18. Jonathan
Jonathan
The one thing I used to hate the most was running into certain people when I least expected it. As a student, I hated running into my teachers at the mall. As a café barista during undergrad, I hated running into my manager at the grocery store.
I never reacted or felt that way seeing a classmate or a colleague in the wild.
It was only ever with my teachers, professors, or managers.
But that was exactly how I felt when I saw Lina walking into the gym.
She didn’t see me as she beelined to the back, but that feeling of embarrassment—of being caught off guard—surfaced.
Andy insisted that Anthony and I work out at the gym in their gated community. The three of us worked out at least two times a week together but had never done so here before.
I didn’t take a moment to think about why there was a sudden change to our routine until Lina stepped through the gym door in nothing but a little black sports bra and a pair of the tightest black leggings.
I looked away before my eyes could even skim the tops of her breasts or the thickness of her toned thighs.
Now it all made sense. This random, fortuitous run-in with Lina on my day off had to be planned by Andy. And, probably, by my sister too. I almost rolled my eyes as the twins snickered after I placed the two twenty-pound kettlebells I was using on the ground.
Anthony smirked childishly at me, tipping his head in Lina’s direction as he grabbed the kettlebells I just placed down. In the reflection of the mirror, I watched Lina walk over to the padded stretching area and start on some dynamic stretches.
“Aren’t you going to go say hi?” asked Andy.
I scoffed, tearing my eyes from the back of her head. “Why would I do that?”
Andy shrugged as we watched Anthony finish his set. “You two seemed friendly just last week.”
“Friendly?” I asked sharply. “We’re not friendly.”
After helping Lina move, things had seemingly returned to normal between the two of us. I admit I hadn’t pushed her buttons as much, and the pharmacy became quieter this past week. But we weren’t friends.
Andy raised a dark-brown eyebrow at me. “Then why did we help her move?”
I shrugged stiffly. Andy’s eyes instantly flickered to my shoulders to look at her. I held back revealing anything too personal about Lina’s life. “She needed help. And I offered.”
My brother-in-law laughed out loud, and through the mirror I watched Lina stumble out of the corner of my eyes.
She quickly glanced over, saw him, and whipped her head in the other direction.
The skin on the back of her neck flushed into this ruddy color.
I sucked in a sharp breath through my tightly clenched teeth as irritation burned across my chest.
I glanced at Andy as he watched his brother finish another set of Romanian deadlifts.
Although we always joked about how I was the favorite child between my mom and his parents, the truth was that the twins were always the favorites.
They were everyone’s favorites. If not both of them, then it was almost always Andy.
Everyone loved Andrew N. Hughes. Lina was no different. He still made her stumble over her words and feet, and she blushed like a teen around him. Even now.
A fiery breath escaped my chest as I turned on my heels. The drumming of my heart synced to each of my heavy footsteps. Lina looked surprised when I approached her and almost stumbled again.
Instinctively, I reached out to balance her. My hand ghosted over the curve of her slim, bare waist respectfully. Once she was upright, I pulled my hand away, flinching, before my fingertips could graze across the fire radiating from her skin.
“How fortunate am I to have to see you on the weekend,” I said, taking a step back from her.
“What a misfortune for me to have to see you on one of my days off too,” Lina mumbled. Her eyes traveled to my naked chest for a moment and back up to my face. An eyebrow raised pointedly. “What are you doing here?”
“My brother-in-law invited me to try out the well-equipped gym here.” I grinned.
Lina blinked. Not a single word was uttered, but I knew her. She wanted me to leave her alone. She enjoyed her alone time. And she was clearly a woman with strong boundaries. Simple as that.
Those very boundaries didn’t mean she deserved to be labeled as robotic or frigid by someone like me. That was the thing about her that I hadn’t realized before catapulting myself into her life . . . Lina Lee was kind. Underneath her icy exterior, she loved the people she cared about deeply.
When her armor thawed, there was no denying she was hard-working, independent, and self-sufficient. Our pharm techs loved her, as did our patients. My skewed view of her obscured the truth, but now I was willing to admit to it.
Lina wasn’t emotionless. Lina wasn’t cold and calculating. Lina Lee wasn’t mechanical. She was all human—with fears, love, and warmth.
I was entirely wrong about her.
“I didn’t realize Andy was also the solicitor for this gated community,” she said, tugging me out of my thoughts.
I leaned in and whispered. “Look, I’m not here because I want to be. I’m here because I think Julie and Andy are trying to set us up.”
“Set us up how? And why?” she asked. Irritation weighed her voice down into this sultry-sounding low voice that caressed down my back.
“Hey, Lina!” said Anthony, approaching us.
Andy followed eagerly behind him. The two flashed their thousand-watt grins. Just as Andy was about to say something, both Julie and Shoua walked into the gym. Their loud laughter easily filled the nearly empty gym.
As my sister and cousin greeted their respective partners, I turned to Lina and whispered in a low, sharp tone. “If they invite you to anything, decline them if they’re being too much.”
Lina’s brows crumpled together. An emotion flashed across her eyes. Her mouth parted to say something when my sister turned to her.
“Hey, Lina!” greeted Julie, waving eagerly at her. Lina’s expression softened as she smiled at my sister. It was one of those rare smiles I’d only gotten a chance to see last week. “Did you enjoy the chocolate chip cookies I brought by?”
I blinked, mouth ajar. What?
“They were amazing. Thank you for even thinking of me,” said Lina. “They’re great with coffee, by the way.”
Julie grinned, and I interrupted her before she could continue. “You bake Lina cookies? Since when?”
“Since Tuesday, when I had free time,” replied Julie as our exchange became a side conversation.
Shoua greeted Lina, and then she and Anthony asked how Lina liked her new townhouse. Andy was also curious and chimed in with a question I didn’t particularly pay attention to.
“You don’t bake me cookies,” I pointed out to Julie.
She raised her brows at me. “You never asked. And! She’s my neighbor.”
I looked between the two of them. Lina wasn’t aware of my gaze as she answered my family’s questions.
“Since when did you two become so close? As far as I was aware, you two barely knew each other,” I stated.
Julie glared at me. “I bumped into Lina here the other day, and I asked her for her number. Yes, I also baked her some cookies because I’m trying to make new friends,” snapped my sister. “I didn’t realize I needed your permission to do that, Jonathan.”
“I was simply pointing it out. No need to bite my head off,” I scoffed.
My sister pursed her lips into a thin line. She turned to her husband, announcing, “Let me know when you boys are done. I’m going to go home and rest.”
Shoua gave Lina an apologetic look as she trailed behind Julie. “It was nice to see you again, Lina!”
“We should also get back to finishing our workouts. Sorry about that, and for interrupting you, Lina,” I said.
She nodded without saying anything, and I started my walk back to the weights room. She didn’t look particularly pissed off or irritated now. However, I knew she wasn’t thrilled to see me. Neither was I.
Julie and Andy were teaming up and scheming.
Then, it all made sense when I got home and saw my mom there, making dinner.
Lately, I hadn’t seen her at home for more than thirty minutes.
She was always getting ready to head out the door these last six months.
When we sat down and ate dinner, I pretended this wasn’t the first meal we had truly shared in a long time.
I added a spoonful of the braised-pork dish she made over my small bowl of rice.
“Eat more. Why are you eating so little?” insisted my mom.
She pushed the bowl of thick, tender pork belly pieces and hard-boiled eggs, which had been braised in soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and chunks of lemongrass with ginger.
Sweet pork was my favorite dish growing up.
This dish balanced the sweetness from the caramelized sugar and the savoriness of pork belly well.
Then, to top it off, the aromatics and notes from the soy sauce and oyster sauce was like a blast of flavors, all in one bite.
I laughed. “Fine,” I conceded, drizzling another spoonful of the sweet pork over my rice.
She shook her head at me. “You look thinner these days. Eat more.”
I looked at my mom straight in the eyes. “I look exactly the same. What’s the occasion? You hardly make me sweet pork anymore.”
My mom smiled, shaking her head. “First of all, I don’t make this for you because you hardly eat any of it. Just like right now.” Her grin became warm and wide as she pointed to my small rice bowl. “You and your macros and micros—or whatever it is you allow yourself to eat daily.”
“I want to maintain my hard work!” I pointed to the toned chest under my shirt.
My mom laughed. It was light, soft; it reminded me of how much I missed hearing it. “Jonathan, you’ve always been a handsome boy.”
“Mom,” I muttered.
She hummed, eating her portion of that syrupy, savory sweet pork. “Now that your sister, cousin, and the twins are settling down, I’d like to see you consider settling down one day, too.”
I sighed, pushing my tiny rice bowl aside. I knew it. She hadn’t made me sweet pork without strings attached to it for the last two years. Every time she did, she always insisted on discussing something related to dating or marriage.
“Who do you want me to marry now?” I asked.
She continued to wear her grin. “I’m not asking you to marry anyone. It’s just a blind date I set up.”
I hummed, nodding. “A blind date that you hope will lead to marriage and, eventually, grandkids.”
“They’ll be the cutest grandbabies too,” beamed my mom.
I raised a brow at her. “Do you want me to get married, or to give you grandkids? Because I can easily give you grandchildren without—”
“I want you to have someone else you can depend on,” she interrupted me.
“Which, I understand doesn’t always mean marriage or children.
That’s a dream I have for myself as a mother, but I understand that may not be what you kids want these days.
I just want you to have another person that isn’t me or your sister to also be there for you. ”
I let her words sink in as I sat there. I finally ate my first bite. The rush of the flavors—the rich umami harmonizing perfectly between sugar and salt—was so great that I almost threw my head back a bit and moaned.
“When I die, I want to die knowing you and Julie are fine.”
“Mom.”
“I want to leave knowing the two of you won’t only have each other in this world,” she continued.
“Mom, stop. You’re not going to die any time soon.”
She smiled. “I’m not going to be here forever either.”
No, she wasn’t. We both knew she could leave tonight or tomorrow—the way Dad suddenly did—and both Julie and my world would never be the same. Again.
“Please go on this blind date, Jonathan. I think she’s a good girl. She sounds smart, reliable, and seems incredibly capable. I think you two will be a good match.”
“Fine,” I breathed, taking another bite of my food. “Who is she?”
“Ask your sister. It’s one of her friends,” laughed my mom.