“Say hello to your cousins, Carmen and Junior,” William’s mom said forcefully. She pulled two younger cousins into the screen. They awkwardly waved. “Merry Christmas,po.”
William was polite. “Merry Christmas.”
Carmen said, “You have a nice Christmas tree.” Willam looked over his shoulder at the tree in the corner of the front room. “Oh, thanks,” he said.
When he turned to look at the tree, he moved just slightly so that his camera was focused on me instead of him, and his cousin Carmen asked, “Is that your girlfriend? She’s pretty.”
William turned on the sofa so I wasn’t behind him anymore, and I was off screen. He looked up at me, and I mouthedsorry.
We heard the rustling of William’s mom snatching the phone back from Carmen and her face filled the screen. “Are you with a girlfriend?”
William had a momentary look of panic, but he said calmly. “No, mom. It’s just my housemate at my new place in Georgia.”
“Oh, can I see her? Let me say Merry Christmas to your…housemate,” William’s mom said in a sing-songy voice. William looked up at me. I nodded and shrugged.
“Okay, Mom.” William turned so that I was in the background of the video call. I waved politely and said, “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you, too!” I could see his mom’s face light up. Her eyebrows raised in the same way that William’s did when he was amused.
“Mom, we have to go. Merry Christmas.”
“Okay, Anak. Love you.”
“Thanks for doing that,” William said, tossing his phone on the sofa between us. “My mom is very persistent.”
“No problem. Hopefully, she couldn’t tell I hadn’t showered in two days.” I laughed.
“You look great,” William said as he set his phone back on the coffee table. He raised an eyebrow as he looked over at me. “But I could have sworn you were wearing a retainer at some point last night.”
I scoffed and hoped desperately that my face wasn’t turning tomato red. “For your information, I was wearing my retainer, but I took it off when we went into the kitchen to make pizza bagels.”
William laughed. “You might be the only adult I’ve ever met who still wears their retainer.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked with a bit of a laugh, and I shrugged. “I guess I’m a bit of a rule follower. Your mom called you a name, anak? Is that a nickname?”
“Oh, ha. Yeah, it’s a term of endearment for your child in Tagalog, my mom’s language,” William said.
“You look like your mom,” I said pointing at his phone on the table.
“Yeah?” William said with an amused look. “You’re really the only person who has ever said that. My mom is a five-foot-tall Filipina lady. I’m over six feet tall and a spitting image of my dad when he was my age…from what I can tell from pictures.”
“Maybe it’s more the expressions you two make,” I said thoughtfully. “In that way, you favor each other.”
He was quiet for a minute. Then he turned to me and said, “You look just like your mom. I mean, based on the photos I’ve seen around here.”
I blew air from my nose and shook my head. “I wish. My mom, she was this free-spirited, artistic, effervescent person that everyone loved to be around.” The corners of my mouthpushed down in a doubtful frown. “I might resemble her, but I’ve never been like that.”
William sat back and shrugged. “I don’t know, Kit. She’s stunning. You look just like her.”
I felt my cheeks burn red. I tried not to read much into what he had said.
I looked out the window. “It’s going to be a quiet week.”
“Yeah? What do you mean?” William asked.
“Well, everything closes here in town until after New Year’s Day.” I saw the blank expression on his face, so I explained further. “Like everything is closed. Library, schools, stores, banks. The only thing open is the regional hospital.”
“Even chain restaurants?”
