Who: Amy Chen, Mark Yuan What: Meeting old friends When: Friday, early evening Where: Golden Phoenix Restaurant Rating: G Status: Complete
After the Bowen case concluded, Amy's interest in work dropped even lower. She couldn't be at the office and not think Hugh should be there to. She couldn't be at home and not wonder why he wasn't there reading the Financial Times. Half-way through the afternoon, she wrote HR a note and packed her things as quickly as she could. She didn't go to the hospital, whatever Tylan had advised. Instead, she made her way downtown, aimlessly wandering the streets. She found a Chinese restaurant that looked appealing and thought about getting a taste of home. As though home had ever been China.
Mark minding the restaurant front mostly on his own. Mama had gone out to pick up a few things, Nat was at a friend's house, and his father was napping. His health had been getting worse lately, and Mark couldn't help but feel like he was rapidly becoming the head of the house. He didn't mind, but it was a lot of responsibility, and the thought that his father might not be around wasn't one he wanted to dwell on. He busied himself cleaning up the counters, and looked up when the tiny bell on the door signaled a customer's arrival.
"Hi! Welcome to... Amy?" Amy Chen? No way! He grinned, walking over to offer his hand. "How are you?"
The restaurant was emptier than what she'd anticipated, but then it was early and she wasn't looking to rub shoulders with a great number of people. She paused when the man behind the counter called her by her name.
"Yes... oh!" Awareness dawned. "Mark? I didn't know you worked here, hi!" She took his hand in a warm grip.
He shook her hand with a pleasant smile. "Yeah, my parents own this place." It was a little strange - He had a degree in computer programming, after all, but his responsibility was to parents. Besides... He was able to use his skills in other ways - Ways he might not be able to if he was working in the industry. "It's been a while, how have you been?"
"Good, good... wow. Sorry, I still can't get over seeing you here." He'd been one of the clever kids back in college. They'd been in very different departments, but they'd had ethnicity and academic prowess in common. They used to run in the same circles. "What happened to the MA programs?"
"Dad's not doing so well," he explained, running his fingers through his hair. He gave her a wink, though, and leaned back against the counter. "It's okay. I'm happy to be here helping, and my parents work too hard for their own good. Maggie - that's my sister - has moved out and has her own life, and I couldn't ask her to leave that behind to look after them."
Amy looked at him with one eyebrow arched and disbelief in her expression. "You could have hired somebody to help them out on the salary you earned as a programmer." Then again, who was she to talk? Standing up to their parents was not the Chinese way. "So now you run the place?"
Mark adopted a mildly guilty expression. "We butted heads over the way things were going while I was in college." He rubbed his neck. "I feel like I owe it to them, besides. They've done a lot for me..." He hesitated, a blush springing to his cheeks. He didn't have to answer to anyone, there was no reason to be ashamed, but... "N-no, I wait tables. Sometimes I balance the books, but my dad likes to be in charge of all of that."
"Tell me you've at least computerized their bookkeeping," she teased and punched his shoulder lamely. "It's good to see you again. You look... absolutely unchanged. What else is new? Did you get hitched?"
"Dad doesn't like computers," he said, grinning a bit. "It's good to see you again, as well..." He tried not to wince at that question. No, of course not. And he wouldn't if he could help it. "No, I'm not married. Not much else is new. Nat's in college, now, but there's no surprise there." He smiled, trying to turn the subject of conversation on her. "What about you, what have you been up to?"
"Oh, I got a job. Got a husband." She shrugged, trying to pass both off as tiny details. Footnotes in the history of her life. Not the be all end all. Not all she had. "I've been trying for a baby for a while. I keep hoping it'll be this month and then this month passes and, yeah."
'I'm sorry' was the first thing on his lips, but he swallowed and nodded. "Well, congratulations." He reached out and patted her shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "I'm sure it'll happen soon enough. Was it a pairing, or did you pick him yourself?" He assumed it was a pairing, and he felt bad for that.
"Pairing. My boss, of all people..." She patted his hand before drawing back and walking further into the restaurant. "This is a nice place. Have I been here before? It looks vaguely familiar."
Double sorry. Mark followed her, tucking his hands in his pockets. "You might have been, I don't know. I didn't spend a lot of time around here in college." He looked up at the ceiling. Hmm. Might need to clean the chandeliers soon. "I'm sorry, I've been talking your ear off and you probably came here to eat. Can I get you something to drink?" He turned back to the counter to get a menu, the idea that someone he'd considered a friend was now paired off. More and more people found themselves stuck in loveless, government-sanctioned marriages to strangers every week. Who was next? Nat? Maggie? Himself?
"That's okay, I don't usually meet college friends by chance," Amy replied with a wry grin. She folded her hands into her pockets, glancing from the menu to him and back. "Actually, do you do takeaway? I might get something for home. And we can have a drink while you tell me more about your life. I want to know everything." She didn't, but it would distract her from everything else.
"We sure do," he said, offering her the menu. "Just tell me what you want." He smiled a bit at the thought of having a drink with her. That might be nice. "Okay, but there's not much to tell," he teased, then pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. "Any idea? If I can make a recommendation, the snow shrimp is great but not so much when reheated the next day."
"That sounds lovely, but you're probably right... I'll be stereotypical and get some Won Ton soup." She didn't have to look at the menu to know they served it. It was a staple in most Chinese restaurants. "And Chow Mein, right. Maybe chicken so it holds?"
"Sure, I'll let the cook know." He smiled, then took the menu back under his arm. "And you wanted to have a drink, right? What did you want? We have all kinds of beer, but if you might be expecting, maybe that's not such a good idea." Ugh. What a prospect. He wanted to marry some day, but on his own terms, with a woman he loved and had chosen for himself.
"Right," Amy agreed, drawing back a chair at a random table about half-way into the restaurant and sitting down. "I actually would love some tea. Real tea. I haven't had any in a while..."
"No problem, I'll be back with that in just a second," he said, then disappeared to give her order to the kitchen before returning with a teapot and two cups on a tray. He set the tray gently on the table she'd settled at, then took the chair across from her before pouring a cup of the tea for her.
"This is nice," she smiled, leaning with both hands on the table as she watched. "Reminds me of home a little bit... How do you stand living with your folks and working with them too? Isn't it tiring? I think I'd go crazy. I mean, I love my parents but I need breaks."
"I keep myself too busy to think about it," he said, pushing the cup towards her. Sometimes his parents drove him insane, but he had more to focus on than that. Most of the time he was able to handle it. Most of the time. "I do a lot of computer work in my off time, and I'm sure you know how I can get when I do that. The whole world could end and I might not notice."
"Yes, I remember. What was your roommate's name again? I remember when he brought us up to your room and out and you didn't even notice." She chuckled at the memory and blew lightly over the cup. "Good times."
"Jacob? Maaayybe?" Mark couldn't help but laugh a little. "I miss it sometimes, but it's good to be out. I had that old 'didn't study for finals' dream the other day, and I've never been so happy to smell fried rice from downstairs in my life."
Amy laughed. "Oh god, you of all people still get those? Good. There's some justice in the world." And at least she wasn't the only one mentally trapped at that pathetic age. "I miss it too. But it was a bubble. Nothing to do with the real world."
"Wasn't it, though?" He poured himself a cup of tea, but left it to sit. "Nothing at all. Sometimes I think I might have been happier staying for my master's, maybe even a doctorate... Then I might've been a professor and never had to pay attention to real life." He winked, then picked up his cup and sipped from it.
"What and deal with the likes of us all day? I think I'd shoot myself." She picked up her cup, copying him and moving to have a drink. It stung her tongue and she set it back down. "You can always go back. It's not like you have to be a waiter all your life."
Mark laughed loudly at that. "Amy, I find it hard to believe that any of your professors wouldn't want you as a student," he said, a wide smile on his face. "You were an excellent student, if I recall correctly. Me, though." He clicked his tongue, then added a bit of sugar to his tea. "Don't tell my mother I'm doing this," he added lightly.
She gaped and laughed with him. "You're crazy. Besides, you weren't a bad student. You got good grades. Or maybe that's just what we all thought because you were always busy." Not like normal people who studied, but busy in the sense that he knew things no one else did. Like ate encyclopedias for breakfast.
"I slept through more classes than I'll admit, usually due to a late night date with my computer." He sighed, then adopted a wistful expression. "Aye, she was a beauty. Far more agreeable than any of my girlfriends, as well," he added playfully.
"You were very loyal to it. Her." Another laugh. "What's with men naming ships and computers? And cars."
"Because they're lovely creatures, just like women." He gave her a playful grin, then sipped his tea again. Ah, much better with the sugar. "And her name was Chun Li, thank you. Please ignore the Street Fighter reference, but all the computer club members named their systems after video game characters."
"Men," Amy laughed and took another drink. "You'd think you'd go for tough male names, but nooo. Defy my psychology professor, please."
"Chun Li was totally tough," Mark said, grinning. It felt good to catch up a little, even if he had heard some unpleasant news. "What do you do for a living now, Amy? Not a waitress, I should hope."
"No, I'm much higher in the foodchain than that," she chuckled. "I'm working as a personal assistant. To my husband, like I said. But it's a good firm, minus that detail. I like it there."
"Oh really?" He raised his eyebrows curiously. "A firm - Is he a lawyer? My, you are higher on the foodchain than that." Not really. A personal assistant? To her husband? Amy could do better, he thought - But maybe that was the distaste for her situation speaking. A personal assistant was a respectable profession...
"Yeah, he's really good at his job," Amy replied easily, used to taking his defense. "Don't tease, I like what I'm doing. Besides, if I work here a while, I'll get a free pass into the profession. I'll have experience and you can't get that in school."
"I'm sorry. You're doing very well for yourself. It's good to have experience, and I'm happy you're in the industry." He smiled, then reached across the table and took her hand. "I really hope for the best for you." He hesitated, then, "Don't let yourself get so caught up in your marriage that you forget about your dreams."
Amy arched both eyebrows high over her glasses. "What's that, Confucius? I didn't know you were into philosophy, Mark." Or that he gave a damn about her and her life. Why should he? They hadn't been BFF in college and they were all but strangers now. "I won't. I was the smart girl, wasn't I?"
"It's not a big deal," he said, putting his hands on the table to push his chair out. No, she had a career ahead of her, that could conceivably be ruined because the government wanted her to be a baby machine. And she wasn't living with her parents. "That's true, yes. I think your food should be done, let me go check on it, okay?"
"Sure, sure." She replied, waving him off as she took another sip of her tea. It was good, if a little bitter. That was why she always tried to drink it hot enough to burn her tongue. When it cooled, she wasn't adept enough at feigning appreciation.
He returned with a few of the familiar white boxes, and put them in a plastic shopping bag for her as well as some wooden chopsticks and a couple of fortune cookies. "Thanks for coming by," he said, then lifted his hand up. "No charge for this, okay? It's on the house. Congratulations again on your wedding, it was nice to see you."
Amy stood as he returned and her smile went from surprise to disbelief. "Oh no, I can't! Mark, come on, no!" It was very kind of him, but she didn't want him doing her any favors just because they were friends.
He laughed. "It's a gift," he said, shaking his head. "Really, it's okay. I insist, come on."
Amy glared at him. "I'm going to bring in the whole firm one night to make up for it, I hope you know that." She took he bag gratefully. "Thanks. It was good to see you again."
"All right, if you insist~" Mark shook his head, then smiled at her. He hesitated, then waved. "It was good to see you again, too. Take care, okay?"
"You too!" she smiled and made her way out the door. In the darkening street, college life couldn't be more distant, but the memories filled her with nostalgia. It hadn't been a good time for her, but it had been better than this. When you had nothing, you could lose nothing