Page 15 of Just Another Meet Cute

Desperate to escape Linh’s thousands of questions (with a bit of cursing tossed in once I told her about Ian), I slipped into B á ’s old bedroom in the corner of the house to panic in peace.

The door creaked when I came in, like it hadn’t been opened in a while, but I knew that wasn’t the case since there wasn’t a speck of dust on any of the furniture.

Even all the picture frames crowding the dresser were polished until they sparkled.

It was probably Aunt Sarah’s doing, since Linh was pretty much blind to dust and hair on the ground.

I doubt she even knew where the broom was in the house.

The only room she cleaned religiously was the kitchen.

Despite the fact that B á had been gone for almost a year, her room was still exactly the same.

From the pearl-green cardigan draped on the foot of her bed to her gray-and-white star slippers tucked neatly next to her desk.

Strangely enough, there was even a strong smell of d ? u xanh swirling in the air.

The knot in my stomach instantly eased, like I had rubbed some of the medicated oil on.

For the first time since we came back to Austin, I finally felt like I was home again.

Which was strange, since this room was missing the most important person.

Maybe it was because I had met Ryan’s grandma today, but I suddenly wished that I could hug Bá.

I sat down on her bed and looked around, almost expecting her to come in to turn on one of her Sylvester Stallone movies. Right on cue, the door creaked again, and I swung around.

Instead of B á though, Mom stood at the doorway with a surprised look on her face. “I thought I heard someone in here, but I figured it was your aunt tidying up. Why are you hiding?”

So I was right about Aunt Sarah cleaning in here. “I wanted to get some peace and quiet to think.”

“About?”

I shrugged. “Life?”

“That’s pretty vague.” She came in and sat down in front of me. Her hand smoothed out invisible wrinkles on the thick comforter. “It’s kind of weird to be back here, huh?”

“You mean in this room?”

“I mean in this house. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is. Like everything’s the same. Your aunt hates change, so even the salt and sugar are in the same spot your B á used to keep it. But something in this house is off to me.”

My eyes widened a bit at her words. How did she—I would have thought she had read my diary or something, except I didn’t have one since I was eight. But I never even told Linh, or anyone, how I felt, and I especially never thought that Mom would feel the same.

“Maybe it’s not the house,” I said carefully, testing out the thought that had been lurking in my mind for the past week. “Maybe it’s you who’s changed.”

Leaning back on her palms, she laughed. “You’re probably right. A lot did happen these past two years. I guess we can’t go back to the way things were, no matter how much we try. I wish I could take back a couple of these wrinkles though. Those Korean face masks aren’t strong enough for me.”

I knew that Mom expected me to laugh at her joke, but I was too distracted with what she said about not being able to go back.

My brief moment of relief evaporated with Mom’s words.

All year, all I wanted was to go back to the way things were before Dad.

That was the main thing that kept me moving forward.

But now, the thought of that being impossible was scary and paralyzing.

Mom was quiet. I didn’t know if she was lost in her own thoughts or if she was just letting me figure mine out. Not that there was ever a chance of that happening. If anything, I was more lost than before.

The essay from the flash drive popped in my head, and I couldn’t help wondering if Ryan or Ian wrote it. Logically, it was probably Ryan’s, since it was his key chain. But a part of me felt like it was Ian’s words.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?” I asked to fill the silence, even though I already knew the answer. Mom and Dad had been disappearing for hours each day so I assumed that they’d be doing that again.

To my surprise, she shook her head. “No. Your dad has to do some paperwork for most of the day. I was thinking of walking around the mall a bit. Do you need anything? You can come with me. We could grab some lunch, too.”

“Sounds like fun. I’m free.”

“So it’s a date!” With a beaming grin, Mom bent over to study my nails. “Maybe we could fit in a manicure, too. It’s been so long since it was just the two of us.”

She was right. It had been a while.

It’s funny, but I never realized until this exact moment how much I missed her.

We’re together all the time, but like she said, it wasn’t the same.

Ever since Dad came back, I felt like I took a back seat in her life.

Not that I expected her whole life to revolve around me forever.

I wasn’t that selfish. But it would be nice to feel important in her life again.

We may not be able to go back to exactly how things were before Dad, but we could still pretend for a bit. Like when you covered up a zit with concealer and foundation. You knew it was still there, could feel it, but you pretended that it wasn’t.

As I listened to her make plans, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw that I had a text message from an unknown number.

It’s Ian. Meet me tomorrow at 7:00 at Shamrock Patio if you still want to convince me.

My good mood instantly vanished. Like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.

I chewed on my lower lip as I mulled over what to do. I didn’t particularly want to see Ian again, especially alone. But I did want to see Ryan again. And his family. I wasn’t lying when I told him that I liked them.

Why did Ryan and Ian have to be twins? Or better yet, why did I confuse them in the first place? Their names were barely similar. Okay, a little more than barely, but I still should have figured out that something was wrong.

But twins? Really? What were the odds!?

“What’s wrong, honey?” Mom pressed against my furrowed forehead with her fingertip. “You have more wrinkles than I do right now.”

“It’s—it’s nothing.”

She swept my hair off my forehead like I was five again. “Are you sure? Because the last time you looked like this, it was because they suddenly ended that drama with Park Bo Gum.”

“That’s because I invested three months into that show and it ended on a cliff-hanger.

The train got derailed before he could talk to Susie!

” My sigh was so heavy that I slumped backward from the force.

Grateful for the distraction, I leaned my head against the wooden headboard.

“Not to mention, he’s your future son-in-law.

I would think that you’d want his dramas to end well. ”

“Of course, I’d want him to have a successful career. How else are you going to gift me with a chateau in Singapore when I retire? Not that I don’t have faith that you can afford it yourself in the future.” Her nose crinkled. “But then you still don’t know what you want to do in the future, right?”

My shoulders slumped and I cleared my throat. “I still have time. Maybe I’ll win the lottery instead.”

“If B á never won anything in the thirty years of weekly lotto tickets, I sincerely doubt you will. Now are you going to tell me what’s really bothering you or do you want to keep changing the subject?”

Damn . One of the sucky things about your mom being one of your best friends growing up was that it was almost impossible to lie to her. Not that I did it very often. I barely needed to. She was that cool.

I was so tempted to confide in her like I used to. She had all the answers and would probably be awesome at dealing with this Ian/Ryan problem. It would be so easy to have her tell me what to do.

But the distance between us that grew over the past year and a half made me freeze.

It was a giant blinking hazard roadblock that stopped me in my tracks.

Like she said before, we couldn’t go back to the way things were before, no matter how much I wished we could. One conversation couldn’t change that.

I gave her a bright smile before leaning on her shoulder. “Keep changing the subject. Do you want to get pizza tomorrow or some Korean BBQ before our manicure?”

Something else that was great about Mom was that if I really didn’t want to talk about something, ultimately, she wouldn’t push me. “Or we could get both if you want. We have all day. How does that sound?”

She played with my hand on my lap, pressing at the tip of my ring finger like she always had ever since I was a kid. “It sounds perfect.”