890. Effortless conversations

 "Do you really think you're cut out for the dance studio?" Justin was concerned. Also, he was fairly certain he had botched the stew in the crockpot. Anyone else would have opted for a cold salad on these hot days, but Carmen scarfed down a bowl of it, even if she was late for dinner. She'd been working overtime.

"It's all right." 

Her eyes looked sleepy, and her shoulders definitely needed to be rubbed. It was the least he could do.

"Are you sure? How are Derrick and Eric treating you?" He knew those two were only looking out for themselves. He doubted they were any help to her.

"They've been nice," she said. Eric would bring her iced coffee, and Derrick would sit at the desk and let her have an afternoon break.

"Really, you aren't just covering for them, are you?" He sat next to her at the kitchen table.

"I bring them breakfast, so you know. I guess it's all give and take." She yawned as if she couldn't get to bed fast enough. 

She got up then with her empty bowl to wash it out.

"Wait, I want to talk to you," he said.

"About what?" She looked at him blankly.

"I know all this novel writing hasn't gotten me anywhere." He promised he was going to start classes again and finish this time so he could get on full-time at the hospital in radiology. Of course, it would be more in maintenance than anything else with the machines there.

She sat back down. "But, but you had your heart set on  a real Wuxia novel."

"I know, it's just after talking to Randy today," he sighed. "It seems I'm not up on the latest trends in Chinese Wuxia. I don't watch the dramas like Randy, and he should write them."

"Write them?" Carmen looked at him funny. 

"He used to watch them with Cassie. It seems he listened to her a lot, and I guess old Wuxia stories were more rogue than they are now, due to the censorship. I don't know. I guess I'm not very good."

"But you are," she told him. 

"You might be my only fan," he said, and she kissed him then as if he was perfectly right. 

He put his arm around her. "Well, you know, I'm a fan of yours too."

"Well, you know, I'm not exactly the girl you met," She looked at him seriously.

"Oh, you're still the same." He grinned. His hand touched her thick stomach. "You look great to me. You always will."

It's time to just be happy

 "You know, you were always going to be a veterinarian's assistant," Holden reminded him, knowing he was a whole lot more than that. "You work with animals all the time."

Tristan squinted. "Are you sure it wasn't Dora who told you to say all this?"

They were out in the back yard and Holden was turning T-bones which of course, Tristan could not say no too. He might have lost his girl, but he hadn't lost his appetite.

"How about if you work for me on weekends?" Holden was serious.

"Weekends?" Tristan gritted a smile. "I guess I could. I don't have anything else going on." His fingers were in the tips of his front jeans pockets. He hadn't changed completely out of his work clothes to relax. He was in his Zoo Team T-shirt.

"I don't know, help is hard to find these days," Holden sighed. "Maybe they're all on vacation." He made light of it and took a sip of No Alcohol beer. Tristan did the same.

"I don't want to let you down," he then said. Things hadn't been the same for him since Dale left.

"Well, maybe you can get her back," Holden shrugged.

"I don't think so," Tristan said. "She needs this. She needs to be all on her own."

"Then..maybe you do too," Holden told him he was proud of him. "You've done a lot at the zoo. I can see that." He'd made phone calls. He knew what Tristan was capable of. "See, you do work well with others."

Tristan couldn't help but laugh. About then, Dora came out with the baby. Tristan put down his beer and smiled at the seven-month-old. "My God, he's bigger than you," Tristan told her.

"He's long." 

Dora said he loved the water too.

"Yeah, we've been going swimming with him," Holden said.

"Already?" Tristan winced with a laugh.

"Oh, he's a water baby all right," Dora told him that she wanted him to be waterproofed.

"I am way behind the times," Tristan sighed with a smile.

"Oh, it could still happen. You just never know when you might be a dad."

Holden teased as he put on some thin chicken breasts for Dora.

"Seriously, I don't think I would want any kids," Tristan shrugged. "But then,  I wouldn't mind being someone's dad, either."

"I just don't understand you, man." Holden shook his head and turned to tend to the meat over the licking flames.

"Look, I'm going to work for you on weekends, isn't that enough?" Tristan took a sip of his beer then. As of yet, he hadn't held Holden's baby.

I have both feet on the ground

 

It was a whirlwind of excitement to be on their own. Jade found herself full of laughter. Although it felt stuffy on the plane and she thought her stomach might drop a time or two on their way to Florida, Ari held her hand the whole way.

The beach was so delightful, yet the whole time she kept thinking it would be perfect if they conceived here in Florida. Like a sweet memory, they could tell their child in the future. But she knew that wasn't on Ari's mind. And she hadn't told him yet she'd stopped birth control. Still, she knew it wouldn't happen here. It might never happen, in fact.

"I hope things are going OK for Carmen," she made herself remember what she'd left behind. Her job. This was just temporary.

While being on the beach and all the happenings it had to offer during the day, it was dreamlike, and Jade was so happy, but once it was bedtime, the nightmares haunted her. A future where she would be alone if she had a baby.

The turmoil would wake her in a sweat. She couldn't get comfortable here. Before she knew it when she looked at the time on her phone, she was in the bathroom texting Jared, who would haphazardly text back.

She would ask about her sister Jewel. Was she doing OK?

"Can't you text her yourself?" He replied. He made clear he was starting a new job.

"What do you mean? You quit the University?"

Funny, she'd never meant to know so much about his life. Jared was like family, but not really. Evidently, according to Jared, her sister was with the father of her baby now, but she was afraid to ask Jewel, for fear she might jinx it. 

"I'm worried about you," Jared texted a few nights later when she was growing fonder of these two o'clock morning messages.

"Why?" No one was ever worried about her. She couldn't help but smile when she read his message.

Can't take this, really can't finish this

 

"Why didn't you tell me?" Nic called immediately when Tristan mentioned breaking up with Dale in a TEXT.

"Oh, I don't know if I can talk about it," was all Tristan could say. He still felt a bit under the weather, like maybe there was a real issue. Maybe it was his heart. He felt a little weak these days, but somehow he managed to get to work every day. He liked being there. Although seeing his mother bring him lunch at the zoo always made him uncomfortable. It wasn't that he'd lied to her, but then he hadn't told her about the Dale situation either.

"It's just, I know I shouldn't be at the house. It's my Mom and Dad's, you know."

Tristan felt restless. He wanted to get away from the memories he and Dale made here, but with the price of things these days, it didn't seem likely.

"I want you to come here," Nic said out of nowhere.

"What?" Tristan scowled as he walked around in the living room, just in his briefs. "No. I can't. I won't."

He didn't want his sister Liv to think he might be planning to move to Seoul. He was certain she was still trying to get over her visit with their mother.

"You need a vacation," Nic's voice sounded so positive.

"No. No, I don't." Tristan squinted hard.  "I need to work harder, that's it. I need to, you know-" He didn't know how to fill in the blank. If only he'd finish what he'd started. He was a long way from being a veterinarian. 

He pulled his fingers back through his long bangs. He needed a haircut. So many things he needed. 

"I'm going to be OK," he promised Nic. He pressed his lips tight. 

Just then he got a TEXT from Holden, inviting him to dinner.

"Don't you worry about me," Tristan made himself laugh. "I need to be on my own." Still, he knew he depended way too much on everyone.

it's OK to start over

 As usual, Chewy always had what Jun wanted. It was true, and as much as he liked his friend Chewy, he hated him just as much.

Chewy had a kid and a partner, too. It was as if Jun walked in on something that he shouldn't have, but Chai greeted him with ease and asked if he wanted to stay for dinner. After all, Chai had made stew, and there were dumplings too. How could he say no to that?

Truly, unexpectedly, Jun couldn't think of a thing to say. Of course, that little girl with the big dark eyes gave him the look over. Before they could sit and eat, she crawled into his lap, looking up at him as if she had some sort of mind control.

Jun thought he might freak. He wasn't a kid person. Honestly, she was the first who'd ever gotten this close to him.

"So are you just visiting, or are you back for good?" Chewy asked as he set the table for the meal.

"Oh, I'm just at a hostel right now," Jun confessed. For a moment, he thought that kid had knives in her bony butt. She wasn't wearing a diaper like he thought she might. It was as if she had right where she wanted and it was killing Jun.

"A hostel? But you have family here?"

"Well, you know-" he winced. "No way am I living with my grandmother."

"Oh, I see." Chewy sounded as if that was no shock to him.

"I haven't seen her in a long time." 

He kept a straight face as if he didn't want to mention what a bad grandson he was. She sent him money all the time, yet he rarely called her. It seemed his parents weren't too keen on helping him out lately. He'd dropped out of the University. He'd thought about taking a Civil Service test, but his Korean wasn't as good as it used to be.

He was certain he wouldn't fit in here, but he didn't want to let Chewy know. 

1. The past cannot be changed

 "Well, Jun was Chewy's best friend, not mine." Louie shrugged as they sat down to a stir-fry supper.

"But you're Chewy's best friend," Sunny said as she took a bite of rice with her chopsticks.

"Oh, we grew up together, you know," Louie was even lipped. He knew they'd always been in the same boat, living with their grandmothers while Jun had a mother and father. "Jun was quite envious of Chewy because he felt Chewy always got the girl, a real ladies' man, you know." Louie grabbed a chunk of chicken, contemplating how he felt about Jun's remarks. "He liked to tease, I guess." Although it wasn't a fond memory of Jun, it made him feel he would have been better off as a girl.

"You don't think Jun will make a big deal about Chewy and Chai, do you?" Sunny acted as if she needed to go over to Chewy's and find out what was going on.

"What if he does? So what, Jun will figure it out, but then again, he's never really had to be a grownup," Louie went on with his food. Sunny's stir-fry was too good not to enjoy. After all, a part of him just wanted to eat and then go to sleep, but he knew they'd watch their favorite game show once the kitchen was cleaned up.

"I don't like him," Sunny said about Jun as she bit into a piece of broccoli.

Louie almost laughed, but he held it in with a smile. "Oh, you're such a good judge of character."

Sunny looked back at him out of the corner of her eye with a smirk. "We know who the best judge of character is, it's Daisy."

Louie nodded. "Daisy will put Jun to the test. No way, would Chewy go out with him."

"I think Chai and Chewy have gotten closer since Chai got on at the bank," Sunny was, happy for Chai even if maybe the hours were long. Of course, he'd avoided all those work dinners. He would always stay back and work. It had paid off. 

Daisy was more at ease about staying in her room at night, too. Of course, Louie and Sunny helped out with Daisy when they could. Louie was starting to think he'd love to have a daughter, just like Sunny, but he had a feeling if they did have a girl, she would look like him.

STAY CALM it's okay not to have everything figured out. Know that in time you'll get there.

 It was bad timing. If only Chewy could leave his stuff and not take it next door, where he and Chai lived. If only Louie were home, he could take over with this disaster about to happen. But of course, that wasn't going to happen, either.

Yes, the best thing to do was to drop everything and take Jun out for a drink, eat at one of their old hangout, and listen to Jun talk for the next eight hours or so. This guy always had a way of taking up time. But Chewy hadn't minded it then. Now he just didn't have time.

"So, where have you been?" Chewy made an effort that he could still be friends with his old school pal. Of course, it felt a little awkward standing in the hallway with a trio of boxes he was hugging. It was getting heavy.

"You know, how my folks couldn't get enough of Hong Kong." 

Jun looked hurt that Chewy didn't remember.

"Oh yeah," Chewy slightly remembered. "Glad you're back. We'll  have to get together sometime."

If he was lucky, he could go in the opposite direction and backtrack his way around to his apartment.

"How about now?" That smart mouth of Jun's was back as if he were the clever fox everyone wanted to know more of.

"I can't right now," Chewy sighed. "I got family stuff."

"Family stuff?"

That intense curiosity of Jun's never did sit well with Chewy. Even growing up, it felt Jun was some kind of recorder who'd replay everything in a bad way when given a chance. It could be so annoying. 

"Fine." Chewy would rip this off like a cheap bandage of sticky glue. He remembered all those put downs of Jun's, saying he bet Chewy was madly in love with Louie, while Chewy was always in the dating game of high-maintenance chicks.

Chewy dreaded the idea of Chai meeting Jun, but there was always Daisy, and she had a way of bringing out the best in people.