Love After Death by Billings Hildred

Author:Billings, Hildred
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barachou Press
Published: 2022-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

One never knows what a foreigner means when they want “dim sum.” To me, it has a very specific place in my schedule. Have I had it for dinner before? Sure! It got me through a lot of study groups and late nights working. My mother never understood the transformation of dim sum from brunch to dinner, though. She also complained that so many of the dim sum food carts and restaurants placed too much focus on the dumplings and buns, and not enough on the tea.

Because of my mother, I knew a great place to take Cassie. It was big enough that most of the people there wouldn’t recognize me, and it was well-known enough to be in some guidebooks – foreigners weren’t an odd look, let alone with a local of the same sex. The place was a bit costly, but Cassie said she was paying. I held her to it! God knew my mother and I rarely went there because it could be half of our paychecks.

Not until we sat down did I fret over what Cassie really wanted from me.

She was nothing but amiable and courteous once we left the hotel. As long as she minded her manners, I didn’t think about why we were having dinner together – until we sat down and the waiter left us with a tea menu alongside a list of that day’s dim sum offerings.

What were we supposed to talk about?

“Are you allergic to anything?” I asked.

“No. I’m not afraid to try new things, either.” Cassie placed her menu on the table and folded her hands beneath her chin. “I’ll let you order. You know what’s good here, yes?”

So much pressure!

I don’t remember what I ordered. All I know is that I did it in Cantonese, and when the waiter left us alone again, Cassie was enamored with my mother tongue.

“I doubt I could ever learn a language like yours at this point in my life,” she said with a dreamy sigh. “If you told me back in the late ‘80s that I should be focusing on Eastern languages instead of Italian, I wouldn’t have believed you. I mean, I had some classmates studying Japanese, but I should have been learning Mandarin.”

“Things change quickly,” I said. “I can vaguely remember when the British controlled Hong Kong.”

“How old are you?”

Answering such a loaded question could have gone either way. Either Cassie would have been put off by my age, or really turned on. Neither result was in my favor.

“Twenty-three,” I replied.

“Wow.” Cassie kept her real opinion hidden behind the mask she always wore around me. “I remember when I was twenty-three. I was living in a run-down studio apartment with…” Her voice trailed off. I didn’t know what she wanted to say. With her boyfriend? With rats? With mold in every window? There were so many possibilities. I both wanted to get to know everything about her and to slowly peel away the veneer she had woven around herself by that point in her life.

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