“It’s speltA n ubut pronouncedAah-nu;two syllables.”
We spend a few minutes practicing till I get it right. She nods when she’s certain that I got it right.
“Let’s visit Mrs Wu. You can park in my space, and we walk to the restaurant.” We drive in silence. The center is close to her building. She points to her parking spot, and I park my car.
“Where’s your car if I’m taking your spot?”
“I spent the night at my friend's place and left my car there. I’ll pick it up later today.”
“I can drop you off to pick it up.”
“Maybe. Let’s go to lunch.”
I nod and follow her lead towards the restaurant.
Soon as we enter the restaurant, a small Asian lady comes over to hug her and starts to speak Mandarin. She and Anu talk for a minute before she turns to me with bland look. Anu moves closer and links her arms to mine.
“Daniel, this is Mrs Wu. She owns this restaurant,” Anu says.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs Wu.”
She returns a stoic look to me and turns away.
We follow as she seats us and rambles in Mandarin.
“Am I safe to eat here?”
“Please ignore her. She’s convinced herself that I would marry her son.” She crackles.
“Oh, now I’m scared.” Mrs Wu turns a daring eye to me. “Is she still trying to match make you to her son?” I whisper.
“Yes, she believes he likes black girls, and he does, because he’s dating a black woman. Only Mrs Wu thinks her ass is too big and not well rounded like mine. So, she’s on a mission to match make us, never mind that we don’t click or her excuse of her son’s girlfriend is flimsy. I’m not sure I understand what’s wrong with older people and their mission to match make their children to someone they don’t click with.” She sighs.
“I do agree with her on the well-rounded ass,” I say, winking.
“Can’t tell if that’s a compliment or a mockery.” Her eyes bore into mine.
“I assure you, it’s not a mockery.”You have no idea how badly I want to touch and feel that well rounded ass.
“Well, thank you then.” She smiles.
A server soon comes over to take our order. Again, I order the same as her with a few variations.
“I thought MAK was just short of your first name. I didn’t realize it was your initials.”
“You could say it’s both, but when Jordan came up with MAK, it was based on my initials.”
“I thought you did the name.”
“It is my name and my initials, but using it for business and branding came from Jordan.”
“You guys work together a lot.” I’ve seen Jordan with Andrea, and it’s clear he only has eyes for Andrea, but I’m still a little jealous of their closeness.
“You could say so. He convinced me to move to Chicago and work with him. Chicago wasn’t on my radar. I was thinking of moving to New York. Nkem, my childhood friend, got a job here and Kay, my cousin, is here. It was easier for my dad to agree that I move here.”
“Your dad didn’t want you living here?”
“He wanted me back in London with him.”
