“I’m sorry, Laolao. I’ve been working.”
“Always working.” She pulls him down to kiss his cheek and then she turns to me. “And who is this handsome young man?”
My cheeks heat at her kind words.
“This is Rory. Rory, this is Mei.”
“Nice to meet you, Mei.”
She waves a hand. “Call me Laolao.”
I have no idea what that means, but I nod. “Okay.”
“Come sit.” She takes my arm and leads me to a table. “You are too skinny. Your chef,” she scoffs the word at Lex. “Isn’t feeding him enough.”
“He isn’t one of my staff.”
“You bring him here. I’ll feed him right,” she orders, and Lex grins affectionately at her before he shocks me by speaking Chinese. She doesn’t answer but nods her head.
I sit down, and Lex slides in next to me instead of sitting across from me. He’s not keeping a respectable distance either. In fact, the man spreads until his rock-solid thigh is right up against mine.
“What to drink for you?” she asks me.
“Oh, um, hot tea.” And then she’s gone. “She didn’t leave menus,” I whisper.
“No menus!” Mei shouts from behind the counter.
Lex smiles. “She does have menus, but she’d never let me order off of one.”
“But I wanted fried rice.” I try not to pout.
He smiles indulgently at me. “I already asked her to make some for us.”
“Is shrimp,” she calls.
“You’re not allergic to shellfish, are you?” Lex asks, and he looks worried all of a sudden.
“No. I’m not allergic to anything, but I don’t like rosemary. It tastes like eating a piney weed.”
He chuckles. “I don’t like cilantro. It tastes dusty to me.”
“I’m pretty sure they use it in Chinese cooking,” I tease him.
“Usually as a garnish, and Laolao knows I don’t like it.”
“What does Laolao mean?”
“Basically Grandma.”
“It’s sweet that she lets you call her Grandma. What does sun—” I can’t remember what she called him. “That thing she called you mean?”
“Sunzi is a form of grandson.”
“You must come here pretty often if she’s adopted you as her grandson.”
“Not as often as I like, but I helped her with some things a few years back, and when she found out the only family I had left was Mal and my daughter, she adopted all of us.”
“Mal visits more than you.” She returns with our drinks.
