Camy Tang - Sushi for One?

“Oh my gosh! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Grim-faced, the taller one nodded.

“We were very impressed. You play with power and precision.”

The shorter man’s tone reminded Lex of a business report.

Lex beamed. “I could almost kiss you!”

He cleared his throat. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

Lex needed money.

How ironic that something so important to her might be over before it began.

She knew Wassamattayu charged several thousand dollars per year for membership – but that hadn’t worried her when she worked for Pear Technologies. She would have been fine taking the money out of her savings and then living cheaply at home until she made the money back at her higher-paying engineering job.

Now she had to cough up five thousand dollars as a deposit before tryouts. It would be refunded if she didn’t get chosen.

She re-read that line. She would be chosen. She’d train extra hard.

But the money worried her. Now she had to rent an apartment instead of living free with Dad, and her SPZ job didn’t pay as much as Pear. And she had thought she’d use her savings as a backup plan -even though it wasn’t enough – for the girls’ playoffs expenses.

Aiden dropped down next to her to take off his shoes. Both their cell phones rang at the same time.

Lex barely glanced at the number before ending the call and tossing it down on the floor. She’d missed six calls during the night. How many friends with eligible sons did Grandma have? She sighed and glanced up.

Oh, no. Talk about persistent.

The tall, thin guy had stayed. The other two had left. Lex groaned and dropped her head. A pulsing headache started right behind her eyeballs.

“So, Lex.” Mr. Persistent bent at the waist, hovering over her. “Let’s talk tickets.”

“Let’s not.” He hadn’t even introduced himself, the pushy creep.

Her foul mood only made him smile. “Come on. It’s an easy answer for both our problems – my mother, your grandmother.”

An idea dawned. Lex shoved aside the immediate guilt that followed. “What do you do?”

Mr. Persistent blinked. “Uh… I’m an optometrist.” He dug out his wallet and handed her a business card.

He was solvent. And she needed money. He probably wouldn’t be willing to cough up five thousand dollars for the weekend Cal game, but he’d know friends who’d be willing to pay for other tickets…

Nonono. She couldn’t believe she was even considering it. Aside from being, oh, slightly illegal, she couldn’t betray the alumni associations who gave her the tickets in good faith.

Mr. Persistent smiled with that same slick confidence her brother Richard had.

“No.” She thrust the card back at him. “No.”

His smile widened. “Lex – ”

“No.”

“Aw, come on – ”

“She said no.” Aiden’s sharp voice cut through them. Lex had forgotten he sat beside her. He’d apparently ended his cell call and overheard Mr. Persistent.

He tossed Aiden a dark look before gazing at Lex with chagrin that almost looked real. “Keep the card. If you change – ”

“I won’t.” She turned away from him and started tugging off her shoes. She didn’t look at anyone. Certainly not Aiden.

She waited until she got the second shoe off. “Is he gone?”

“Yeah.” Aiden dug in his bag for his street shoes.

She stared at her feet, wiggled her toes in their socks. Finally she raised her eyes to him. “Thanks.”

His look rested on her, gentle but not probing. “Anytime.”

A warmth settled over her ribs. She liked having him… not say anything. Especially since practically every guy wanted tickets from her.

Except him.

Lex glanced at her discarded cell phone.

It rang.

Mariko had given her notorious sweet tooth full rein.

Lex stared at the table of food and could already feel the sugar eating cavities into her enamel. Banana nut bread, sesame-crusted Chinese doughnuts, almond cookies, fruit cocktail and almond custard, steamed egg cake, even honey walnut prawns. On the non-Asian side was rum cake, blueberry pecan muffins, strawberry almond rolls, and croissants. The radioactive coffee Lex had bought that morning from Tran’s Nuclear Coffee Shop burbled in her stomach.

“Not hungry?” Lex’s cousin Tiki fluttered impossibly long lashes as she bit into a chocolate croissant.

Okay, one, what Asian had eyelashes that long and curly? They had to be fake. And two, how did this size-zero chick get away with eating a chocolate croissant with gusto? Tiki even had a son.

“So, Lex, I heard Mariko has a surprise for you.”

Lex peered down her nose at Tiki. “She’s wasting her time.”

Her cat-eyes glittered with mirth. “Oh? And why is that?”

“I don’t need a man when I’ve got Byron Harvey.” Only the points leader on the Sacramento Kings’s roster.

Tiki blinked. Her face had a vacant look that matched her brain capacity. “That’s… nice.”

Lex pursed her lips. “Uh… I’m trying decide between Byron and Geoff German.”

Tiki’s plucked brows wrinkled. “Who?”

“German. The new pitcher for the Oakland A’s?”

Her brow cleared. “Oh. Baseball.” She said it the way she’d say toilet.

Lex’s diaphragm dropped like a trapdoor. These dodos didn’t know any of her sports heroes. A professional athlete as a date to Mariko’s wedding would be like a Pulitzer Prize winner at an Illiteracy Dinner.

“Tavi’s crying.” Tiki flounced away to soothe her shrieking baby.

Lex’s shoulders sagged. Well, at least she didn’t have to suck up to the UCLA alumni association rep in order to get Byron’s number. She probably couldn’t have convinced Grandma it was true love anyway.

“Okay, everybody, let’s start the games.” Mariko stood in the middle of the living room as perky as a cheerleader.

Tiki sidled up to Mariko, bouncing her crying one-year-old.

“Where’s Burt? He’s supposed to be here to babysit.”

Mariko shushed her with a hiss.

The door opened.

Mr. Babysitter had the coloring, build, and look of Russell Crowe as he entered the Colosseum to fight the gladiators. Shoulders back, chin up, firm jaw, eyes stern and ready for warfare.

“There you are!” Tiki mobbed him, shoving baby Tavi into his arms. “See, Tavi-wavvie? Here’s Uncle Burt.” She danced back to Mariko’s side. “Okay, we can start now.”

“Burt, sit there.” Mariko stabbed a lacquered nail at one of two chairs sitting side by side. “Lex, you sit – ”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lex plopped down next to him.

He jiggled baby Tavi like a jackhammer, brushing her arm with his elbow.

She hopped her chair a few inches further away.

“Okay, everybody, take five clothespins.” Tiki passed them out. “Stick them somewhere on you.”

Lex stuck them out from her blouse sleeves like a porcupine.

“Okay, if someone catches you saying the word ‘wedding,’ they can take a clothespin. Whoever has the most pins at the end wins!”

Tiki clapped her hands and bounced on her toes as if this were the most clever game ever invented.

Lex unclipped herself and handed all five clothespins to Mr. Babysitter. “Here. Wedding.”

“Lex!” Tiki’s face matched her pinky lipstick. “Can’t you even try to get into the spirit of things?”

“Nope.” Lex said the word with relish.

Mr. Babysitter shifted the now-hiccoughing Tavi to one arm and grabbed Lex’s pins. “Thanks. I’m not saying another word all afternoon.”

“Okay, everyone, now take some toilet paper. However much you like.” Mariko giggled as she passed around the toilet paper rolls. Several of the other women also started giggling and pulling off wads and wads of paper. Lex tore off one sheet.