© 2018 Chloe Tzang. All rights reserved. The author asserts a moral right to be identified as the author of this story. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review.
Okay, this little story was repurposed for the
Literotica 2018 Valentine's Day Competition
. It's lite, it's trite, it was fun to write and I do hope you enjoy..... Chloe.
* * *
"You two can work down here," Mom said to me. In Cantonese. So Trey wouldn't know what she was saying. "Not your bedroom, Jenny. That boy, he's a gweilo. Can't trust gweilo boys. Get them in a bedroom with a pretty Chinese girl, all they think about is hanky panky."
"Aiyaaaaah, Mom. It's a school project," I complained. In Cantonese. Of course. So Trey wouldn't know what I was saying either. "Trey and I are supposed to work on it together. I'm not a baby, we need to really focus here."
Mom wouldn't let me go to Trey's to work on the project ("can't trust those gweilo boys with a pretty Chinese girl"). We had to work on it together so he'd had to come over to my house. It'd been sooooo embarrassing explaining that to him. That he'd have to work with me at my parent's house.
You'd think I'd be used to my Mom embarrassing me by now but I wasn't. It bugged me every time. Chinese parents. Aiyyaaaaah. So old fashioned. Maybe not some, but mine were. I couldn't wait to go away to College. God, they didn't even let me date. How embarrassing is that? Eighteen last month and I still wasn't allowed to date! My non-Chinese friends thought it was because I was a nerd! My Chinese friends knew.
"Don't sweat about it, Jenny," Trey'd grinned when I'd kind of stuttered and blushed my away through my excuses and asked him if we could work at my house. I'd rather have partnered up with one of my friends, but we didn't get a choice. It'd been names out of the hat and Trey and I had ended teamed up together. Could have been worse. Could've been that asshole Dave who liked to call us Chinese girls chinks and slant eyes. That was on a good day.
Asshole.
Nope, Trey wasn't ideal, but he was okay. At least he was smart enough that I wouldn't have to do all the pulling on this one. Not like last semester. That useless Richard, la! Trey wasn't bad looking either. For a gweilo boy. Bonus.
"Okay, let's get to work." I pointed him at what was supposed to be our dining room. Except that Mom, Dad and, reluctantly, me, all had workstations there. Mom and Dad, for work. Me, for schoolwork. How embarrassing.
Trey grinned. "Sure, no problem," he'd said, following me in. Sitting down next to me. He did smell nice.
* * *
"Finished!" I sat back. Almost two weeks later. Three whole days to spare, although two of those were the weekend. We'd worked together almost every evening. Trey had started staying for dinner. Turned out he liked Chinese food. He could use chopsticks as well. Who'd have guessed? I kind of wondered what his parents thought about him being over here every night. I hoped they didn't think I was his girlfriend or something. That'd be embarrassing. We knew his parents from Church. Vaguely. It wasn't like I hadn't known Trey for years. Right through High School in fact. Just, we'd never spent time together. Really, he was quite likeable.
"Damn." Trey grinned. "Guess I'm going to have to ask you out on a date then, Jenny. Can't keep using our project as an excuse to come over anymore. Love your Mom's cooking too."
I laughed. He'd been teasing me all week. "And what about Karen, you were dating her last I heard."
"Not anymore," he said. "She dumped me. Said I was spending too much time with you."
"You're kidding me."
"Nope."
"Trey, you staying for dinner." Mom's voice carried through the door. Easily. Trey didn't seem to mind her yelling.
"Sure, Mrs. Lee, love too," he yelled right back.
It was almost Chinese, the way he did that. I had to smile. When he grinned at me, my heart did a little pitter-patter. He didn't seem upset about Karen dumping him either. He even helped me with the dishes after dinner. I wondered if he was serious about dating me. God, I was actually thinking about it. Trey was kind of attractive. Smart. I liked the way he smelled too.
I asked around on Friday morning. It turned out he hadn't been feeding me a line about Karen. She had dumped him and it was because he'd been spending that time with me. She even started dissing me behind my back. Cat. But I smiled when I saw Trey. He smiled back. My heart did a little dance. Maybe Mom would let me date him?
* * *
Trey called me early Monday night. His number flashed up. My heart did that little dance thing. I answered. We talked. All the usual inanities and all the time I was thinking "will he ... will he..." And he did.
"Hey Jenny, I was serious before, you know, last night. How about a date. Tonight? Tomorrow night? Heck, any night?"
"I'd love too," I said.
"Hey..." He sounded all excited.
"But my Mom and Dad'll say no," I said. "I'm not allowed to date. Definitely not gweilo boys." Trey had been around at our house often enough. He knew what a gweilo was by now. In this case, very specifically, him. "How about coming round tonight, I didn't tell Mom we'd finished the project. We can, you know, maybe we can tell Mom we have to go to the library or something to use some of their reference material."
"Great, why not ask your Mom."
"No," Mom said, when I yelled downstairs to ask her. "Not tonight. Big family dinner at Auntie Stella's tonight. Before I forget, I forget to tell you before. Father D'Souza called, he want you as Altar Girl for rest of the year. I told him yes, you have to go to Church Wednesday evening for rehearsal and tomorrow night we got barbecue at Uncle John's. You tell that Trey he can come round Sunday afternoon maybe, stay for dinner, you two do your project then, okay."
"I heard," Trey said. "Tell your Mom Sunday afternoon is fine, I'll see you at Mass maybe."
Well, it wasn't exactly a date but Trey seemed to understand.
* * *
The whole Altar Girl thing didn't exactly excite me. I'd done it back in elementary school for a couple of years and I was, like, "why me" when Mom dropped me off at Church on Wednesday evening. She even walked in with me. Aiiyaaaaah. Like I was a little girl or something. Valentine's Day and I'd seen Trey at School and he'd smiled but no card, no roses. Not even a text. And evening at Church rehearsing altar girl stuff. What a fun way to spend my evening on Valentine's Day.
Father D'Souza was all smiles. "Mrs. Lee, so good of your daughter to volunteer. I've got one of the old altar boy's here to run her through a refresher, and I wanted to ask your advice about the kitchen downstairs. The contractor's expecting us to drop by his showroom in ten minutes. I'll drive." He waved through the open door. "Young man, come in, come in, here's your trainee."
"Hi, Jenny. Hi Mrs. Lee."
"Trey!" I was going to kill him. He must've known.