Chapter 40: 50-ish?
On Saturday afternoon, the sunlight was just right.
Coach Bob, having won the crucial game, finally made good on his promise to his wife and moved the whole family into their new home.
It was a two-story house with its own yard. Compared to the apartment they had lived in before, it was worlds apart.
Sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, casting warm, bright patches across the floor.
“Honey! Come look at this fireplace!” Tina’s voice echoed through the empty living room, tinged with excitement.
She tugged Bob by the hand and pointed at the stone fireplace in the living room.
“We finally have a real fireplace!”
“There’s another surprise upstairs!” She blinked mysteriously.
“Remember the separate his-and-hers walk-in closets?
“I’ve already thought it through. I’m going to buy you a few nice display cabinets, so all those precious game balls from your wins can be lined up neatly in your closet!”
Bob looked at the heartfelt smile on his wife’s face, and the exhaustion of the past week seemed to vanish like smoke.
Tina walked over to the staircase and called upstairs, “Anna, take your sister up and pick out your rooms first, okay?”
Watching her two daughters run upstairs excitedly, the smile on her face deepened.
“Tomorrow, Mom will take you out to buy new furniture!” she added, her voice full of indulgence.
“Mhm, the vanity table I promised you—I’ll definitely buy it!”
She looked up at her younger daughter, Alia, who was peering down over the stair railing.
“And you too, Alia! That big bear from Costco you’ve been dreaming about! We finally have room for it!”
Her younger daughter let out a scream of delighted surprise.
“Tonight, we’ll go bring it home!”
Tina smiled and asked Bob, “Can you come shopping with us tonight? We can bring the big bear home while we’re at it.”
The smile on Bob’s face faded a little, and he looked somewhat troubled.
He sighed and said, “Next Friday’s game is going to be tricky. I need to work overtime tonight.”
“I need to watch more film on the Wild Wolves. You know how it is.”
The excitement on Tina’s face receded, replaced by a trace of helplessness, but she still nodded. “All right, my great coach.”
She paused, then added, “But next week is rivalry week, isn’t it?”
Bob’s expression turned solemn.
Rivalry week referred to the week in the season when they were about to face their sworn enemies.
“Yeah.
“Next week, we play the Wild Wolves.
“In the past ten years, we’ve lost two state championships because of them.”
Just then, Anna came down from the second floor with a puzzled look on her face.
“Dad, are we having a football party at our house tomorrow?”
Tina turned around and looked at her daughter strangely. “Sweetie, what are you talking about?”
“Sally Dean, Mom, remember her? My AP Lit classmate?” Anna explained.
“She just texted me asking about the party.” She thought for a moment, then added.
“You know, the girl with brown hair who always wears black-rimmed glasses, the one with the best grades in our year?
“The one taking a ton of AP classes? Theoretically speaking, she should be the last person in our school to know about a party.”
The smile on Tina’s face vanished instantly. She looked at Bob in disbelief.
“I think your friend is being pranked. I can’t imagine us throwing a football party the day after moving in?”
She stared at her husband, who had already gone tense.
“Right? Because if we were throwing that kind of party.
“We’d need to prepare mountains of chips and rivers of drinks.
“And most importantly, the lady of this house would need.
“At least two weeks’ notice, so she’d have time to mentally prepare herself, right?”
Standing at the foot of the stairs, Anna was long since used to scenes like this.
She pulled a piece of chocolate from her pocket, broke off a small piece, and popped it into her mouth.
Leaning against the banister, she watched the family drama between her parents with great relish.
At that moment, seeing Tina like this.
Bob’s eyes began to dart away, and his voice grew as soft as a mosquito’s hum.
“I’m sorry, honey… I forgot to tell you…”
“It’s just… the kids finally managed to beat the state champions.
“They were last year’s state champions, right?
“You saw how hard it was for us to win.
“So… well?”
“In the locker room, we said we’d have a celebration party.”
Tina took a deep breath and pressed a hand to her forehead, as if she were about to faint.
“Forget it. How many people?”
“I don’t know? I think… 50-ish?”
Tina’s voice suddenly rose, but there was a hint of laughter on her face that she couldn’t quite suppress.
“Fifty? Your team alone has more than fifty people, doesn’t it, Bob?”
“Uh… maybe 60-ish?”
Bob looked at his wife’s expression, that mixture of anger and amusement.
His survival instincts instantly maxed out.
He immediately set down the box he had been organizing.
In one stride, he rushed over to his wife, took her hands, and said decisively.
“Come on, come on, we’re going to Costco right now! We need to buy two grills too!”
“I promised Mark. We’re throwing a Texas barbecue party!”
While Coach Bob was sinking into an extreme crisis.
Lin Wansheng was leading Maggie out through the gates of East River High School.
Lin Wansheng glanced at the well-tailored professional skirt suit she was wearing and hesitated for a moment.
In the end, he gave up on the idea of going to the food truck on the corner and led her into the La Colombe across the street.
“What are you having?”
Maggie looked at Lin Wansheng, the corner of her mouth curving in a barely perceptible smile.
He was even a little more interesting than she had imagined.
“Draft latte.”
The two of them took their coffees and found an outdoor corner to sit in.
Lin Wansheng did not speak, merely drinking his coffee calmly.
Time passed, second by second.
In the end, Maggie was the first to lose patience.
She set down her coffee cup and leaned forward slightly. In those shrewd eyes of hers was a trace of irritation at having been seen through, along with a growing interest.
“I went to watch your game,” she said, breaking the stalemate.
“I already gave you my card. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She extended the tip of her tongue and gently licked away a bit of foam from her lip.
“I’m still very interested in your games.”
“Oh?” Lin Wansheng leaned back in his chair, a playful smile appearing on his face. “Last time at the club, didn’t you say I wasn’t ‘the right look’?”
“An Asian who can only tell jokes onstage—you really weren’t,” Maggie replied crisply.
“But an Asian who can charge around on a football field and still tell jokes.
“If he’s also an Asian who won a New York State championship.”
She looked at him, her gaze sharpening.
“Then you become the right look again.”
“You’re rare,” she said, enunciating each word.
“And rarity is value.”