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“Aww, stay and have fun,” Natalie says. “Everybody loves you.”
“At this stage in my life, I know making early exit is better than making exit too late.” Or something to that effect, at least. She hugs Natalie, gathers her empty food containers, and then leaves the strange and wonderful party with Aimes and Millie by her side. Her ears ring. Outside, the air is bitingly cold, reviving Vera’s senses a little. She takes a deep inhale and sighs. “Well, that is strange peek into different life,” she says.
“You shouldn’t shout, Vera,” Millie says.
“I am shouting?” Vera shouts.
“Yeah,” Aimes says. “And you should stop. People who live here will think nothing of calling the cops on you.”
“Sorry,” Vera calls out to any neighbors who might have been watching. “Is very strange though,” she whispers. “I really don’t feel like I’m shouting.”
“God, she is such a talkative drunk,” Aimes groans to Millie, who cracks a sympathetic smile.
“Oh, I’m not drunk,” Vera slurs.
“Yeah, okay, Vera,” Aimes says. “Look, our car’s here. Come on, let’s get you home.”
Vera wants to tell Aimes off because if Vera knows anything about life, it is that she is the caretaker of others, and not the other way around. But her head is spinning and her tongue is fuzzy and she can’t quite remember what she was about to say, so she lets thetwo youngsters bundle her into the Uber. The driver greets them and begins to back out into the street. They zoom down a steep hill.
“Eh, slow down!” Vera snaps at the driver, her stomach lurching. “Later I vomit in your car.”
“Lady, do not throw up in my car. I swear to god,” the driver says.
“Then you better slow down,” Vera scolds. Huffing, she turns to Millie. “So, how you find party? You like it?”
Millie sighs. “It’s…different. I can’t believe Thomas—sorry, Xander—used to go to those things all the time. It’s like a whole different world.”
“Yeah,” Aimes says.
Millie cranes her neck to look at Aimes, who is sitting on the other side of Vera. “You must go to these things a lot too?”
Aimes shrugs. “Sometimes. Nothing as grand as that though. I don’t know that crowd very well. I’m not big enough to be invited to anything like that.”
“Don’t say like that,” Vera says.
“What?” Aimes says.
“Like you are embarrass or sorry. ‘Oh, I am just small influencer girl, I don’t deserve to go to fancy party.’ No! Sun Tzu say something very wise in his time. You know Sun Tzu? Famous Chinese man, wroteThe Art of War. Anyway, he say, ‘Fake it until you make it,’ so you fake it. Act like you deserve to go to that party all the time, their loss for not inviting you.” Vera catches the driver’s eye in the rearview mirror and adds, “You too, Uber driver.”
He mutters something unintelligible. Aimes gives Vera a side-eye. “I don’t think it was Sun Tzu who said, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ ”
“Are you arguing about Chinese history with me?” Vera says, affronted.
Aimes blanches. “Well—I mean—but—”
“I know Chinese history like back of my hand.” Vera holds up her right hand, then frowns at the number of age spots on it and puts it back down on her lap. Do her hands really have that many age spots? Maybe she doesn’t know them as well as she thinks after all. “Anyway, is good advice. I always try to live by that advice; that is why my shop is called Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse.”
Aimes gives her a wry smile. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to remember that old Chinese saying.”
“You do that.” For a while, everyone is quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Then Vera peers at Aimes. “But Xander never invite you to these parties? Is quite strange, especially since he is your boyfriend.”
Aimes shifts in her seat and turns to look out the window. “We didn’t date that long.”
“Yes, but surely he invite you to a party here and there,” Vera presses.
“I think he knew it’s not my kind of scene.”
The driver whistles and shakes his head. Vera narrows her eyes at him, but he keeps his gaze resolutely on the road. Vera turns her attention to Millie.