“I told her I didn’t need the bathroom.”
“Well, duh,” Linda chimed in.
“Except that’s your Chinese name,” Orchid guessed.
“Which makes me never want to go to China,” he said.
“It’s the number one place I want to visit,” Orchid confessed.
Peter gave her a long look. “Is that why you’re in this class?”
“One hundred percent,” she affirmed.
His face lit up “Then you should go, Lan Hua.”
“Okay, Pee-duh,” she replied.
They were still chortling when their drinks arrived. As the three of them clinked glasses and bottles, Linda’s phone lit with a call.
She frowned at the screen then leaned forward to apologize. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.” She hopped off the stool to find a quiet spot.
“So, what do you do?” Orchid asked Peter.
“Guitar.”
“Play? Build?”
“Lessons, mostly.”
He looked like he was at least twenty-five, though Asians sometimes looked younger than they were. “Can you make a living off guitar lessons?”
He laughed at her skeptical expression. “Wealthy Manhattan moms only want the best, and kids love me.”
“Because you’re a kid yourself?”
His good nature wasn’t put off. “Look who’s talking, what are you, twenty-three?”
“Twenty-seven.” She didn’t tell him that she had a birthday coming up. No sense up-aging herself.
“See? We’re the same age.”
“No way. I’m pretty sure the only reason the waitress carded us was because of you.”
“I was going to say the same thing about you,” he said. “What’s your gig?”
“I’m a brand exec in beauty.”
“Corporate, I thought so.” He gestured with one dismissive hand towards the flowy silk blouse and business slacks Orchid had drudged up from a secondhand shop. It had been part of her attempt to look professional enough for the Lauder China assignment.
His pronouncement struck her in a visceral way.
“Actually, I’m kind of not corporate. I feel like I’m wearing a costume. Ever since my teen years, I’ve been pretty counter-cultural.”
“Cool. Then maybe you’d like to learn guitar.”
Orchid swilled the rest of her brew. “You know what, I’d love that.”
CHAPTER8
