The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park

Author:Suzanne Park
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Chloe

He kissed me.

And I kissed him.

It terrified me that we had done something so fundamentally forbidden. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about his warm lips pressed against mine. If I didn’t have the final presentation for the National Art Council and the fate of the mall to worry about, I’d just replay that moment over and over in my head—my lips tingling from the contact, the jolt from his arms around my body—until the next time we kissed. I wish I had that luxury.

Instead, Peter and I sat at a food court table while I tried to interview Mr. Fry about his knowledge of East West Wok while he complained about his arthritic back, the global warming conspiracists on Facebook, and how his good-for-nothing kids take-take-take from him all the time.

“…when did pomegranates become a superfood? Who gets to pick what the superfoods are? When I was your age…”

“…and have you seen these gas prices? How is it that we have a state as big as Texas drilling and yet we’re still so dependent on the Saudis? I thought electric cars were supposed to fix this!”

What was it with older people and gas prices? My parents’ number one complaint was about the prices at gas stations. Every time we drove by one, they remarked, “Waaa! So expensive here! Four dollar?!”

“That’s highway robbery! Near us is cheaper! Five cent cheaper each gallon.”

“Unleaded so high! Why so high? Maybe because this neighborhood too rich.”

They could have an entire radio show solely about gas prices and have people like Mr. Fry call in. He’d jump on his “These gas prices are an abomination! We were promised flying cars by now!” soapbox and people like my parents would egg him on.

Maybe this could be their backup plan if we couldn’t save this place.

Well, we really couldn’t save Riverwood Mall if Mr. Fry never got around to helping us because he was knotted up in his random thoughts. Peter must’ve had the same thought. As soon as Mr. Fry paused for a breath, Peter asked, “Could you talk about the time Hamburger Palace was next to East West Wok?”

“Whoa son, that was ages ago.” He chuckled. “Were you even born yet? Let’s see, that was maybe fifteen years ago, maybe more. I remember there were two little ones running around, a boy and a girl. Not related though. One was from one family and the other was from the other one.”

Hannah and Sam.

He jutted his chin stroked his beard. “Maybe it was two boys, it was hard to tell them apart. Not because they were Asian, but because they both had the same bowl mullet.” Mr. Fry pointed his index fingers to his forehead and moved them back past his ears and down to the shoulder. “Maybe it was a trend or something in those days. In any case, that business fizzled pretty quick.” He exhaled out of his nose and just stopped talking. So after all that chatter, he had nothing to say now?

I

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