Loveboat Reunion by Abigail Hing Wen

Author:Abigail Hing Wen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

27

Sophie

Xavier’s aunt seems wary of me. She probably has a lot of people wanting her attention, and maybe she’s not sure she can trust me, or even Xavier, with all the bad blood in their family. But I’m already in love with the world she’s created inside these walls—stylish, warm, and exciting all at once. Her outfit is jarring and chaotic—the boxy mauve jacket over pants with rosebuds floating on blue the color of the Caribbean Sea, a paisley scarf holding back her wavy hair. The effect is like the buzz of electricity from an eel.

I want her to like me. I want her to trust me.

At her tug, the silk blanket parachutes down to reveal chrome bars forming an open box like a small elevator. Purple velvet curtains hang at each corner. A pad on the floor with two gold footprints tells the user where to stand, facing a screen that forms the box’s back wall.

She tugs the second blanket off to reveal . . .

A three-way mirror.

Three identical panels framed by intricately wrought steel. The pattern is familiar: the Dragon Leaf dragon undulating among festive moon lanterns.

“Wasn’t this my mom’s mirror?” Xavier’s wondering expression grows larger in the three panels. He runs his thumb down one dragony edge. “She had it in her room.”

“It was originally your grandmother’s—your father’s mother. She and my aunts designed it, and the dragons inspired the Dragon Leaf logo.”

Xavier frowns. “I didn’t know that.”

“They stay out of the spotlight,” Aunty Three says. “But everything lovable about Dragon Leaf, down to its logo and the shade of lighting in every store, was designed by them. They’ve been the tastemakers behind the scenes for the last fifty years.”

“No wonder they blend into the operation.” I smile. “They are the operation.”

“That explains why I like the logo,” Xavier says.

“Your ba gifted this mirror to your ma for their wedding. Shortly before she passed away, she bequeathed it to me for my project.”

I approach the mirror. My own tripled reflection, in my purple jumpsuit with the cowled neckline, gazes back at me.

“There’s a lag,” I say. “This isn’t a regular mirror.”

“Sharp eye,” Aunty Three says. “I’ve been trying to get rid of the delay.” She points to a tiny lens hidden against the curved body of a dragon in the middle panel’s top frame. Then to another lens on each side and at the bottom. “Four cameras interpolating. May I introduce . . . the Magic Mirror.”

She doesn’t sound like a proud inventor at all. More deflated. But a surge of excitement courses through my body.

“How does it work?”

“First we scan you in this kiosk.” She runs a sturdy hand down a chrome bar. “Sixteen infrared cameras create a digital avatar of your body. Once the system has your measurements, it generates your three-dimensional image. The tool will identify which clothes in our system fit your body, and reduce your selection from tens of thousands to hundreds. You pick what you like, and the tool shows you what they look like on your body, without the effort of locating and changing physical clothes.

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