Huanying! Welcome to Shanghai, China. The place of all the peculiarities. Where everyone have their own stories about the families living there, especially the Xu's. Their ancestral house that they own for many generations have an infamous garden w...
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Timmy discovered that expectation was nice for some things... like Christmas. Like waiting for certain female guest to leave, for example.
Every morning just before dawn, Johnny would meet Timmy in the garden. They would touch and kiss, say things that could make each other blush 'til night.
Timmy had Johnny and Claudia over for lunch the day before Claudia was to leave, under the guise of good manners, because it was a Southern tradition to do all sort of things under the guise of good manners, but really because he wanted more time with Johnny and the only way to get it was with Claudia.
Timmy set up a table on the front porch and served chicken salad with zucchini blossoms. He knew Johnny was immune to his dishes but Claudia wouldn't be and zucchini blossoms aided in understanding. Claudia needed to understand that Johnny was his'. It was as simple as that.
Tyler had taken his seat at the table and Timmy had just set out the bread when Johnny and Claudia walked up the steps.
"This looks lovely," Claudia said. As she sat, she gave Timmy a glance. Claudia was probably a perfectly nice person. Johnny liked her and that meant something, but it was clear that she wasn't entirely over Johnny and her sudden presence in his life was curious. There was a long story to her.
A story that Timmy had absolutely no desire to learn.
"I'm glad the two of you get to spend some time together before you leave tomorrow," Johnny said to Claudia.
"You know, my schedule is flexible," Claudia replied and Timmy nearly dropped the water pitcher he was holding.
"Try the zucchini," Timmy added.
It turned out to be a disastrous meal. Passion, impatience and resentment clashing like winds coming from different directions and meeting in the middle of the table. The butter melted. The bread toasted itself. Water glasses overturned.
"It's strange out here," Tyler said from his seat where he was trying to eat. He picked up a handful of chips.
"I guess we should go," Johnny finally said and Claudia stood immediately.
"Thank you for the lunch," Claudia added. What she didn't say was, He'sleavingwithme and not staying withyou, though Timmy heard it anyway.
When Mei came home from work that evening, Timmy was in the shower. Timmy heard the bathroom door open and immediately cover his body and sighed when Mei's hand appeared and shut off the water.
Timmy looked around the curtain and asked, "Why did you do that?"
"Because I can't see clearly with all this fog coming from here. What are you doing? Are you steaming yourself?"
"Oh, I didn't know. Sorry. I'm just too engrossed at my bath. Can you walk out the bathroom and let me finish first?"
"Yeah. Sure." Mei replied and when he was about to walk away...
