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“That must be Aiden or the delivery guy,” I said, jumping up to follow Grumpy.
I peered through the peephole to find Aiden waiting with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“Hi, come on in,” I said when I opened the door. He stepped in and was greeted by Grumpy’s barking.
“Don’t bark at Aiden. He’s a friend,” I said and knelt down beside him to give him a reassuring pat on the head. Grumpy stopped barking, but he tilted his head quizzically as if he were saying, Are you really a friend, or are you going to break my friend’s heart?
“Hi, Claire. Hi, Julia,” he said, calling out to Julia, who took over my spot on the couch. She smiled and waved back.
“And who’s this?” Aiden squatted down to Grumpy’s level.
“This is Julia’s dog, Grumpy.”
“Hey there, little guy.” Aiden put out one hand with his fingers curled for the dog to sniff. Grumpy gave him a few whiffs before he licked Aiden’s hand. He must’ve decided that Aiden was a friend because he also stuck out a paw for him to shake.
“How about that?” Aiden took the extended paw and gave it a couple of shakes. “Grumpy’s really clever,” he said, impressed with the dog’s trick.
“Isn’t he smart?” I looked adoringly down at Grumpy as though he was the smartest dog in the class.
“I taught him the trick.” Julia said, smiling at her dog. Grumpy was sitting on his haunches while we were commenting on his intelligence, which made him seem even more impressive. His regal look was soon replaced with an alert face as he heard footsteps.
A few seconds later, someone knocked on the door again. “That must be the delivery guy,” I said, grabbing my purse from a wooden peg by the door.
When I opened it, the delivery guy stepped back in surprise to see both Aiden and me standing at the front. He held up a large brown paper bag and said, “Delivery for Julia Park.”
It took me a moment to remember that Julia was now using her married name. “Yes, that’s us. I mean, I’m Claire O’Keefe and not Julia Park, but you have the right place.” I winced. The delivery guy really didn’t care if I was Julia or whoever. He just wanted to be paid for the food. “How much is it?” I asked, opening up my wallet.
“It’s $57.30. You can pay cash, credit card, or Venmo.”
Julia stuck her hand out with a one hundred dollar bill before I could hand the guy my credit card.
“Nice wallet,” the delivery guy said, looking at Julia’s wallet in her hand. He added, “The quality is really good. You can barely tell that it’s fake.”
“What?” Julia cried out in alarm. “What’s fake?” She brought her wallet close to her chest as if the close proximity could ward off any other false claims.
“Your Louis Vuitton wallet. It’s not real. It’s a knockoff,” he said nonchalantly.
“Wait a minute. How do you know it’s not real?” I asked, curious how the delivery guy could tell the difference.
He held out the food for someone to get, and Aiden reached out to take it. Once his hands were free, he pointed at Julia’s wallet and said, “Look at the stitching. A genuine Louis Vuitton wallet uses a dark brown thread, but the one you have is black.”
Julia held up the wallet close to her face for better inspection.
“I can’t tell,” she said and lifted the wallet up to the ceiling light.
I hovered near her to look at the stitching. “You’re right. The thread color is black. If you hadn’t told me that the real Louis Vuitton wallets used brown thread, I would’ve never known the difference.” Now that the guy pointed it out, it was hard to miss.
“And look at the clasp. The real version is supposed to have an LV etched on the metal part, but yours is plain. See?” With his index finger, he touched the metal clasp.
“I didn’t know that. I’ve been using this wallet for a couple months now, and no one has said anything,” she said.
“I had no idea either.” I gave a small shrug, feeling bad for Julia. Her cheeks reddened as though she was wearing too much blush.
“Most people don’t,” the delivery guy said. “These days, the fake stuff coming in from overseas is really good and will pass as the real ones.”
The delivery guy pursed his lips when he saw Julia frown, and he said, “Sorry I ruined it for you.” He looked as though he regretted pointing out all the fake details and quickly handed her the change.
“I hope you enjoy the food,” the delivery guy said in parting and gave us a half-hearted wave as he hurried to his electric bike.
