Page 32 of Tiger's Quest
When we walked into wushu on Monday, Li and Ren seemed to have an unspoken agreement not to look at each other. The class warily watched them, but eventually everyone settled down when nothing happened. Neither Li nor Ren paired up with me anymore.
Li went out of his way to take me to nice dinners and plan elaborate picnics. Ren was content to come over and read with me or watch movies indoors. Kettle corn became his favorite snack, and Ren was an expert at making it. We watched old movies, and afterwards he asked tons of questions. He enjoyed a variety of films, especiallyStar Wars. He liked Luke and thought that Han Solo was too much of a bad boy.
“He’s not worthy of Princess Leia,” said Ren, which gave me a deeper understanding of his knight-in-shining-armor persona.
On Friday night, Ren and I were about to watch another movie when I remembered I had scheduled a date with Jason. I told Ren he could watch the movie without me. Ren grumbled, then picked up his bag of popcorn, and headed to the microwave.
When I came downstairs in a dark blue dress with strappy shoes and my hair straightened, Ren stood up abruptly and dropped his bowl of popcorn on the floor.
“Why are you dressed like that? Where are you going?”
“Jason’s taking me to a play in Portland. Besides, I thought you had some kind of a chivalrous noninterference policy regarding my dating anyway.”
“When you dress like that, I get to interfere all I want to.”
The doorbell rang, and when I opened it, Ren suddenly moved up behind me to help me into my coat. Jason shifted back and forth very uncomfortably. His eyes darted up to Ren.
“Uh, Jason, this is my friend Ren. He’s visiting from India.”
Ren stuck out his hand and smiled abrasively. “Take good care ofmy girl, Jason.”
There was a very definite implied “or else” attached to the end of the sentence. Jason gulped.
“Uh-huh. Sure thing.”
I pushed Ren back in the house and shut the door in his face. It was actually a relief being with Jason. I didn’t feel the intense pressure that I now felt with Li and Ren. Not that they were pressuring me. Ren in particular seemed to have infinite patience. I guess that came from his tiger half.
Jason took me to seeThe Lion King. The costumes and props were amazing, and I caught myself wishing Ren were there with me instead of Jason. Ren would have loved to see how all the animals were portrayed.
After the show, the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk. People strolled leisurely every which way across the street, forcing cars to edge forward in dangerous spurts as they tried to nudge the patrons along. An elderly lady dropped her playbill in the street and was bending over to pick it up when a car turned the corner.
Without thinking, I ran up in front of the woman and motioned for the car to stop. The driver hit the brakes, but not fast enough. My strappy shoes got caught on a crack in the pavement as I tried to move out of the way. The car bumped me slightly, and I fell over.
Jason ran to help me, and the driver got out. I wasn’t hurt badly. My dress and my pride were damaged, but, other than that, I only had a few scrapes and bruises. A theater photographer ran over to snap some pictures. Jason posed with me in my torn dress and smudged face and provided my name, saying that I was a hero for saving the elderly woman.
Pulling off my broken, strappy shoe in disgust, I made my way to the car. Jason talked excitedly about the accident and thought my picture had a good chance of getting into the theater’s magazine.
He chatted the whole way home about the next term and about the last party he’d gone to. When he pulled up to my house, he didn’t open the door for me. I sighed, thinking,Chivalry is mostly dead in this generation.Jason kept looking at my torn dress and then at the windows. He was probably terrified that Ren would come after him for not taking care of me. I turned in my seat to face him.
“Jason, we need to talk.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
I sighed softly and said, “I think we should stop dating. We don’t have a lot in common. But I’d like to still be friends.”
“Is there someone else?” His eyes darted to the front door again.
“Sort of.”
“Uh-huh. Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be around.”
“Thanks, Jason. You’re a great guy.”A little gutless but still nice.
I kissed him good-bye on the cheek, and he drove off in a pretty good mood.
That wasn’t too bad. I know I won’t get off so easily next time.
I stepped into the house and found another note lying on the kitchen counter next to a small bowl full of kettle corn.
