Opening cabinets, he took down plates and glasses at the same time Larissa emptied the shopping bag. “What did you buy?” he asked her.
“Pork dim sum, barbecue spareribs, fried rice, deep-fried prawns, and spring rolls.”
Kenny gave her an incredulous look. “You expect us to eat all of this for lunch?”
“We can have some for lunch and the rest for dinner.”
He met her eyes. “Won’t your folks expect you to be home for dinner?”
“No. They’re spending the weekend in Boston. They tookmy younger brother and sister with them for a family wedding.”
“Why didn’t you go with them?” Kenny asked as he took a container of fruit punch from the refrigerator and filled two glasses.
“I didn’t want to go all that way to skin and grin at a cousin whose ass I can’t stand. And she knows it.”
“I’m sorry that y’all don’t get along.”
“It’s all her fault, Kenny, because the bitch is a kleptomaniac. The last time we had a family reunion, she stole my mother’s ring when she left it on the bathroom sink. I was waiting to use the bathroom, and I saw her go in and come out after my mother left. Then she swore by all that’s holy that she didn’t see the ring.”
“Was the ring valuable?”
“Yes. It was my mother’s birthstone—a ruby surrounded by diamonds. I told Mom not to wear any jewelry this weekend, because she’ll definitely come home missing a piece.”
Kenny had gone to house parties where doors to off-limits rooms were kept locked. He hadn’t hosted any parties for his friends, and if he did, he would hold them in the residents’ community center.
He set out spoons for them to select what they wanted from each container. “Do you need a fork?” he asked Larissa, when she set chopsticks on the table.
“Please. I still haven’t gotten the knack of eating with chopsticks.”
Larissa watched Kenny as he served himself, using chopsticks while she spooned portions from each container onto her plate. There was something about Kenneth Russell she’d struggled for months to ignore, until she decided it was getting close to the end of the school year, and if she didn’t act, then she wouldn’t see him again once they graduated.
She discovered him quiet, almost reserved when interactingwith other students. Kenny was everything she liked in a boy. He was incredibly handsome, intelligent, aloof enough to appear mysterious, and respectful. He had what her maternal grandmother would’ve said was good home training. And he seemed oblivious to girls when they flirted with him. When asked whether he was attending the senior prom, he claimed he’d had a prior commitment on that night. It was then she decided on a different strategy when she followed him into the study hall and asked to copy his math notes.
Larissa had taken a chance inviting him for a backyard barbecue following their graduation and was shocked when he agreed to come. She was certain he could see her heart beating out of her chest when he introduced her to his mother and uncle. The way Mrs. Russell was staring at her had her wondering if the older woman knew that she’d had designs on her son.
She made it a practice to call Kenny when she knew his mother was at work, because a few times when Mrs. Russell had answered the phone, Larissa had changed her voice, pretending she had the wrong number. She hadn’t realized she was going to hit the jackpot when Kenny answered the phone and told her that his mother was going to be away for a week. Her family was spending the weekend in Boston, and that meant she and Kenny could spend most of the day and night together.
“When your uncle came to pick you up, he told my father that his mother had taught you to speak Italian whenever you went to her house for cooking lessons.” Kenny nodded. “How old were you when you began the lessons?”
Kenny, using chopsticks, picked up a prawn, meeting her eyes. “I was thirteen,” he said, before taking a bite.
Larissa listened intently when he told her about going for weekly cooking lessons during the summer recess, then twice a month whenever school was in session. He was taking Spanish in junior high, so learning to speak and understand Italian had come easy to him.
“Don’t you get confused when speaking Italian when it should be Spanish, and vice versa?”
Kenny smiled, tapping his forehead. “No. It’s easy for me whenever I think in the language.”
“I took French, and I still have to struggle for certain words and phrases.”
“What made you decide to take French?”
“I like the way it sounds when someone speaks it.” She slowly blinked when Kenny stared at her. “Do you think that’s an asinine reason for taking it?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, Larissa. I’ve never been one to judge a person for what they decide to do or not do.”
Larissa narrowed her eyes at the boy who was making it so difficult for her to get close to him. “You don’t like me, do you?”
CHAPTER24
