Emoni joins in the mix, head popping out of her office, and she’s fumbling with her reading glasses before squinting at Ellis. “Oh, handsome!”
Sunny looks at him curiously. “Why are you here?”
Ellis looks overwhelmed and trapped and exactly how most people feel when confronted with the combined focus of these three women.
“All right, good job, family. We’ll see you all later,” I say as I push Ellis out the door. He does an awkward bow-and-wave hybrid as we duck out.
5
I have to adjust my eyes to the sun when we step outside onto the pristine streets of Beverly Hills. When Halmoni had first told me where the new offices would be located, I had recoiled. We were not Westside people. AndBeverly Hills, of all places?
But then Halmoni had said, “Do you remember that car accident we got into when you were five?”
I did. Halmoni had accidentally put the car in drive instead of reverse when we were pulling out of a parking spot in front of a building. We had crashed through the lush hedges and barely avoided smashing through the entire building.
The people inside, white people wearing suits, had run out and yelled at Halmoni, whose English then wasn’t as great as it is now. She had apologized profusely until she could feel their shock turn into contempt for us and our beat-up old Toyota. Then she had gone deadly silent and put me back in the car. We ran over the hedge one more time, sending people scattering, and then drove home.
That building is the building our offices are in now.
It was Halmoni’s “Big mistake, big,huge,” Julia Roberts moment. It’s important to know that this level of petty runs through my blood.
Ellis and I walk out of the gate onto the sidewalk. “So sorry about that,” I say, closing it behind us, squinting in the harsh light.
He takes a wide step to the left and suddenly I’m not squinting. “No need to be sorry at all. I’m half Chinese, I get it.”
Did he step to block the sun for me? “Half? What’s the other half, if you don’t mind me asking?” I’m distracted when I ask.
“Jewish.” Quick pop of dimples before he says, “So, yes, I happened to reach out to your riding group online because I wanted to make sure you were okay? I hope you don’t mind that one of them told me you worked here. I couldn’t find you online, otherwise I would have just messaged you like a normal person. Ha, ha.”
This kid. I pull on my sunglasses. “Totally fine. I believe you. Youdidhelp me when you could have killed me instead.”
He swallows a guffaw of laughter. “Yeah, murder.”
“You’d be surprised at how top of mind murder is for women.” I realize we’re just standing on the sidewalk and start walking briskly. “Want to grab a cup of coffee? My treat, obviously.”
“Sure,” he says, taking big steps to catch up with me. “So, you look like you can walk okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I just had a mild concussion, and I need to wear this.” I hold up my right wrist, showing off the ACE bandage wrapped around it.
He winces. “Oh, no. I hope you don’t need your wrist for work.”
I throw a sidelong glance at him as we reach the corner and stop for traffic. “The very cushy office job isn’t in danger, no.”
“Matchmaking, huh?” Ellis does this little thing then. He steps to my other side—which is the side close to traffic. It nudges me away from the street.
I’m so distracted by that little chivalrous maneuver that I don’t respond to him right away. The light turns green and we start crossing, passing by a woman in athleisure and a fur coat. “Yeah. Been in the family for decades, well, centuries really.”
“That’s so cool. I’ve never heard of that being a family business before. It feels like…like, folklore.”
I look at him when we reach the other side of the street. The wonder in his voice makes me look at him carefully. “How old are you?”
His expression shifts into wariness. “Why?”
“I need to place you in history.”
He laughs. “Wow. Never heard it phrased that way.”
“Do you want to know how old I am?”
