him.” My voice breaks. What does that say about me?
“Yeah, I know.” She sits up, beaming, but her eyebrow arches as she eyes my chest. “What on earth are you wearing?”
I glance down and feel the color drain from my face. What am I wearing? An oversized man’s dark T-shirt with an obscure rock band logo printed on it. “I…um, it’s thrifted. I had a bleach escapade when I did laundry. Most of my stuff is wrecked.”
“That sucks!” She shrugs in sympathy. “Well, I have some stuff for you to have if you want. You can definitely have my fuck-me jeans, for starters. They have failed me for the last time.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll be right back.”
While I clear my plate, she dashes off, presumably to the Chan apartment that I assume is above the restaurant. After a few minutes, she returns with a pink duffel that she offers to me with a reverent bow.
“My much-loved but woefully out of season babies,” she says. “May you treat them well.”
She walks me to the doorway. “I plan on aiming for Rafe again tomorrow,” she declares with a wink. “Charge your phone by then. I’ll text you and let you know how it goes.”
“Why do you want to be with him anyway? You said he goes through skanks. He doesn’t seem like the boyfriend type.”
“Duh!” Her eyes widen as she follows me down the block, ensuring we’re out of earshot of her parents. “Bad boy sex is the best kind of sex. No emotions. No strings. And then I get to brood about it for many a novel when I’m a future bestseller. It’s a win, win, baby! Besides, my dad would kill me if I actually dated him.”
“Why?”
She cocks an eyebrow. “He runs in the triad, for one,” she says matter-of-factly. “Well, this city’s version of it, anyway. Not to mention, well… My dad isn’t racist or anything, I swear, but he just has this fantasy of me marrying some rich Chinese businessman due to a promise he made to his mother on her deathbed about never forgetting his roots or something. He’s dramatic.” She rolls her eyes.
“Rafe isn’t Chinese?” I ask, unsure of how else to phrase it.
“Rumor is his dad was, but his mother wasn’t,” she explains. “His dad was pretty infamous around here, from what I’ve heard. He ran things before his brother took over. But he went to prison, though I’m not sure why. Murder, I think.”
“That’s awful.”
“For Rafe, yeah,” she admits, frowning. “Could be why he’s such an ass. Angry, damaged, and sexy as hell. A perfect candidate for bad boy sex.”
“I guess so…”
“Night,” Mara chirps, waving me off. “Hopefully tomorrow will be a very good night for me.”
I leave, still mulling over that unique perspective. In reality, I don’t think I match her enthusiasm. My bout with “bad boy sex” has just left me…
Cold. Tired. Alone.
I can’t tell if I were ever heading to my apartment at all by the time my feet bring me to a different destination—The Paper Crane. I let myself in and head for the storeroom. Mara’s duffel makes a decent pillow, and I curl up behind a box of damaged inventory.
Chapter Sixteen
I wake up feeling more exhausted than if I’d never slept at all. I change into a pink sundress Mara gave me that I can get away with wearing without underwear. Then I run to a nearby corner store and buy deodorant and toothpaste, and then return to the shop to wash up as best as I can in the staff bathroom.
I’ll go home later, when I have the energy to deal with the potential fallout. Later…
Apart from that looming deadline, it might as well be a normal day. I start on the tasks that still need to be done, and Mr. Zhang pops in to tell me that the final arrangements have been made to fix the window by the end of the week. He merrily heads off to the insurance office for the paperwork, and I do what I can to clear the space around the window.
It’s a little after noon when I happen to glance up and spy a woman peering in through the front door. She doesn’t seem to notice the sign still affixed to the front of it. Or she doesn’t care.
Sighing, I step from around the counter and open it. “We’re closed—”
“Hello, Hannah.” She’s tall with short light-brown hair cut bluntly at her chin. A heavy coat sets her apart from the locals dressed in light