Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen

Author:Jennifer Yen [Yen, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2022-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

I sneak a peek at Great-Aunt Rose for the fifth time since she sat down opposite me for our lunch break. She pulls the aluminum container of baby bok choy closer with her chopsticks, picking up a generous amount and dropping it on top of her rice. My own bowl sits half-eaten, my appetite overtaken by the butterflies that keep fluttering in my stomach.

“Are you sick?” she asks without raising her eyes.

“No, Auntie. I’m not sick.”

“Allergies?”

“No,” I repeat.

“Hmm.”

Auntie Rose transfers a couple of pieces of char siu pork into her bowl and continues eating. Straightening in my chair, I summon the courage to speak.

“Auntie—”

She cuts me off. “You need to eat more. You’re too skinny. That’s why you’re cold all the time. Eat.”

I press my lips together tightly. She was complaining my cheeks were getting too round barely three weeks ago. Rather than argue, though, I pluck a few string beans out of another container and shove them into my mouth.

When I arrived this morning, I expected Great-Aunt Rose would sit me down and ask which names I came up with. After all, Miss Wu is supposed to come in this afternoon to go over her newest matches. To be honest, part of me was hoping she forgot, because I nearly did. With all the extra work I put in these last few days, I’d been too distracted to go through Auntie Rose’s database. I ended up running a search using the same program I used for Quizlr 2.0 to pull the three names I needed.

Instead, she asked me to help unpack a shipment of silk scarves. By the time I finished folding each in a way that displayed their printed patterns and arranged them on the multilevel wooden rack she bought, Great-Aunt Rose was in session with her first client. I tried to broach the topic as soon as she was done, but then she disappeared into the bathroom for nearly fifteen minutes.

When she returned, I had to help a Russian tourist intent on buying one of every ceramic figurine we had in the shop. It took nearly twenty minutes to carefully wrap each one in tissue paper so they wouldn’t fracture when packed. Then, while I was ringing her up, she spotted the embroidered boxes. It would be another half hour before she happily lugged five plastic bags of souvenirs out the door. When I went in search of Auntie Rose, she quickly sent me to prepare another tray of tea and cookies.

Now, almost three hours later, I’m convinced she’s stalling for time. In fact, right before we took our break, I wanted to observe her session with Mr. Tsai, but she sent me to pick up the lunch I’m pretending to enjoy. It doesn’t help that Auntie Rose tends to eat with her mouth open, something she swears is supposed to show how delicious the food is. I get more impatient with every lip smack and hum, until I am no longer able to hold back.

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