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“In a way. Sheismy mother.”
“Why would you let her dictate who you marry?” She hiked the iPad up her chest like it would shield her from my answer.
Because her husband died protecting me, and there hasn’t been a single day since that I didn’t wish it were me instead of him.
“I took away her partner. The least I can do is let her choose mine.”
Natalie’s shoulders caved downward, her entire being liquifying into a slump. I disliked people with bad posture.
She was disqualified before she even opened her mouth.
“But it’s not fair?—”
I held up a hand. “As is life. You’re over the age of three. I thought you’d already gotten the memo.” I fanned the cloth napkin over my lap and picked up the set of steel chopsticks. “Anything more you’d like to discuss before I have my lunch? I wish to do so in silence.”
Natalie opened her mouth then clamped it shut, showing off her best trout impression.
“If nothing else, you’re about to get your wish.” She tucked her iPad under her armpit, voice cracking.
I lifted a brow. “They’re canceling federal taxes?”
Surely, I did not have this good of luck.
I was born on the fourth day of the fourth month. The unluckiest number in Chinese culture.
In Mandarin, four shared similar pronunciation with the worddeath.
Already, the cure to my physical aversion to humans landing headfirst in my lap seemed like an uncharacteristic stroke of fortune.
“Well, notthatwish.” Natalie set her iPad on the cart, busying her hands by collecting the porcelain washing bowl and depositing it on top. “Your mother called earlier to inform you she is letting some girl borrow her Astteria necklace. The custom jade and gold one you keep in a safe for her.”
The state of modern dating must’ve hit an all-time low since I’d last checked, because she sniffed, failing to keep an errant tear at bay.
It was a particularly gruesome punishment for my sins that I had to endure the tears of women without even getting the pussy.
Natalie progressed to clenching her fists around the cart handles, challenging their load-bearing capacity. “Constance said the girl is going to drop by today and asked that youshow her around.”
She used her fingers as quotation marks, her lower lip curled in a barely contained pout.
This again.
Hadn’t Mom realized blind dates didn’t work after Plan N?
I burrowed my fingertips into my eyelids, massaging the area with a heavy sigh. “What’s the woman’s name?”
Natalie scrunched her nose. “Electra? Exotica, maybe?”
“Eileen.”
My mother would dine on a bowl of eyeballs before trying to match me with a woman named Exotica.
“Yeah. Something like that. Very bland name if you ask me.”
Good thing I didn’t.
“When am I expecting her?”
“Three o’clock.”
