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“Do you want some noodles before I go on my business trip?”
I looked up at my mother who was fussing over some things in the kitchen. I set my tablet down on my lap and shook my head. “Mom, I can take care of myself. I don’t need you making food for me like I can’t survive on my own. I mean, I’m twenty-five, I can handle it.”
My mother’s head popped up from behind some cupboards and made a face. Even at her age, she was still a lovely woman. There was some gray in her once jet black hair. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes had started to move inwards, but even still, she was stunning. “Ay-yah, I know, I know! You’re a man now! Can’t you let your mother fuss over you a little more before you leave my nest?”
I smiled, “Ok. I will try.”
She stepped away from the kitchen and dashed off to her room before returning with luggage in tow behind her. “Ok, I wrote all my information on the pad next to the telephone. I have to meet some of the broker team before we go to the airport.”
I nodded. “Ok.”
“No parties.” My mother said as she started out of the house.
“Please… I’m too old for that kind of thing.”
“Be nice to your cousin!” she called out as she shut the door.
My mother finally left for her business trip. I was blessed with the silence of a quiet home. I looked down at my tablet and scrolled through some work that I had lined up a freelance photographer. It wasn’t what I had hoped for. As a college student, I dreamed about working in a firm and producing large media pieces while being a part of a huge team, but graduating and coming into the real world grounded those dreams harshly. I made a good living doing what I did and I enjoyed it. Like my mother said, my time to leave the nest was nearing as my savings reached the mark I had set to be able to live on my own.
I grew up in a semi-traditional Chinese family. My father ran off with his mistress when I was very young. It devastated my family, but my mother was quite indifferent. As a child, I never understood why she never pined for his attention like I did before he left. Yet, with adulthood, I realized that even though he was around physically, he was never there for us emotionally. My mother never remarried. She was determined to show her family and my father’s family that she could survive without the bastard. She made it a personal mission to not just survive, but to thrive. I was proud of her for all that she had achieved.
I smiled to myself as I read through a few temporary contract jobs for a digital photographer before I was thrown out of my peace and calm. A loud crashing could be heard at the front door of the modest two bedroom house my mother had purchased. I set my tablet down and looked over at the door from where I sat in the living room. There were several more thuds and another crash before the door was flung opened revealing a young woman standing there with her hands filled with shopping bags.
“Jeez, Matt, you could have helped me!”
The young woman with the brightly colored cheeks from her laboring at the door was my cousin. She stepped into the house and set her bags down in as flourish of exaggerated movements. She shut the front door and took a deep breath. I grinned ear to ear, “It sounded like you had it all handled.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“Sorry, Carey.” I said with as much sincerity as I could muster. I looked through a few more jobs and glanced up to see my cousin stripping off her autumn jacket. She had on a tight pink blouse that was accented nicely with the black tights that she wore. Her hair that came just past her shoulders was a tangle of a mess from her struggle. She was cute, breathtaking when one took the time to look. Carey tossed her jacket onto the vacant cushion on the far corner of the couch that was I was sitting on. “Rough day?”
She shrugged and looked around, “Did I miss Aunt Lily leaving?”
I nodded.
“Shoot.”
“What?”
“I wanted to wish her a safe trip.” She said as she walked into the kitchen to rummage for something to eat.
Carey became a semi-permanent visitor when her parents had contacted my mother in aiding her in moving to NYC for school. She missed the registration period for getting a dorm room and asked if there was room for her. Even though the house my mother and I lived in barely contained us comfortably, my mother had insisted that she was family and we would make things work. So, the calm that I had always enjoyed in my home had been disturbed by the dust-devil that was my cousin.
“Did your mom make any noodles before she left?” she asked with her head deep inside the refrigerator.
“Nope.”
“What? For reals?” she asked as she stood up and looked out towards me.
“Yup.” I said as I accepted a few local contracts and powered off my tablet. “She was going to a business meeting; I wasn’t going to have her rush to make cold noodles for us to eat.”
Carey pouted and nodded, “You’re right.”
I smiled at her disappointment, “But, they are pretty damned good.”
“Right?!” Carey exclaimed as she playfully stamped her foot in the kitchen. With a sudden change in emotion, Carey stuck her head back into the refrigerator. “Do you want anything while I am in here?”
“Beer.” I answered as I turned on the television and slowly surfed through the numerous channels we had.
“Say please.” She said with her voice slightly muffled with whatever morsel of food she found stuffed into her mouth.
“Please?”
Carey popped out from the refrigerator and walked to the living room with her hands full of food and drink. She handed me a beer and settled down next to me on the couch with her snacks.
I felt slightly uncomfortable at the closeness of her; I cleared my throat and looked over. “Why are you sitting so close?”
“I didn’t want to crush my jacket.” She said as she pointed to her jacket with a celery stick and smiled mischievously.
“You can move it.”
Carey rolled her eyes, “No, it is settled just like I am.”
“Oook…” I said as I tried to move past some of my cousin’s eccentric behavior.
“Are you uncomfortable with me sitting next to you?”
“No.” I lied.
“Is my big manly cousin bothered by the closeness of a woman?”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes, “Shut up and graze in your feeding bowl.”
Carey, knowing that she bothered me in some way and won a little battle that she constantly fought with me in her head, smiled and continued to munch from the bowl of raw vegetables that my mother had sliced and diced for her. “How long is your mom gone?”
I shrugged as I surfed through channel after channel and settled on a cooking one. “It depends really. If things go well, it could be two or three days, if it doesn’t go well, she can be there an entire week or so. It all really depends on how the deals go.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” I said agreed as I twisted the cap off my beer and took a deep swig from the frosty beverage. I looked over to Carey. She was staring at the television seemingly amused by the host that was being showed how to make traditional candies. I remembered the times where she was young frail child who always had her face buried in a book. It never occurred to me that she would have turned out to be a lovely young woman. She must have felt my eyes on her; Carey turned and gave me a puzzled look.
“Something on my face?”
I shook my head.
She pulled a carrot stick out of the bowl that was on her lap and offered it to me, “Want one?” she asked while pushing up her thick brimmed hipster glasses. “It is good for you.”
I lifted my beer, “This is good for me at the moment.”
“Suit yourself.” She said simply and continued to munch on her assorted raw vegetables.
“You know, since my mom is gone for a few days, you can take her bed in the meantime. You wouldn’t have to share a room with me. I am sure that futon in there is getting uncomfortable.”
Carey stopped munching on her vegetables and looked over to me. “Really?”
“Sure.”
“But, I am all settled in.”
“It is some privacy for you.”
“Is the privacy for me or is it really for you?” she asked with a smile on her face.
“For you.” I said as I sucked down more beer. “I don’t have anything to hide. I just figured you would want your own space while my mom is gone.”
She shrugged, “You can take her room. I’m settled. All my stuff is where I want it to be and moving it around for a few nights seems to be like a huge hassle.”
Dumbfounded by her answer, I cocked my head as I looked into her eyes, “I’m not sleeping in my mom’s bed.”
“Why?” she asked as she ate another carrot stick.
“Because… it would be weird.”
“So, if it is weird for you, what makes you think it won’t be weird for me?”
“Uh…”
“Do you want me out of your room?” she asked while turning her attention back to the television. “I can sleep on this couch. It won’t be too comfortable, but I know I am inconveniencing you guys, I should be the one that accommodates.”
“Uh…”
“You can tell me, Matt. I’m a big girl. My feelings won’t hurt as easily as when I was a kid.”
“It would hurt your feelings?”