23
Jia was one of those types that got the postcoital gooey and mushy feelings. She didn’t think Henry would love this about
her. But she couldn’t help herself.
“Something smells great in here,” her grandmother said, joining Jia in the kitchen.
“I made a pie,” she admitted.
“A pie is very nice. I hear young men love pies.”
“Oh, well, it’s like a belated welcome pie . . . for, um . . . Dennis. And Henry if he wants some.”
“Jia, honey, the way you braided the top of the crust, that’s a thanks-for-the-fuck pie if I ever did see one.”
“Grandma!” Jia gasped.
“Like I said, honey, men love pies. Now, I’ve got Knitting Club tonight at Mary Beth’s house.
She said she got some new mattress for her guest bedroom, and she’s not sure it’s very comfortable.
Maybe her granddaughter won’t like it when she visits for Christmas.
So I agreed to test it out. Gonna give it a practice run and spend the night in it tonight.
Don’t worry, Mary Beth promised to buy me coffee from the cart tomorrow morning as a thank-you.
So don’t expect me home until well after nine tomorrow.
Hate to leave you . . . alone like this, but you know how I am. Gotta help a friend in need.”
“Uh-huh,” Jia said. She wrapped her arms around her grandmother and hugged her tight. “Thanks, Mimi. I love you,” she whispered
into her ear.
“Be safe and have fun . . . by yourself,” she said. “Unless you want to have a friend over for your own slumber party.” She
winked at Jia and walked out of the kitchen.
Jia was giddy with excitement. She could have sex with Henry tonight in a bed. They wouldn’t have to go park somewhere for
privacy and worry about gear shifts or cops finding them. What a relief.
She placed the pie in the Tupperware container and walked out to deliver it to him—them—Dennis and Henry.
Outside she saw Harold walking his dog, Chewbacca. As the dog did his business, Harold took a stick with pincher tongs at
the bottom and picked up the waste off the ground, without having to bend all the way over. One press of a button and the
waste emptied into a bag attached to a hook separate from the tongs. Cool.
“Hey there, how’s it going?” Jia asked as she crossed the street to greet her neighbor. Jia balanced the Tupperware in one
hand as she bent to pet the head of the little pupper with the other. “That’s a cool contraption you’ve got there. I bet a
lot of people in the neighborhood would love something like that. Where’d you get it?” Jia asked.
“Oh, I don’t think it’s for sale anywhere. It’s one of a kind. Henry made it for me,” he said.
“What?”
“Yeah, he said he’d heard it was rough for me to pick up after my dog and he’d felt so bad giving me a hard time about it.
He made this and asked me if it worked okay. We tried it right then and there, and it was perfect. Look, the poop even drops
straight into the bag. I just have to reach out and grab it, tie it up, and I can throw it away at home. Pretty cool, right?”
“Henry . . . he made that for you?” Jia’s heart felt ten times too big for her chest. He’d made it . . . to help someone who
wasn’t able to do what needed to be done. She swallowed. She was going to take such good care of that man tonight, he had
no idea.
“He did. Good boy, that one. I hope I’ll get to see him before he leaves. Or before I do.”
The comment struck Jia. She’d hadn’t even thought about how Henry was only here for a couple weeks. She wondered if they’d
see each other when the two of them were back in New York. Was she overthinking all of this?
But also . . .
“What do you mean before you do?” she asked.
“Oh, well, looks like I might be selling my place,” he said.
“Why’s that?” It used to be that people only sold their homes here if they were going into assisted living. And Harold was
nowhere needing that kind of support. He was perfectly capable of living here with the support of the community. She really
hoped it wasn’t what she thought it might be . . . that someone might be behind this, encouraging Harold to leave before he
was ready.
“Well, some real estate guy reached out to my family and suggested it might be time for me to move. Told them he could get them a lot of money for my place and that, since I wasn’t getting any younger, it might be the time to move me to the assisted-living place down the way,” Harold explained.
His shoulders dropped, and his voice sounded resigned.
“What?” Jia was livid. “WHO? Who is this guy?”
“Oh, some slick guy named Matt, or something like that. He seems to be reaching out to a lot of other families too. Like he
knew which ones of us were getting a bit older or whose families weren’t like you and Mimi, if you know what I mean.”
Matt? Airport Matt? Date at the Del Rey Matt? “Was the name Matthew Singleton?” she asked.
“Yes, yes, that sounds like the name. Do you know him? If you do, Jia, maybe you can ask him to talk to my family again and
maybe have them change their minds. They don’t listen to what I want. And honestly, I’m getting a little sad at the thought
of moving. How will I get my steps in if I don’t have Zumba class or Walking Club? Plus some of those other places don’t accept
dogs. Where will Chewbacca go?” Harold’s voice began to shake with the emotion.
Jia wrapped her arms around the smaller, bent man. “Harold, don’t you worry about anything just yet, okay? I’m not gonna let
anyone make decisions for you that you’re not agreeing with. We’ll figure this out.” She gave him a squeeze, and he squeezed
back. Plenty of strength left in him.
“Thanks, Jia. You’re the best,” Harold said.
“Okay, I gotta run. But remember, don’t make any decisions and don’t let your family pressure you into anything until we talk
again, okay? I need to check on some stuff first.”
“Sure, sure, Jia. I trust you. I probably trust you more than I do my own kids, I hate to say.” Harold’s smile was a sad one, and Jia’s heart broke a little. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but she wasn’t going to let any of her people go down without a fight.
Jia gave him one last squeeze on the arm and jogged toward Dennis’s place. She did not like the sound of all of this. It couldn’t
be legal, could it? Forcing older people to sell their homes? She needed Henry’s professional opinion on all of this.
They would discuss it over pie.
“Hi.” Henry’s hair was tussled and his smile sleepy. Jia wanted to jump him right there in the doorway. Privacy and propriety
be damned.
“Napping during the day, Mr. Shin? You look very relaxed. Very unlike you,” she teased. Truth be told, she loved that Henry
was relaxing. He could use the rest.
“I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep. I was looking over contracts.”
“Yes, that is indeed shocking. How could anyone fall asleep over contracts?” Jia teased. “I brought you a pie,” she said.
She held the Tupperware out to Henry, and he looked down inspecting it.
When his eyes lifted back up to meet hers, she didn’t expect the emotion she found in his gaze. “Thank you,” he said, voice
soft.
“My pleasure. Share it with Dennis, okay?” she said, smiling.
Henry took the pie and put it down on the console table behind him.
“Come here,” Henry said, pulling Jia into the house. He wrapped an arm around her and drew her into his body, still warmed
from sleep.
Jia hesitated, looking around to see whether Dennis was around.
“He’s at Book Club,” Henry said, as if reading her mind.
“Oh, I’m so glad. I was hoping he’d join them. There are some real characters in that group.”
“Yeah, I know. Someone named Farrah came over and personally handed my granddad a copy of a book called The Love Hypothesis and told him to read it and be ready to discuss.”
Jia started laughing. Oh god, Farrah was a character.
“Jia, Dennis was red in the face for at least two hours after. But it was nothing compared to the other night when he got
a third of the way through the book and I heard him whistling. I—” Henry paused and composed himself “—do not want to know
what was in those pages.”
“I don’t know,” Jia said, leaning into him. “Maybe we could find some inspiration.”
Suddenly Jia was airborne and lifted into Henry’s arms as he walked her over to the sofa. He sat down and dropped her into
his lap. She readjusted her legs to straddle him. Jia wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss.
“I’m plenty inspired,” he said against her lips.
She rubbed herself against him. “Yeah, you are,” she teased. She kissed him again as she felt him grow harder between her
legs, too many layers of clothing between them in her opinion. “Henry,” she moaned. The two of them rubbed against each other,
grinding in a rhythm. God, Jia loved this position. Jia moved her lips to Henry’s neck and sucked. He tasted so good.
“Jesus,” he said as he bucked his hips up against her. “I need to get you naked and into a bed, but I think Dennis will be
back sooner than later.”
“Oh, wait.” That reminded her. She stopped what she was doing and leaned back.
Henry leaned forward, not wanting to lose the connection from her mouth. Jia laughed.
“We have all night!” she declared. “Mimi is spending the night at a friend’s house. My bed is ours. All. Night. Long.”
“Are you serious? No disruptions? Just us and a bed?” Henry’s eyes lit up like a horny teenager, and Jia was living for it.
Henry, this sweet, sweet man. Like when he made that tool for Harold to pick up his dog’s—
“Henry,” Jia exclaimed, “I need your help.”
“Um, okay . . .”
“I just remembered. First.” She kissed him. Hard. “You are a saint.”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“The poop tool you made for Chewbacca! Are you kidding me? Genius. You softie.” Jia tapped him on the chest over his heart.
The corner of Henry’s mouth lifted along with his shoulders. An aw-shucks shrug that Jia could not get enough of.
“And tell me how this leads to your needing my help?” Henry said, getting them back on track.
“Oh, right. That snake,” Jia shuddered. She couldn’t believe she’d gone out on a date with that guy. She’d given him some
of her best flirty smiles. Wasted. Blech.
“Jia,” Henry brought her back once more.
“Matthew, the real estate guy. You’ve dealt with him before, right? That’s why you were so pissed off when you saw us together
at the Del Rey? I thought you were kinda jealous. But now that I think back, you could barely stand me then. I mean, not like
now.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.
Henry grabbed both of Jia’s wrists and squeezed a tiny bit. His thumbs rubbed over her pulse points. God that was more erotic
than expected. “There was never a time I couldn’t stand you,” he said. Very stern. Very sexy.
“Oh.” It was all she could think to say.
“But yes, he’s a snake. And an asshole. He tried to scam Dennis. And I don’t like him.”
“You’re hot when you get all growly like that,” Jia said.
“Thanks,” Henry said back. “Now, tell me why we’re talking about that guy when I’ve got you straddled on top of my dick right
now.”
“Well, I’ve noticed more of the residents have been talking about moving out of Sunset Hills. It started confusing me. But
it was always because their families were pressuring them. And guess who has been doing the pressuring?”
“Matthew?” Henry guessed correctly. Smarty-pants.
Jia nodded. “We have to stop him. We have to cease-and-desist him or something. We have to tell the families that they’re
wrong and that they should leave their loved ones here.”
“Jia, I love that you care so much and that this matters so deeply to you. But it’s not our business. It’s not right for us
to get involved in other people’s family matters,” Henry said matter-of-factly.
Jia couldn’t believe how unaffected he seemed. This was terrible. What Matthew was doing was terrible. “But we have to help!”
“You’re the one always telling me that we have to let the residents live their lives. Not infantilize them. Not make decisions
for them. That’s what you’re trying to do.” He was using his lawyer voice on her, and she didn’t like it one bit.
“I’m trying to help. We should help. At least look over the contracts or whatever and see what their rights are.
And then they can make their own informed decisions.
Right now, I feel like they’re getting pressured without knowing what they’re allowed and not allowed to do.
” Jia’s voice was getting more desperate.
But she couldn’t let Matthew just do this to the residents. She wouldn’t.
“Jia, I’m not getting involved. Plus, I can’t practice law in California. And I really don’t think you ought to get involved
either. Neither of us are experts in this area. I’m certain there are reasons we don’t know about. The families know better.
Just let it play out. Maybe, for some of the residents, this is the right move. Maybe it is time for them.”
Jia’s frustration and anger bubbled inside her. Henry was wrong. And he was unwilling to help. She really thought she’d seen
some progress in him. But maybe not.
“I have to go,” she said, scrambling to get off Henry’s lap.
He held her at her waist as she stood up, making sure she wouldn’t lose her balance. He stood up with her. “Jia . . .”
“It’s fine. I can do it on my own,” she said. She didn’t care if she sounded petulant. She would do it on her own if she had
to.
He let out a deep breath. “Don’t be mad.”
Jia dropped her shoulders. “I’m not mad. I’m just . . . worried. About Harold and Isabel and Dottie and whoever else might
be next.”
Henry wrapped his arms around her shoulders and brought her head to his chest. She listened to his heartbeat, steady, strong.
“I know. But you can’t carry the burden for everyone at The Sunset on your shoulders.”
And as she continued to be lolled by the beat of Henry’s heart, Jia thought to herself, Just watch me.