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When we got to the sidewalk, Luke pointed to the door of the Chinese food place. “You like Chinese, right?”
I had to shake my head and shrug, with a small smile. “Never had it,” I said.
Luke opened his eyes wide and his mouth formed an o. “Saaang,” he whined. “I have to fix this. I know you’re a clean slate and everything…but I still assume…” He sighed and hurried in front of me to pull open the door.
The restaurant was smaller than other places they’d taken me to. There were oriental paintings in nice frames along the wall, and several rows of tables with chairs. It smelled good, like roasting meat and spices, different than the heady stuff I’d smelled before in fast food places.
An Asian woman stood by the counter. She spotted Luke and smiled, then started reciting. “Hello! One order of beef and broccoli, no broccoli, one order of barbecue beef, one order of pork lo mein noodles?”
“Sounds good to me,” he said with a smile and approached the counter, leaning his elbows on it. He looked at the paper menus stacked in a pile near the cash register. “You’ve got duck today?”
“Yes, yes,” the woman said, her short black hair falling into her eyes as she nodded. “And I have new shrimp toast.”
Luke made a face. “Shrimp toast? That sounds awful.”
“No, no, you’ll like it.”
“Okay, I guess. I’m trusting you,” he said and motioned to me. “And whatever she wants.”
I had no idea what to pick. I felt pressure to do it quickly as they both looked at me, waiting. I was dazzled by the pictures above the counter, the ones in light boxes showing different items. And then I looked at the paper menu; there was so much more. I turned to Luke, shrugging. “What’s good?”
Luke tilted his head and pressed his lips together, leaning into me as he studied the menu. “Girls usually like the sweet and sour chicken.”
How many girls did he know that he brought to get Chinese? I suddenly didn’t want sweet and sour chicken. “You got all beef items? Are those good?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I like the barbecue.”
The woman leaned over the counter and pointed at the paper menu. “Not had Chinese before? Try this,” she said, although I wasn’t really sure what she was pointing to. She turned and motioned to the display. “Honey chicken. And I’ll throw in some Sesame beef to try.”
Honey chicken sounded like a safe bet and the picture looked good, with fried pieces of chicken in an amber sauce. I didn’t know what sesame beef was, but I’d try it. “Okay. Sounds good.”
“Egg rolls?” She asked Luke.
Luke made a face and shook his head. “Do you have any of the good wontons? The ones with the meat? Not the crab though, the actual meat stuff.”
“I just made some,” she said and then left us to go through a clear plastic curtain into the kitchen. Two Asian men stood in an aisle between two stoves, working back to back. The woman started shouting at them, in what I presumed was Chinese, speaking very fast I wondered how the men understood her. They must have, though; one of the men replied and then started reaching for items on the counter.
Luke tugged me toward the rows of tables.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s have a seat while we’re waiting.”
“They’ll bring it out to us?” I asked, unsure the procedure and feeling awkward to step away from the counter. Shouldn’t we pay something now? The woman had gone into the kitchen. Maybe that was normal.
“Sure,” he said. “Don’t worry. They’ll take care of everything.” He pushed back a seat that faced the counter and sat in it. I sat across the table, facing the door and the wide window out toward the parking lot.
Luke fixed his hair, redoing a sloppy man-bun at the back of his head. “I broke your clip,” he said. “And I think Gabriel stole the other ones. He really hates those things.”
“I’m running out,” I said, pointing to the one in my hair now. “This is my last one.”
Luke chuckled lightly. “Next time I think of it, I’ll pick up some more. Maybe dozens.”
I smiled widely. “Gabriel might yell at you for encouraging me.”
He shrugged, and leaned in, his shoulders bunching over the table. “He’ll get over it. And it’ll be great to see his face.”
I could just imagine Gabriel getting very upset at seeing more clips, when he was probably counting down until he was sure I didn’t have any left. They did mysteriously disappear from time to time, more than what Luke took for himself.
“So, our first real date, and we’re getting Chinese food,” Luke said, still leaning forward, his elbows on the table. It felt like he was trying to get closer to me, but the table was in the way. “I really hope you like it. Otherwise, a year from now, you’ll be suffering with stuff you hate.”
“A year?” I asked. “What’s in a year?”
“Don’t you want to remember our first date?” he asked. “Have a one year anniversary?”
I blinked at him. “For a first date?” I said it, but without really asking, but more out of surprise, as I’d had first dates with a couple of the guys, but they never mentioned this. Could I remember each first date and the exact day it happened? Did it mean when they said official first date or…
“You can have it for any occasion you want,” he said. He leaned back with an arm slung over the back of his chair. It was a position I’d seen in magazines; it showed off his shoulders and made them appear wider. His shirt was smoothed out over his chest, and his collarbone was more prominent. “We could have one every week,” he said, drawing my attention back to his face. “First date, first time we met…what was that, three months ago?”
I lowered my eyes to the table. The way he spoke was like we’d been dating for those three months.
He knew about the situation with Lily and what that meant. Did the easy way he was talking to me now about dating mean he approved of it?
His silence made me feel like he was waiting for an answer. “Maybe? It feels like longer.”
“Doesn’t it?” he asked. Suddenly, he sat up and snapped his fingers. “Hey, do you want to go check out the pet store? It’s only a couple of stores down. We can visit the puppies.”
I scooted to the edge of my seat, ready to stand until I remembered why we were there. “Shouldn’t we wait for the food first?”
“We’ll be right back.” He stood up quickly, going to the counter, and rapped his knuckles on the counter a couple of times. “Hey! We’ll be right back. Just heading next door.”
“Oo-kay!” cried the woman from the kitchen.
Luke turned to me, his blond eyebrows lifting up. “Come on. Maybe there’s a new batch of turtles, too.”
I’d never seen him so excited before, at least not about anything other than junk food.
I followed him out into the sidewalk and then he reached over for my hand, and held it, palm to palm, as we walked.
Luke breathed in deeply as we walked, and then out through his mouth. “Man, I haven’t been grounded in a while. But I have to say, this is the best one yet.”
He was in such a happy mood that I didn’t want to ask him why he’d done the prank, even though I wanted to know. “I am a little worried about the guys. I wish there is something we could do.”
“Honestly, unless Kota calls and wants us out there, it’s better if we stay home.” He squeezed his fingers around mine, and tilted his head to look at me. “Sang, I do a lot of stupid things, like when I invited you to go get that camera with me, but Kota knows what he’s doing. If he says stay put, we should stay.”
“Like that time after Gabriel was in the hospital when we went to check on Victor’s computer?” I said with a small smile.
He rolled his eyes and wagged his head from side to side, but there was amusement in his tone. “Really, Sang. You’re just looking for stuff to pick on, now.”
He was right, though. We had our phones; I didn’t need to worry about it.
Luke suddenly stopped and then tu
rned us toward the store we’d just walked past. “Whoops,” he said with a laugh. “Almost forgot where we were going. We were heading toward the Army office.”
He pulled away from me to open the door. The smell of wood shavings and ammonia hit me on the way in, and I shoved my fingers under my nose to try to prevent a sneeze.
“Strong smell,” Luke said, stepping behind me as he came in. We were in a path between shelves of dog food and cages that were on sale. He weaved his way around me, taking my hand again, and tugged me deeper into the shop. “Let’s go.”
I followed, dazzled by the array of cages and pet toys. There was a row of small pets: tiny lizards and what looked like a giant spider in a tank in the corner, but Luke avoided those.
As we weaved our way through the store, I noticed there were fish in tanks along the one side. I was dazzled by the colors, surprised at being drawn to fish and little turtles.
“I like to start on this side,” he said with a grin. “Save the cuddly things for last.”
He stopped by nearly every tank, studying the contents, reading the sign underneath that identified what type of fish they were. I was amazed at the variety.
Did Luke like fish? As he studied the fish, I studied him. I knew some things about him, but this was new.
“Hey look,” he said, pointing to one of the tanks. “Mini jellyfish.”
I came up next to him, pressing on his back so I could look over his shoulder at the tank in front of him.
