Page 6 of Just Another Meet Cute
Linh fangirled about the host onTop Chef, Tom Colicchio, like I fangirled about any of the Chrises from theAvengers. (And seriously, I mean,anyof them.)
But she didn’t have the “golden tongue” like she claimed I did. I couldn’tcook at all, but for some reason I had a really strong sense of taste. I could figure out the different ingredients for dishes when we went out to eat and always knew what was missing. I was like the rat inRatatouille, minus the actual cooking talent.
Maybe that could be a career choice. Didn’t royalty need taste testers anymore?
Humming one of the theme songs from the latest Korean drama we watched together last week, Mom popped into the kitchen. She wandered over to the stove and peered into the pot. “That smells delicious, Linh.”
“Thanks, Dí, it should be ready in a few minutes.”
“Your mom is so lucky that you can cook. Especially since she can’t cook at all.”
“Aunt Sarah can cook a little bit,” I pointed out.
Technically, I should have called her Bác, since Aunt Sarah was Mom’s older sister, but she forbade me to call her that. She said it made her feel too old. And I couldn’t call her Dí, since that was reserved for younger siblings. So Aunt Sarah it was.
“Reheating stuff isn’t considered cooking.” Mom leaned onto Linh’s shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows. “You forget that I grew up with her. She may be older than me, but I did most of the cooking with your Bá. Thankfully she’s good at washing dishes.”
“You forget that Istilllive with her, so I can’t really agree with you if I want to survive,” Linh quipped with a grin. “But we all know who really cooks around here.”
As they both laughed, I was struck by how alike they looked. For some reason, Linh looked more like Mom than Aunt Sarah. Growing up, everyone thought that Mom and Linh were mother and daughter, and that I was just the neighbor’s kid who came over to play every day.
Not that I could blame them. Their dark brown eyes were the same color and round shape. They were both tall with dark hair and fair skin. Although now Linh’s hair had medium caramel highlights running through it from the salon.
I had dark eyes and hair, too, but my hair was wavy rather than straight, like theirs was. And my eyes were a tad lighter. Once I found a paint color that was my exact eye color, called Magnolia Elemental. Not sure what any of those words has to do with anactualcolor shade, but it made me feel better about having boring brown eyes.
I always knew I looked different from everyone in the family. In fact, I barely looked Asian at all. I just looked … average? Like me. It wasn’t until I met Dad that I realized that I didn’t look like me, I looked likehim. This total stranger and me. My face was narrow with a pointed chin like his. I tanned easily like he did. I even suspected that I had wide feet like him, although I never really checked out his feet so I wasn’t 100 percent positive about that.
With one last pat on Linh’s head, Mom straightened up. “Well, I’ll go set the table then so you won’t get into trouble. Nina, can you help me?”
“Sure.” Sliding my laptop back into my bag, I jumped off my seat.
Mom grabbed some plates from the lower cabinet and handed them to me. “I’ve been wondering … does that trail you went hiking at have a camping site?”
“I don’t think so. Why?”
“I thought it would be nice if we could all go camping this weekend.” Avoiding my eyes, she concentrated on gathering her dark hair into a perfect bun like her life depended on it. “It’ll be fun.”
I stared at her. “Fun. Our entire family. Camping.”
She had to be joking. The only thing worse than being stuck at home with my family was being stuck with them in thewoods. Even now, I could barely hear Mom over Aunt Sarah and Dad fighting in the living room next to us. I don’t even know what they were arguing about this time: the weather, what to watch on TV, what water to drink. It didn’t matter. She always found something to complain about with Dad. Always.
From the way they were going at it right now, you would have thought that Dad had knocked up and abandoned her instead of Mom.
Thank God for earphones.
“I don’t know, Mom. I don’t think we—it’s just I—”
Clunk!Suddenly, Linh dropped a plate of breadsticks between us. “Nina has a date this weekend.”
Wait, what?
Mom and I both turned to stare at her.
“She does?” Mom asked with a frown. “With who?”
“Uh …”
Before I could say anything else, Linh nudged my arm. Hard. “With that guy she met during her hike yesterday. Ian? Remember? You were telling me about how he told you all about his sisters.” Turning to fully face me, she wiggled her eyebrows and mouthed something.
