Chapter 12: Lily's Mother Arrived!
Waiting by one of the gates at the airport, Ginny and Lily squeezed their way through the crowd and tiptoed to look for Lily's mother, Toby Jiang. When they saw a familiar figure dragging along two suitcases, they waved their hands and called out to her.
Lily's mother smiled happily as she quickened her steps to meet them. Letting go of her luggage, she spread her arms to hug the two precious girls tightly, "Ahhhhh, I missed you two so so so so so much!!!! How are my daughters doing? Hmmm? Let me see. Did you two lose weight? You guys need to eat more!"
Toby Jiang was extremely friendly and comfortable to be around with. Even before Ginny's parents passing, she had always addressed Ginny as her daughter. Therefore, Ginny naturally responded to her.
Lightly squeezing the girl's cheeks using her hands, she smiled sweetly, "It's been half a year since I've seen you two physically. While I was gone, you two must have been eating all the junk food behind my back for convenience."
Hearing her mother's words, Lily guiltily looked away and hugged her mom once more to change the topic. "Mommy, did you retrieve all your luggage already? Just two suitcases?" Lily took one suitcase while Ginny reached for the other one.
"Well, your father said that I bought too much souvenir for you two. So, he packed the rest and mailed it for me. These two suitcases are all your stuff." She pointed at her suitcases and nodded proudly as if she had accomplished her task for the day.
"Ah right! Let me give your dad a call before he worries about me." Once she had switched her phone on, she received a call from Lily's father, Lawrence Jiang. She picked up the call immediately and softened her tone, "Hello darling~ I just got off and met up with the girls! Are you regretting yet? Haha, I'll hug my daughter all to myself."
Lawrence coughed on the other side of the phone. He purposely stopped his meeting to make sure that she had arrived safely. "Don't worry, I'll go back next time when you get stuck with your work as revenge. It's good that you landed safely. Don't forget to tell the girls that I miss them and enjoy your fun for a few weeks. I'll take care of the work on my side."
With the number of people sitting in the meeting room, it wasn't convenient for him to rant about work at all. Therefore, he cleared his throat and limited his words before hanging up.
"Is dad working?" Lily peeked from behind when she saw the phone leave her mother's ear.
"Yep. He should be in the middle of a meeting. From his restrained tone, he must be holding back all his salted words for us to hear later. Have you girls eaten yet? If not, we should eat first." Toby Jiang suggested as she looked at the heavy suitcases.
"We haven't eaten yet. How about you choose the place, and we drive there?" Ginny said while they walked towards the airport's exit.
"Alright. Let's see what choices we have.." Toby took out her phone and started searching for restaurants that she wanted to try. After having a pleasant lunch at a Japanese restaurant, Toby Jiang wanted to go to the supermarket to stock up on groceries for the girls. During her few weeks of staying with the girls, she made a request for the three of them to live together.
Even if she didn't mention it, Ginny would've stayed over since she was done with school and has more time to spare. By the time they finished grocery shopping, the backseat of the car was half filled with more than a month's worth of ingredients. Instead of ordering a takeout, Toby Jiang made a well-balanced meal for dinner.
It's been such a long time since they've gathered together like this. Tonight was one of the most relaxing and stress relieving nights for Lily and Ginny after submitting their papers for grading. Finishing the last piece of vegetable on the plate, Lily and Ginny rubbed their stomachs satisfyingly.
"Now, who is going to do the dishes?" Hearing this question, the trio got turned to their side and said, "Ready...Rock! Paper! Scissors!" Playing once wasn't enough as everyone ended up in a tie. It took a few more rounds to determine the loser. Even though Ginny had lost at the end, Lily still accompanied her to clean the dirty dishes. They've been doing the same thing since young.
At some point, they even wondered why they played the Rock, Paper and Scissors game when they would end up scrubbing dishes together. The answer was very simple. It was because whenever they cleaned dishes together, Toby Jiang would watch them from a distance with a blissful smile on her face.
After dishes were cleaned and put away, the three of them took turns with showering. Wearing the matching pajamas that Toby Jiang had brought from overseas, they slapped a face mask onto their skin and leaned back on the couch.
During the facial session, Toby Jiang listened attentively to everything that she had missed in the past months. As if she had never left, she watched how the girls interacted and felt warmth spread from the bottom of her heart.
"Since you two are graduating from college, do you have any plans?" Toby asked as she massaged the essence from the mask onto her face.
"Hmmm, we're still exploring at the moment. Trying to find our passion." Lily said as she copied her mother's hand movements and rubbed her cheeks in a clockwise motion.
"Good. Good. But mommy wants to know what kind of exploration. Such as~ Boyfriend~" Toby smirked and teased her daughter. Suddenly, the conversation turned quiet and Lily's mother turned over to meet the girl's eyes.
"Did something happen between you and Hawk?" Her caring, soft tone made Lily think about how she should explain her situation with Hawk to her.
"Well, we are still kind of dating. Just that we were focused on our finals and haven't been speaking to each other. There are fewer messages? Uhm...kind of like a cold war." Lily didn't hide anything from her mother about her current dating status.
Toby Jiang knew that something was up when she heard the uncertainty in her daughter's voice. Considering that Lily was turning twenty-three years old soon, she is old enough to deal with her own relationship problems. "Hmmm? Okay. You know what you're doing, so mommy won't nag you about it. You're a big girl, but in front of me, you can always tell me anything. Remember that."
"Thanks, mom." She smiled.
"Ginny, what about you? Anyone caught your attention?"
Ginny made a big X shape using her arms and said, "Nope!"
Speaking of graduation, their graduation dates were right around the corner!
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