I’d lock him up with me and swallow the key. What are you going to do?”
“Ren wants me to date both of them.”
Jennifer’s mouth fell open and I hurried to add, “But I’m not making any decisions yet.”
“This is so exciting! It’s better than my favorite soap opera. Good luck, Kelsey. See you Monday.”
When we were driving home, I asked Ren, “What did you and Li say to each other?”
“Nothing much. I’m going to attend wushu classes, but I have to pay Li’s fee, which he purposely set at an exorbitant amount, thinking that I couldn’t afford it.”
“I don’t like this. I feel like the child in a hostile joint-custody battle.”
He replied softly, “You can date us both or you can break up with Li now. But to be fair, you should give Li at least a week.”
“Ha! What makes you think I’d choose you? Li’s a good guy too!”
Ren rubbed his jaw and said quietly, “Yes. I think he is.”
That comment surprised me, and I quietly thought about it as we drove home. Ren dropped me off, helped me out of the car, and disappeared as usual.
Dating Li, Ren, and Jason at the same time was absolutely ridiculous. It almost felt like I was surrounded by knights jousting for a girl’s favor. As they stomped around in battle armor, sharpened lances, and prepared to mount their horses, I pondered my options. I still had a choice at the end of the day. I could choose the winner, the loser, or none of them. The good news was that it would buy me some time.
I could understand the idea of a romantic rivalry from Ren’s point of view, at least a little. During his century, men probably did battle for females. Surely Ren’s tiger instinct told him to drive off the other males. What I hadn’t expected was Li’s reaction. Who knew that he cared this much? I thought. If Li had just broken up with me, it would have made my part in this little production much easier. Maybe they’d both kill each other in the process, and everybody would die in the end, like in Hamlet.
When we walked into wushu on Monday, Li and Ren seemed to have an unspoken agreement not to look at each other. The class warily watched them, but eventually everyone settled down when nothing happened. Neither Li nor Ren paired up with me anymore.
Li went out of his way to take me to nice dinners and plan elaborate picnics. Ren was content to come over and read with me or watch movies indoors. Kettle corn became his favorite snack, and Ren was an expert at making it. We watched old movies, and afterwards he asked tons of questions. He enjoyed a variety of films, especially Star Wars. He liked Luke and thought that Han Solo was too much of a bad boy.
“He’s not worthy of Princess Leia,” said Ren, which gave me a deeper understanding of his knight-in-shining-armor persona.
On Friday night, Ren and I were about to watch another movie when I remembered I had scheduled a date with Jason. I told Ren he could watch the movie without me. Ren grumbled, then picked up his bag of popcorn, and headed to the microwave.
When I came downstairs in a dark blue dress with strappy shoes and my hair straightened, Ren stood up abruptly and dropped his bowl of popcorn on the floor.
“Why are you dressed like that? Where are you going?”
“Jason’s taking me to a play in Portland. Besides, I thought you had some kind of a chivalrous noninterference policy regarding my dating anyway.”
“When you dress like that, I get to interfere all I want to.”
The doorbell rang, and when I opened it, Ren suddenly moved up behind me to help me into my coat. Jason shifted back and forth very uncomfortably. His eyes darted up to Ren.
“Uh, Jason, this is my friend Ren. He’s visiting from India.”
Ren stuck out his hand and smiled abrasively. “Take good care of my girl, Jason.”
There was a very definite implied “or else” attached to the end of the sentence. Jason gulped.
“Uh-huh. Sure thing.”
I pushed Ren back in the house and shut the door in his face. It was actually a relief being with Jason. I didn’t feel the intense pressure that I now felt with Li and Ren. Not that they were pressuring me. Ren in particular seemed to have infinite patience. I guess that came from his tiger half.