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As soon as I flipped the phone back, I saw her beaming face.
“He’s handsome!” Unfortunately, my mom said this loud enough for Aiden to hear.
I wanted to shrink in embarrassment. Lowering the phone, I mouthed, I’m sorry.
There were creases around his eyes as he laughed quietly. My mom was right to call him handsome.
“Listen, can we call you back? We’re eating dinner right now.” I stabbed a piece of shrimp from the lo mein and held it up.
“Okay, call me back,” she shouted. I shrank back at the loudness of her voice. I think the people on the street outside Julia’s apartment could hear my mom when she spoke.
I was surprised when she gave up on the questioning, but from the glint in her eyes, I knew that she would be grilling me later on. I said goodbye and swiped to end the video call.
“I apologize about that,” I said. My face felt like it was on fire as I replayed the conversation in my head.
“That was interesting.” He chuckled and shook his head in amusement.
We continued to eat our food, but after my mom’s call, the noodles lost a bit of their flavor. It was unfortunate because they were really good. I knew I had to figure out what Aiden and my status was in order to tell my mom what was going on when she would undoubtedly call later.
“Earth to Claire,” Julia said and snapped her fingers in front of my eyes.
“Sorry!” I gave them a lopsided grin. “Are you guys done?” Their plates were empty, whereas mine still had some noodles left.
Julia gave me a look, but Aiden answered, “Yup.”
“I guess I’m done, too.” I pushed my plate away from me on the counter, and I stood up to collect everyone’s plates to put in the sink.
“What were you thinking about? You looked deep in thought,” Julia pressed. She knew something was up that I didn’t want to admit. Julia was a lot like my mom, and she didn’t let things go if she was curious.
“Umm…” I thought quickly. “I was wondering if Annisa had given other people luxury gifts as well,” I said, hoping this would divert more questions about my dating life.
It worked, and my comment immediately sobered up Julia. “After the delivery guy commented that my wallet was fake, I wondered the same thing,” she said and wandered off.
“Where are you going?” I turned to see Julia heading to the front door.
She picked up her purse from the hook. “I’m going to get my wallet to look at it again. I felt like an idiot when the delivery guy pointed out all the things that weren’t real with the wallet. How did I not know?”
“I don’t think you had a reason to doubt the wallet’s authenticity,” Aiden said sympathetically. “Besides, don’t a lot of people have fake stuff?”
“That’s true,” I said and remembered that when I was teaching in Korea a few years ago, I bought a Prada bag from a street vendor in Itaewon. At the time, I thought it was real, only to have one of my teacher friends tell me it was fake.
I felt cheated at first, but after realizing that I couldn’t tell the real bag from the fake one, I decided it wasn’t a big deal. Come to think of it, I think I still had it somewhere at my parents’ house in Arkansas.
“The question is, why does Annisa have the fake things anyway?” I asked.
“She must’ve had at least ten pairs of Jimmy Choo sandals.” Julia’s comment reminded me of the shoes Annisa was wearing when Aiden and I saw her at the sushi restaurant.
“The pair that she had on when we saw her at the restaurant cost eight hundred dollars. I googled it after I saw the shoes in her closet,” I explained when Julia gave me a funny look.
“I know that she could’ve afforded some of the things she had but not everything.” Julia blew out a breath in frustration.
Aiden raised one of his hands to get our attention. “I think I can clear some things up. When I talked to Annisa this afternoon at the police station, she admitted that the designer goods in her closet weren’t real. She had her cousin in Korea send her these things, and she was selling them online as a side hustle.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Julia’s jaw dropped open, and I had to admit my mouth opened as well.
“No, I’m not,” he said somberly.
I blinked my eyes several times and said, “Annisa actually confessed that she was selling fake items online? Isn’t that illegal?”
