"The food is delicious, Mom," Chan commented, twirling the pasta around his fork. "You didn't have to do so much."
His mom smiled at her from across the table. The dinner had started with some fancy salad, which was followed by spaghetti with braised chicken and chilli tomato sauce.
"Oh, hush," she replied. "It is not often I get to entertain guests. You know, I love hosting people, Channie."
He ignored Veronica's eyebrow raise at his mother's nickname for him. They were sitting in the dining room with His whole family spread across the table, apart from Lucas. His younger brother was doing a biology assignment with a friend. Despite them making it through two courses of dinner, Veronica still looked like she was sweating through her clothes.
"How did you meet Chan?" His sister asked.
"Um," Veronica snuck a glance at him, who could only offer her a supportive smile. "It is a really cute story. We actually met at a cafe. It was really overcrowded that day, and I was hogging this table that had an empty spot. Chan asked if he could sit next to me."
He jumped in. He could see by the way Veronica's shoulders tensed that she was not enjoying lying to his parents. "We talked and hit it off. But at the moment, dumb that I am, I forgot to ask Veronica for her number. But I was lucky to run into her at Mano's." He didn't like lying to his parents either. His mom had worked in the kitchen all day for a girl she thought her son was dating. His father was smiling as he looked between him and Veronica.
"So we hear you work at Selena's inn?" His dad asked, taking a bite of his chicken.
Veronica shifted in her seat. "Yeah, I am Martin's assistant."
"Martin's assistant. Boy, I hope Selena is paying you enough." His mom said.
"Martin has his moments," Veronica laughed. "But he has taught me a lot. Most importantly, patience. And the ability to placate my staff that Martin doesn't mean half the stuff he usually says."
"That man chose the worst profession," Chan added. "As someone who hates interacting with people."
"But we have to admit that our lives will be duller without him," His mom said, getting up from her seat. "Let me go and check on the dessert."
Veronica got up from beside him and placed her napkin on the seat. "Let me help you, please."
His mom tried to make Veronica sit back down, but Veronica was already making her way to the kitchen. He smiled, watching as she said something, and his mom laughed in response.
"She's really pretty," Hannah said, looking down on her plate. "I like her."
"I like her, too." Chan agreed. And he did. He liked Veronica. To him, she resembled a Rubik's cube. It didn't matter which direction he twisted and turned. He couldn't align the colours together. Every time he got to know something about her, he deciphered a new move that might unlock this cube, but it was never enough.
Desert was a cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. His mother had outdone herself. He was so full, yet he couldn't stop eating one bite after another.
"I am going to combust if I eat one more bite of this pie," Veronica whispered as she spooned some more pie in her mouth.
"Me too," Chan agreed, slouching in his chair. They had moved into the living room, and everyone was chatting with each other. His dad had even lit the fireplace even though it was just September. Berry had taken her spot next to his mom. Every so often she would whine for attention and his mom would scratch her head.
"Veronica," his dad started, leaning forward. "Tell us something about yourself."
He watched Veronica's eyes expand a little at his dad's question. He wanted to jump in as he watched her squirm in her seat. "Well, you know that I work at Selena's inn," she started, licking her lips. "I have been living in Molton for five years. Actually, Nate helped me get the apartment."
"Where do you live?" His mom asked.
"The University District," she replied. "The apartments are cheaper there."
He opened his mouth to cut in to save Veronica from any further questions his family had, but his sister was already talking. "What did you study in university? I am asking this question to every new person I meet, hoping for inspiration to strike."
Veronica blinked a couple of times. "I actually did not go to university. It was not financially possible in my situation. But I had experience working in a hotel before, which is why I applied to work at the Hawthorne Inn." There were faint red splotches on her cheek, which Chan realized a second later was because Veronica was embarrassed.
But Hannah looked unfazed. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't think working in the hospitality industry is for me to be honest."
"It is okay, honey," his mom said to Hannah, licking the ice cream on her spoon. "You will figure it out. I know it."
He leaned in and grabbed Veronica's hand. She jumped a little at the contact and glanced at him. "Are you okay? We can leave, you know."
Veronica smiled, putting her plate down. "I am okay."
"Should we pour the wine that Veronica brought?" His dad asked, getting up. "Or coffee?"
"I can not get a morsel of food in me," Chan commented, surrendering his hands.
"I could do with a cup of coffee," his mom said.
"So could I." Veronica joined. "I can make us all some."
"Oh no, Veronica," Hannah interrupted. "I will make us some." She took her plate and carried it back to the kitchen.
"Your place is beautiful, by the way," Veronica said, eating the last crumbs of the pie. "The house, the paintings, really amazing."
"Thank you so much. You are really kind," his mother replied. "It took forever to find a place. We kept looking and looking for months, and then finally, we saw this one, and we just knew. And it was just minutes from Jack's place of work.
"Dad works as a swimming instructor," Chan supplied, and Veronica nodded in response.
"What about you, Veronica?" his dad asked, and he felt where the question was headed, yet he could do nothing to intervene. "What about your parents?"
It was because he was sitting very close to Veronica, that he felt a tremor pass through her body. He remembered the interaction they had in her bedroom and how restrictive she had been about her parents. He wondered if he just pretended to faint, would it be a diversion enough?
"Erm," Veronica said, blinking rapidly. "My dad is out of the picture. And I am not very close with my mother but she works at a diner in the city."
For a second, neither of his parents spoke. Chan was looking at Veronica, the way she had tensed her shoulders as if she were ready for an attack. He squeezed her hand gently to remind her that he was there. A moment later, she squeezed back.
"So you grew up in the city then?" His mom said, and Chan relaxed. Hannah walked in with a tray, balancing everyone's cups on it.
Veronica was so taken aback by her mother's question, probably surprised that she didn't ask more about her family that at first she could only stutter out her words. "Yeah, I did. It was nice but now that I have lived in South Molton for so long, I think it is too loud."
"Oh, I agree," his dad replied, "I have to go there for some meetings, and it just feels like an onslaught of noise and people and vehicles."
Veronica took a sip from her coffee. "I remember, when I was in fourth grade, I was walking back from school. It was around Christmas, and usually, we have people dressed as Santas walking around for kids to take photos with. And these two Santas started fighting over who the kid should take a photo with. It got violent. One Santa punched the other, and there was nothing but tufts of cotton flying around as they fought. The police came over and arrested them. It was just hilarious." After the story was over, Veronica looked surprised at herself.
"Stuff like this never happens here," his mom replied, with a frown. "The worst thing I have ever heard that happened was that a guy stole some guy's sheep as revenge or something."
"A sheep?" Chan asked, not believing the story.
"Oh, yeah," Veronica said, turning towards him, her eye sparkling. "I know the guy whose sheep was stolen, Dan. Apparently, Logan, the guy who stole his sheep, did it as an act of revenge because Dan wouldn't give back the fifty bucks Logan had loaned him."
"So he held the sheep hostage?" Chan let out an amused laugh.
"Dan loved that sheep."
Hannah asked, "Did it work? Did he get the money back?"
Veronica leaned back in her chair as she said, "I don't know, but they got married last year."
"That is insane." His jaw was on the floor. He looked at his mom and found her already staring at him and Veronica, the expression on her face unreadable.
They finished their coffees, and soon it was time to leave. Veronica insisted on helping his mom clean up, but she wouldn't even let her enter the kitchen. In the end, he had to drag Veronica away.
She hugged his mom and told her the millionth time that dinner was delicious. His mom patted her gently on the back. He could tell that she liked Veronica. When she moved to hug his dad, he said something to her quietly before ruffling her hair. Veronica stood there for a moment before collecting herself and wishing everyone goodnight.
"I will drop her off at her place," he said as they left the house.
As soon as he closed the door behind them, he started apologizing, "I am so sorry. I should've known they would ask all these personal questions. I should've told them. I am really sorry."
"Chan," Veronica said, closing the distance between them. "It is okay. I knew they would ask stuff like this. It's just, you know." She ran a hand through her hair, sniffing.
He filled in for her. "Hard for you to talk about."
She just nodded in response. "But your parents are really nice. And Hannah, too."
They began walking towards his car. The air had gotten colder, and he shivered a little in his jacket. He had parked a little further down the road. "So, what did you and my mom talk about when you went to get the desert."
He had been meaning to ask that question. He knew his mom enough to know that she had said something. Did he tell her some embarrassing anecdote of him as a child? Because then he would just ask Veronica to drive the car over him.
"Nothing," Veronica said, with a conspiratorial smile. "Just what an amazing kid you are. Why?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Somehow, I don't believe you." He opened the gate for her, letting her get in the car.
As he got in, he noticed Veronica looking at him, and he knew she was trying to figure something out. "What?"
"Can I ask you something?"
He put on his seatbelt and turned on the engine. "Only if I get to ask you a question in return."
She smacked his arm. "Not fair."
He shrugged, putting on the radio. "Those are the rules, Sweetheart."Â He started backing the car. The radio filled in the silence between them as Veronica contemplated his offer.
"Okay, fine," she relented, and Chan couldn't hide the satisfied smirk on his face.
"I wanted to ask," she started. "Why is it so important for you to get back with Diana?"
Of all the questions, he hadn't expected this one. She must have been thinking about this for a long time before she decided to give in to her curiosity.
He didn't reply immediately. Any mention of Diana clouded his brain with their memories. He needed a second to collect his thoughts.
"Because she was there for me when I thought I had no one," he answered. He could feel Veronica's eyes on him. "She helped me get through the worst years of my life, and then she just broke it off. But I am better now, I have more to offer. If she could just see that." He hadn't meant to say the last part out loud.
He had thought a lot in the last year and what went sour in his relationship with Diana. And he had figured it out. When his mom got sick, Chan went into survival mode. Taking over the responsibilities of the house and his siblings he put everything on the back burner. He dropped out of college, he made sure Hannah and Lucas knew that he was around no matter what. And Diana took the brunt of it. He just had to make her want him again and show her that this time everything would be different.
Veronica didn't speak for a moment. The song on the radio was about this girl asking a girl called 'Jolene' to leave her boyfriend alone.
"I think I know what you mean." Veronica's voice sounded distant as if she was lost in thought. "It's like trying to prove to them that not everything about you is rotten. That you are loveable and that you can change if they gave you just one more chance."
"Yeah," he murmured in response, sneaking a look at her. She was looking outside the window, watching the building pass by.
He cleared his throat. "My turn."
Veronica groaned, and he couldn't help but laugh. "Shoot."
"Why aren't you in touch with your mom?"
She let out a surprised laugh. "Going for the big guns."
From the corner of his eye, he watched Veronica open and close her mouth at least three times before finally saying, "I truly believe that there are some people in this world who should never be parents, you know. My mother is one of them. I am not in touch with her because she could never step up and be a parent. And I got tired of waiting for her to be."
He absorbed her words. His parents had been nothing but kind and supportive towards him all his life. He couldn't imagine the feeling of abandonment and loss Veronica might feel. The depth of it. He didn't know what to say. What could possibly make up for a parent who made their kid feel like that?
"Another question," Veronica said, turning towards him. "Why music?"
He could already feel a smile forming on his face. It was one of his favourite questions to answer. "Because music is in everything we do. Everything you feel can be summed up by a song. Sometimes a song makes us realize stuff we don't even know we were feeling and I think that is magical. I want to create just some of that magic, you know. I loved deconstructing songs as a teenager and a couple of years later I realised I loved composing them more. What?"
Veronica was looking at him with a wide smile. "Nothing," she shook her head. "It's really cute to watch you talk about this. All wild-eyed and spirited."
He could feel his face getting warm. They approached Veronica's apartment and he parked outside the building. "Thank you for today. It means so much to me that you agreed to do this."
Veronica unbuckled her seatbelt and adjusted her coat. "Listen, Channie." He groaned at the nickname making her smirk. "I know what I was getting into when I agreed to do this with you so you don't have to apologise for anything. I had a great time. Your parents were so kind and welcoming. Tell them that I said that."
"Well," he said, at a loss of words. "I will tell them that. For the record, they liked you too."
She reached for the car handle and he remembered. "Hey, you owe me an answer."
She winced and settled back into her seat. "I was wishing you'd forget it."
"Ha," he replied, snapping his finger. "Not so fast."
"Ask the question, Chan." Veronica tapped her nails against her purse and looked at him.
There were so many questions he wanted to ask her. About her life back in the city. Her life in South Molton. He wanted to ask what his dad told her when they were leaving the dinner but he knew Veronica would never give a straight reply to that.
"Why was Selena sending you to all those blind dates?"
She let out a surprised laugh. He liked the sound of it like it was wretched out from the pit of her stomach. A small win. "I honestly have no idea. It started a couple of months ago. Selena took it upon herself to find me a boyfriend. She would set up dates with all the guys she knew who were around my age, probably sons of her friends."
"Did you ever meet anyone nice?"
She shook her head and exhaled a heavy breath. "No. You must have understood this about me by now; I am not good with social interactions. Meeting new people freaks me out. And sitting across from these people, who had no idea who I actually was and just some perceived notion of whatever Selena told them about me was not my ideal way of meeting someone. I am pretty sure all of them went back home and told their friends what a disappointing date I was."
He interrupted, "Disappointing? I can't think of anyone ever feeling disappointed to have met you."
Veronica cocked her head to the side making a stray curl fall on her face. He wanted to move it away. He continued, "I mean it, Veronica. Who cares what some random guy who doesn't even know that you are sixty per cent caffeine thinks of you? It is his loss."
She didn't look away from him. The faint light from the street lamp made her brown eyes look almost black. "Yeah, well. I figured eventually Selena would stop but she didn't. And as time passed, I began dreading every new encounter."
"Why didn't you tell Selena?" He asked the obvious question. "I am sure she would have understood."
Veronica gulped, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I owe a lot of things in my life to Selena and Nate," she explained, biting her lower lip. "And if it was something that meant a lot to her and probably didn't mean that much to me, I couldn't say no."
He wanted to ask her to explain what she meant by that. What did she owe to Selena and Nate? But she was already getting out of his car.
Before she closed the door, she leaned down to see his face. "Thank you for driving me home."
"Good night, Veronica."
"Oh, and one more thing," she said, a sly smile on her face. "You owe me two questions, Channie." He couldn't help but grin back as he reversed out of the parking spot. He was beginning to like the way she said the nickname.