Chapter 22: Mixing up with Mixed Up family
Changying turned to see Wang walking toward her with the most glamorous woman she had ever seen as Romey turned with her smirking, "You snooze you lose, baby brother."
Wang grimaced and pulled Changying from her chair kissing her passionately in front of everyone, when he came up for air he murmured, "Hi, remember me?"
She smiled, "I think it's coming back to me."
Romey whistled nodding. "Guess we better move then and let them sit together."
Changying drew her eyes from Wang to Baozhai, "Hello," she smiled, "I had no idea Wang had a twin."
"Let go of the girl Wang she can hardly breathe," Baozhai nudged him. Wang released her and Baozhai immediately took his place hugging her and kissing both her cheeks, "Hello," she said finally.
The lunch rolled on with people playing musical chairs constantly, the wine flowed, and enormous bowls of a variety of pastas arrived for them to share. More cheesy bread arrived in front of both Changying and Lucy with a napkin folded into a heart on top, Changying looked up at Romey and mouthed "Thank you," across the table and he winked at her.
Wang growled in her ear, "At least wait until I leave the table before flirting with Romeo Geez." His hand squeezed her thigh tightly making her squeak and blush deeply.
The wine was getting to her and Changying excused herself asking where the bathrooms were, "I'll take you," Lucy piped up, "I haven't had the chance to talk to you yet."
Changying stood and smiled, "Thanks."
They walked back through the restaurant, Changying repeated the same answers to the same questions again, work, family, friends and the polite chatter strangers do. Before they left the bathroom, Lucy stopped her placing a hand on her arm and whispered, "Be extremely careful of Baozhai. She can be a real bitch and is extremely protective of Wang."
Changying was stunned and gaped at her open mouthed, but before she could ask any questions Lucy pushed the door open and pulled her through walking back to the table. Jack had taken her seat, so she walked around the table, sitting next to Ben and Dante. "More wine," Ben asked.
"Actually I would love some cool water," Changying replied hopefully. Ben grunted and got up to go to the bar.
"You seem to be handling meeting the family, or some of it, last girl I tried this on ran for the hills," he said sadly.
"I asked Jack to take me home when we were on our way here, no such luck, and I am not much of a runner I wouldn't have got far," she grinned at him, "Short legs, quite stumpy really."
"They look pretty good to me," he chuckled as she turned toward him and lifted a leg up.
"It's the boots. They're like an optical illusion," she laughed and took the glass of water Ben handed her. Dante chuckled louder as she thanked Ben profusely taking a large sip.
"Not many people can make Dante laugh," Ben nodded in his direction, "he's the dark, brooding type."
I was explaining he was seeing an optical illusion made better by the wine," she explained.
Dante chuckled again nudging the man beside him, "Do boots make a woman's legs look longer?"
Emilio looked up, "Depends on the boot I guess." He could see Changying nodding and smiling over Dante's shoulder and nodded, "I would say yes if asked by the woman wearing them though," he said covering himself.
Ben burst out laughing then, and Dante turned back to eye her suspiciously as she gave him the most innocent look she could muster shrugging her shoulders. "Stumpy," she said again nodding. "So you see running wasn't an option for me."
Dante shook his head at her, "Is that how he caught you?" Dante nodded his head in Wang's direction.
The wine had made her relax and become bolder with these people and she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Actually the first time he ever spoke to me, he yelled at me for doing my job too well," she looked at their stunned expressions, "I know right?" Her eyes had gone wide in an appeal for their sympathy.
"And you still went out with him?" Dante was aghast.
"Well," she said, "Not right then. A few weeks later he ran into me in the lunch room and spilled scalding pasta and sauce down my top," she was gesticulating and pulling faces as she condensed the story making it seem like it should have been on funniest home videos, "and after a trip to Doctor Jack and no food all day I feinted." The three brothers were laughing loudly now, "So Jack made him take me out to dinner. We came to this very restaurant. Smooth moves, huh?" She was laughing with them at this point, and Emilio almost fell off his chair.
The rest of the table was looking at them with confused grins. The laughter from their small group was highly contagious. Ben took a deep breath, "That's priceless, unquestionably the best first date story ever. Smooth, Wang, smooth." Ben called across the table.
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