Just Breathe Trilogy Box Set (6 page)

“What? No,” Maggie bashfully tries to deny.

“Don’t lie. I know when you’re lying,” Nǎinai alleges as she wags a finger at Maggie. “Are you going to see Henry?”

“No. We, umm . . . the parade will be starting soon. We should head out to our seats,” Maggie declares.

Jared tries hard to suppress a smile and giggle. Nǎinai watches Jared, Maggie and me carefully.

“Oh, just go already,” Mŭqīn shouts in desperation.

We always walk down to the parade together, so my guess is that Mŭqīn knows what’s going on. You can’t sneak anything past her.

“Thanks, Mŭqīn. Love you!” Maggie squeals as she jumps up out of her seat.

She practically runs to the closet by the front door to get our coats. I grab Sadie’s leash and hook it on after I put on my jacket.

Once on the street heading towards the library, Jared questions, “So, how do you want this to go down, Mags?”

“What?” Maggie’s definitely clueless to what Jared is talking about.

“Do you want us standing right there? You know, like you’re obviously with us or do you want us to stand off to the side talking?” Jared explains.

“I don’t know. Why?”

Maggie’s anxiety has just gone up a few levels. I can see it in her eyes.

“Well, it all depends on what kind of a vibe you want to give off. Do you want him to know you’re here with friends or not. Do you want to intimidate him a little with us being there or not?” Jared explains.

“I . . . I don’t know,” Maggie says with worry in her tone as she stops.

“Stop freaking her out, Jared,” I defend, punching him in the arm.

“I’m not trying to freak her out. I just want to know how she wants us to approach the guy. Should we go right away or wait for her signal?” Jared replies. He is honestly trying to help her, but his timing is horrible.

“How about we’ll play it by ear and if she wants us to move away before he gets there, she’ll let us know,” I offer.

“I like that,” Maggie express, calming a little.

Approaching the library about ten minute early, Maggie suddenly stops in her tracks.

“You okay, Maggie?” I ask with concern.

“Yeah . . .” she reacts as her voices trails off.

I notice she’s in a dead stare and follow her eyes. There are two men standing at the base of the stairs to the library talking. The Asian guy looks and stops too. His friend’s back is to us and they are too far for us to hear their conversation prior to them stopping.

Maggie moves forward toward who I assume is Henry while at the same time he instinctually moves toward her. Jared and I proceed to follow Maggie, but stay a few steps behind her to give some space. Clearly there is a connection between the two of them, there’s no denying it. They stop about a foot away from each other, eager to talk and touch bodies, but refrain themselves from physical contact.

Henry is as tall as me and his five foot eight inches stature towers a little over Maggie’s five foot three inch petite frame. He’s slim, but you can tell that he is muscular even under his lean, dark brown jacket, white with thin, red pin stripped button down dress shirt, dark khaki pants and brown casual dress shoes. I can tell his clothes are high quality without seeing the labels.

My attention is abruptly pulled away from Maggie and Henry chatting when my gaze falls upon the face of Henry’s friend who is following Henry a few steps back. I pause for a brief moment as we lock eyes. I regain my movement forward when I realize that I had suddenly stopped.

“You alright, Emma?” Jared asks.

Unable to pull my eyes away for a second, I finally look to Jared, finding a weird look on his face, and respond, “Yeah. I just wanted to give them a little more space.”

“Good idea,” Jared replies as he drapes his arm around my neck and whispers in my ear, “So do you think he’s gay or straight?”

“Who?” I question, confused as I try to retain my awareness and focus on the present.

“The friend,” Jared states playfully.

My eyes shift back to Henry’s friend and it feels like he never looked away. He smiles a half-cocked grin that curves up on the left side of his face. He too is wearing high-quality clothing in the form of a light blue button down dress shirt that makes his eyes sparkle, along with dark blue slacks and a pair of brown slip on casual dress shoes. His navy blue jacket is draped over his arm. This man is stunning. He has physical qualities that would allow him to be a male model if he choses, but he’s got an air of confidence and something else that I can’t quite make out in his stare. Luscious, thick dark brown hair adorns his head, but has flicks of what I would think is natural light brown highlights. He’s taller than me, but only by a few inches, and he is only about an inch or two shorter than Jared. This man is yummy, causing my lady parts to react.

“Definitely not gay,” I answer quietly.

For a gay man, Jared has miserable gay-dar. I’m his default detector.

“Damn,” he states, revealing his disappointment.

I force myself to pay attention to Maggie and Henry, but this guy’s ocean blue eyes have me mesmerized. The sound of Maggie’s voice mentioning my name brings me back to the moment and I force my gaze to meet her’s and then Henry’s.

“This is Jared and Emma.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Henry,” he offers, shaking Jared’s hand and then reaches for mine, though I do not return the gesture.

I have a thing about touching strangers.

“This my good friend, Joe,” Henry continues politely, almost sensing and understanding my uneasiness with physical contact and does not seem offended by my rudeness.

Crap. I have to look at his friend again. Compose yourself, Emma. I watch Joe and Jared shake hands and when Joe looks to me, I simply smile and nod. A look of disappointment appears on his face when I don’t shake his hand. Typically, I don’t care what others think of my habits. I shouldn’t care, yet for some strange reason — this time, I kind of do.

“You’ll have to excuse Emma. She’s not very personable with strangers,” Jared cuts in before the moment becomes too awkward and squeezes my shoulder into his body.

“Who is this?” Joe squats down to his knees to make himself eye level with Sadie, but keeps his attention on my face. His enigmatic smile has returned and he looks even yummier than before.

Instinctually, Sadie knows to place herself between me and anyone new. I don’t like getting too close to anyone I don’t know. She sits with her eyes glued on me watching and waiting for direction.

“That’s Sadie,” Maggie introduces for me.

Henry is a little timid to bend down like Joe. Joe doesn’t move to touch Sadie and seems to be waiting for permission from me or her. I’m not sure.

Looking back down to Sadie, I can tell she’s a little uneasy, which she is getting from me. I signal to her that it’s okay to greet and Joe is her first target since he’s right in front of her. He is the first person outside of Maggie, Jared and Maggie’s family whom she bares her belly to on first contact. I’m in complete shock. Joe pets her vigorously from head to toe as if he’s used to dogs and Sadie loves the attention. Sadie stays focused on Joe and keeps her body up against his like she’s hoping that he will keep petting her as she greets Henry. She senses Henry’s apprehension and goes easy on him.

Before Henry reaches to pet her, Maggie exclaims, “Sadie won’t hurt you! She’s a big softy and is great with my niece and nephews.”

The tension in Henry’s body relaxes a little as he reaches his hand forward to let Sadie sniff him.

“Here,” Maggie encourages Henry and Sadie by putting her hand next to his slightly touching it. “She’ll smell me mixed with you which will make it easier for you both.”

Sadie sniffs his hand and gladly lets Maggie guide Henry’s hand over her head.

“See, she likes you,” Maggie says reassuringly.

“We should walk and talk to make it back to our spots on the street,” Jared suggests.

Everyone agree and start moving towards the parade route. I’m surprised that they are both joining us. Maggie never introduces a guy to her family this quickly.

Maggie and Henry are in front, talking to each other. They seem very calm in the way they speak as if they’ve known each other for a long time. As we cross the street, I notice that Henry purposefully puts himself between Maggie and the street. Jared, Joe, Sadie and myself follow closely behind them not talking. Jared is closest to the store entrances as our arms are entwined, Sadie is between myself and Joe and Joe is along the curbside mirroring Henry.

We easily find Nǎinai and the rest of the family about fifteen minutes before the parade starts. Nǎinai gleams with enthusiasm, not for the parade, but at seeing Henry and Joe. Maggie makes introductions to the whole family in English. She explains who’s related to whom and Jared adds how he and I tie into the whole family, pretty much as brother and sister to Maggie. Maggie and Henry stand side by side followed by myself with Jared behind me, then Sadie and Joe. The whole family listens intently to Maggie and then begins asking Henry a few questions.

“My parents are somewhere here. This is our first time seeing the parade in Chinatown, usually we’re either back home in China or up in San Francisco to celebrate,” Henry answers openly.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day once the parade concludes?” inquires Nǎinai, testing the boundaries of Maggie’s new love interest.

She doesn’t ask if he speaks Mandarin. It’s assumed since he refers to China as back home.

“Nothing, really. Since we aren’t familiar with the celebrations here, we figured we just follow along with what others were doing. We aren’t here with any other family members currently,” Henry replies back in Mandarin to Nǎinai.

She’s very pleased that he speaks her native tongue. “Great! Then you,
Blue Eyes
here and your parents can join us for dinner,” Nǎinai insists.

Jared chuckles at Nǎinai, knowing who she is referring to by calling him
Blue Eyes
. Mŭqīn and Fŭqīn are pleased that Nǎinai has invited Henry, Joe and Henry’s parents and urges them to join us. They are clearly curious about Henry and his family.

Though she’s giddy from all of the excitement, I notice that Nǎinai is cold, so I take off my jacket to cover her.

“Thank you, Emma,” Nǎinai says gratefully.

I smile and nod.

“Now
Blue Eyes
can get a better look at you and your voluptuous body,” she adds, grinning.

I take a deep breath, shake my head and try not to roll my eyes at her. I know what she’s trying to do and I really hope that Joe doesn’t understand Mandarin.

Jared does not contain his laughter as he hugs me from behind to keep me warm.

“Not funny, Jared,” I scold him as I quickly look from him to Joe to catch Joe’s reaction.

Maybe I can find out if Joe knows Mandarin too since he is Henry’s best friend. He just looks at me and grins like he does each time our eyes meet.

“He doesn’t know what I’m saying, ” Nǎinai claims, slightly taunting me as she sees me studying Joe’s face. “Look at him. He’s been smiling the whole time and his face hasn’t changed. I could tell him you’re madly in love with him and want to have his babies and he’d just smile and nod.”

I look back at Joe to find his smile hasn’t changed — at least I don’t think it has. God, I hope he isn’t just being polite and really doesn’t understand her.

The music begins as the parade commences, interrupting Nǎinai’s goodhearted cajoling at my expense. We stand or sit watching, smiling and having a great time. After a while, Jade and Rey are running around our group playing and imitating the dancing that is taking place. Rey, who is only three, pretends that he is either a dragon or a lion. I’m not quite sure which. He’s chasing after his older sister Jade, who is six.

Jared snatches up Rey, which Rey loves. “Uncie Jay,” Rey shouts giggling. “Shoulders!”

Happy to fulfill Rey’s request, Jared hoists him up.

I shiver at the disappearance of his body heat. Suddenly, I feel warmth blanketing around me. Joe has placed his jacket around my shoulders. It smells sinfully delicious and feels cozy.

Turning my head to Joe I say, “Thank you.”

Joe leans into my right ear. “You’re welcome.” His warm breath is refreshing against my cheek. Our eyes meet again as he slowly pulls his face away.

“Looks like you have an admirer,” pokes Jared.

I ignore him other than bumping him with my hip.

Jade stays near her brother holding onto my waist. I can see it in her face that she wishes she could be held up like that too. She’s petite and I could easily holder her myself — I’ve done it before.

I offer to hold her, but Jade declines. “You look really pretty today, Emma,” she says. “Not that you never don’t look pretty. I just don’t . . . .”

“I can hold you up if you’d like,” Joe offers with a smile before Jade finishes her sentence.

Jade, though shy, immediately answers by moving over towards Joe, holding her arms up to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nǎinai watching us.

“Look Emma, he’s even great with kids. My blessing of love and marriage has come to you early this year!”

“You’ve given me the same blessing the past two years Nǎinai,” I retort back in Mandarin. “And, it didn’t happen then.”

There is no way her blessing is coming true anytime soon if I have anything to do with it.

Nǎinai regards me and comments, “It will happen. I didn’t bless you with a husband and children in the past.”

My mouth opens as I’m about to rebut, but there’s a look in her eye that I’ve never seen before. A sense of unshakeable definitiveness. It’s a little creepy and I decide not to continue this conversation by closing my mouth.

At one point, Joe leans over to me and says something that is drowned out by all the music and noise. Since I can’t hear him, I’m forced to lean in to hear him better.

“What?” I say, shifting towards him.

His eyes widen and his smile opens more, showing some teeth as he repeats himself, “Did I miss the memo about wearing red today?”