, and now you want your own place?”
“It’s an investment, Mom. All the cool kids are doing it.”
She patted the top of my head and swept my bangs off my face like I was ten again. “Please stick to high school for now and leave the real estate stuff to the actual Realtor in the family.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I propped my chin on my palm. “And I thought you would be happy if I joined in on the family business.”
“Right now, I would be thrilled if we could be one big happy family.”
I knew that she meant with her and Dad. But when she said happy family, I only pictured our life here before Dad. Linh and I would hang out in the kitchen all day while Bácooked. Mom and Aunt Sarah would stay up on the weekends to binge-watch their shows. Sometimes Linh and I stayed up with them as we did our nails, or we read in the living room. The Lifetime movies weren’t my thing, but I didn’t mind the cop shows. It was better than the nights when they caught up onThe Bachelor.
Báwould always pop in midway, and they’d have to explain the entire plot to her. And then she would get bored and leave before it ended.
The times when we wereactuallya big happy family.
Mom and I tried to keep up with the movie night tradition when we moved, but it wasn’t the same. And Dad always ended up watching his sports or game shows instead.
Although we’ve been here for nearly two weeks now, Mom and Aunt Sarah hadn’t watched anything together. Maybe because everyone knew that things were different now.
But that didn’t mean we couldn’t try.
“Do you think there are any Lifetime movies on this weekend?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t know.” My face must have dropped, because Mom grabbed her phone. “But I could always look. Or we could stream it on the TV. Maybe there’s a special Christmas-in-July thing. Although I know you don’t like the Christmas ones—”
“I don’t mind,” I quickly said. “I miss it. How there’s always that one person who adores Christmas and has to show the other person the spirit of Christmas through shiny tinsel and fudgy hot chocolate.”
She laughed. “Don’t forget the gingerbread contests and light festivals.”
“And ice sculptures. Those are the best.”
Looking almost excited now, she got up and started packing away the snacks. “We’ll need to restock the snacks if we’re going to have a movie night. If your aunt finds out we ate all her stuff, she’s going to freak out.”
“I can pick some up tomorrow.” My phone buzzed and I dug into my pocket.“Linh needs more chicken to marinate for the lunch boxes next week, so we were going to go to the store anyway.”
To my surprise, I got a text from Ian. Just two short sentences.
My favorite meal would have to be bun bo hue. With lots of sate and pig’s feet, the way my mom makes it.
Okay, that was super random. Why would he—
