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Robin, looking over their shoulders, plucks the phone from Aimes’s hand.
“Hey!” Aimes says.
“You’re too slow,” Robin grumbles. She settles down on the couch. Emma climbs up next to her, and Robin gives her a hesitant sideways glance. “What’s up, kid?”
“What are you doing?” Emma says in her surprisingly somber voice.
“I’m about to show these folks how to edit a video in under five minutes. Otherwise we’re gonna be here forever. You in?”
Emma thinks for a bit, then nods. She watches as Robin swipes away with expert ease.
Aimes, watching over Robin’s shoulder, grunts. Once in a while, Aimes mutters, “Huh.”
Vera smiles inwardly. Look at these three girls. She wishes Sana were here. She’d fit right in.
Within a few minutes, as promised, Robin holds up the phone triumphantly and says, “Done.”
Vera snatches the phone from her hands and hits Play. The video is beautiful, a thousand times better than Vera expected, and she had very unrealistic expectations to begin with. She looks so gentle in it, so maternal, and she can see how it would be a soothing video to watch after a long, hard day. And the tea! The tea looks nothing short of magical. Those little rosebuds and the way they swirl when the hot water hits them. The only thing wrong with it is the music playing in the background.
“How you get rid of music?” Vera says.
Aimes frowns. “I wouldn’t get rid of the music, that’s part of the charm. Good choice of music, by the way,” she adds, nodding at Robin.
“No music,” Vera says with finality. “I have message to say in video. The music just get in the way.”
“Oh,” Aimes says. “You’re gonna narrate it? Okay.” She taps at the phone and the music disappears.
“Okay, now send me video to my phone,” Vera says, “so I can post.”
“Do you even have a social media account?” Aimes says.
“That isn’t Facebook?” Robin says.
The two of them look at each other and grin.
Vera ignores this little show of impertinence. “I have you know, I am on both the TikTok and the Instagram.”
“Wow, I would never have guessed,” Aimes mutters.
“What do you use them for?” TJ says.
“To spy on my son, obviously,” Vera says smartly.
Robin groans. “Dad, do not get any ideas.”
TJ gives an affronted look, like how could she possibly accuse him of doing such a thing? But Vera catches a short glimpse of guilt, and she has to bite back her laugh. Obviously TJ is already doing the same thing she is. Parents, no matter where they are from, are the same all over the world.
Aimes is in the middle of sending the video over to Vera when there is a knock at the front door.
Vera calls down, “Come up! We all up here.”
A few moments later, Officer Selena Gray shows up. The chatter in the room dies down. Selena stops at the last step and stares. “Sorry, Vera, I didn’t mean to inter—wait. I’ve met you all before.”
Vera looks around the room, noticing how intensely worried and/or guilty TJ, Aimes, and Qiang Wen look. In fact, Qiang Wen looks more than worried; he looks terrified.Aha, she thinks, making a mental note to jot that down later in her notebook.
Oliver climbs up the stairs behind Selena. “Oh, hey, Selena,” he says.
“Hey.” She smiles at him, then turns back to face Vera and the others, her eyes narrowing. “Vera, what is going on here?” Her voice comes out very, very tired.