So far, nothing.
Finally, figuring that I could work just as easily on my laptop at Ralph and Brineesha’s house as I could here at my office desk, I left the Academy. If time and circumstances allowed, I thought I could let Lien-hua cater to her quirks later tonight and we could stream Sleepless in Seattle, so I picked up a bag of Fritos for her at a gas station.
A small way to celebrate her continued recovery.
Fortunately, at this time of day, traffic entering DC wasn’t nearly as bad as the traffic leaving it, and I merged into the flow toward Ralph’s house.
63
Tony answered when I rang the doorbell.
He had his mom’s light chocolate skin color and his dad’s build. A typical twelve-year-old boy, he was into soccer, skateboarding, and video games and thought that girls were gross — but if you pressed him, he’d admit that he “kind of” liked “some stuff” about them.
“Hello, Mr. Bowers.” He was cordial and polite, admittedly more from the influence of his mother than his father.
“Hey, Tony.”
He let me in and called over his shoulder, “Mom! It’s Mr.—”
“Yes, I heard. I’ll be right there.” It sounded like she was in the first room off the hallway — what used to be Ralph’s study but which was now being transformed into a nursery for their little girl, who was due in July.
I closed the front door. A duffel bag and a rolled-up camouflage sleeping bag sat next to it. “Sleepover tonight?” I asked Tony.
“I’m going over to Eric’s.”
“Nice.”
Ralph’s imposing seventy-two-inch wide-screen TV dominated the west wall of his living room. He and Brineesha often let Tony invite his friends over to play video games on it, so the room was preteen boy — proof, with almost nothing fragile in it. An expansive leather couch and a matching recliner that no longer reclined faced the television.
I said to Tony, “Your dad tells me he’s been improving at ‘Call of Duty’ lately.”
Tony shrugged. “Sometimes I let him win. He gets moody when he loses too much.”
I smiled. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Brineesha rounded the corner. She had on one of Ralph’s double-XL T-shirts and a pair of blue jeans overalls with the cuffs rolled up. With a paintbrush and splatters of pink on her cheeks and the backs of her hands, it wasn’t hard to guess what she’d been doing.
“Hey, Brin.”
“Good to see you, Pat.” She held up the paintbrush. “Working on the nursery.”
“How’s it coming?”
“Good.” She patted her tummy. “We should have everything ready in plenty of time.” She had a proud mother’s smile, and I was glad all over again that she and Ralph were expecting. She was showing, but with the overalls and oversize T-shirt on, it was hard to tell.
She invited me into the kitchen, asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink, and when I declined, told me that Lien-hua and Tessa had gone dress shopping and would hopefully be back within the hour.
“How did Lien-hua look? Was she feeling okay?”
“You need to stop mothering her and trust that she knows what she can handle.”
“Just trying to be a good fiancée.”
“A slightly overbearing one.”
A concerned one, I thought, but said, “Okay, I hear you. By the way, did Tessa mention when Aiden was coming by to pick her up?”
“Six thirty. They’re going out for supper with some friends. I don’t think the prom officially starts until eight.”
I looked unnecessarily at my watch and saw that it was already after four. “That’s not going to give her a whole lot of time to get ready. Don’t girls usually take—”
“You be careful now. Besides, you know Tessa — it shouldn’t take her long at all. Lien-hua and I can help her.”
“Do you know anything about this dress that Lien-hua was so keen on having her look at?”
Brin shook her head. “All I know is that it’s black and strapless.”
“Strapless?”
She looked at me evenly. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“It’s just that, strapless, I mean it’s—”
“Really, Pat. You don’t need to be so protective of the women in your life. Tessa told me how you like checking up on the boys she dates.”
“Did she.”
“Mm-hmm.” Brin tilted her paintbrush at me scoldingly. “This is her special night. You be nice to that boy. Tessa likes him. Don’t go embarrassing her.”
“I won’t.” But I thought again of the call I’d put through to the school’s public safety officer. I still hadn’t heard back from him. “I want it to be her special night too,” I told Brineesha honestly.
“And take lots of pictures. This is her first and only prom.”
“Pictures. Got it.”
Her gaze shifted to my computer bag. “We moved Ralph’s desk to our bedroom, but feel free to go in there if you want to work until he gets here.”
“The dining room table will be fine.”
“Really, you’re welcome to the desk. Our bedroom’s not nearly as bad as yours.”
“You’ve been talking to Ralph.”
“He may have mentioned something. Is Tessa really afraid to go in there?”
I avoided that question. “The table will be great, Brin. Thanks.”
“I need to finish up in the nursery; make yourself at home. You know the Internet code.”
Through the doorway I saw Tony had turned on the TV and was pulling up a first-person shooter game I didn’t recognize. It appeared to involve taking out some rather impressive-looking aliens.
Brin left for the nursery, and I set up shop at the dining room table to see what I could get done before Tessa and Lien-hua made it back home.
64
Providentially, Tessa found a parking spot just about across the street from the dress store. She helped Lien-hua out of the car and walked cautiously beside her as she crutched through the crosswalk to the store.
Inside, a smiling clerk who didn’t look much older than Tessa bopped toward them. “Hello, welcome to Tirabelli’s. And can I help you find a dress this afternoon?”
“Yes, thank you.” Lien-hua’s eyes were on the row of prom dresses along the back wall. “But I think I might already know what we’re looking for.”
The girl followed Lien-hua’s gaze, then assessed Tessa up and looked at her slyly, as if the two of them were privy to some sort of secret. “A prom dress?”
“Yeah. It’s tonight.”
She blinked. “Your prom is tonight?”
“In like four hours. I figured I didn’t want to wait until the last minute.” She shared a look with Lien-hua.
“I see.” The clerk tried to recover gracefully; obviously she was not used to having girls shop for dresses this close to their proms. “Well, step this way. Let’s see what we can find for you.”
The lineup of dresses was a little overwhelming to Tessa, who usually shopped at thrift stores. Some of the skimpy ones reminded her of a pickup line she’d heard once in a movie: “Nice gownless evening strap you have there.”
When she saw the price tags on some of the nicer dresses — actually, even the ones that weren’t so impressive — she understood why she didn’t shop at places like this.
“Um, Lien-hua, we should… I mean, these are way too—”
“It’s okay.” She found a chair and Tessa helped her as she lowered herself onto it.
“So.” The girl beamed at Tessa. “What exactly are you looking for?”
Lien-hua pointed to one. “Let’s start there. See if it’s close to the right size.”
Tessa lifted its hanger.
Black. Strapless. Satiny but not too shiny. It had lace that spread over the top of the fabric at the bottom and made Tessa think that it would make her look like she was covered in a smooth, black waterfall.