Page 50 of My Heart Before You

“You know, eating something you’ve never had before.” She was watching the six Chinese men in suits at the table next to them serving themselves dumplings from a lazy susan.

“We don’t have to eat chicken feet if you don’t want to.”

“If that is what you normally order, then I’ll try it.”

This woman is amazing.

He ordered a variety of different things, so she could try a bit of everything, but left off the chicken feet because truly he didn’t care for them. As she bit into a piece of shumai, she momentarily closed her eyes and hummed her approval, licking the slick pork fat from her lips. His chopsticks froze in midair, heat rapidly flushing through his muscles as he stared at her. Fortunately, he was saved by the congee cart and ordered her a bowl.

“You said before that you were from Virginia.” He picked up a har gow and dipped it into the red chili sauce on his plate.

She took a quick sip of tea. “Yeah, Virginia Beach. You grew up near the beach too, right?”

“Yes.” He said around his bite.

“Do you miss it?”

“Yes, but we are right on the water here too. Of course, it’s a little different than what you and I are both used to. It’s a bigger city, but there are beaches around the city and up and down the coast. I’ve been told that there’s a massive clambake over Fourth of July that CTSB hosts. Apparently, it puts the Christmas party to shame.”

Another cart brought them potstickers and steamed pork buns.

“I heard about that too. I’ve never been to a clambake.”

“Me neither.”

“Adventure eating!” she declared a bit too loudly with raised chopsticks.

A few of the businessmen glanced over, and they both dissolved into a fit of laughter, trying hard to compose themselves.

“I like how much you make me laugh,” he said when they caught their breaths.

The sound of the carts pushing on their steel wheels, many people talking in a variety of different languages, and the clicking of so many small round containers being placed on tables all drifted away to nothing as she said, “Me too.”

He mentally shook himself. “Is your family in Virginia?”

“Yeah, my parents and my sister. My mom and dad still live in the same house I was raised in, but my sister and her family live in the next city over. It’s kinda like here and the suburbs. They are all different cities, but only fifteen miles away from each other.”

Picking up another morsel, he asked, “Is your sister older or younger?”

“We’re identical twins.”

Glancing up, he found her watching him. “Really?”

She seemed to expect that reaction. He was sure that people found the fact that she had an identical twin fascinating, but likely not for the reasons that were flying through his mind. He didn’t think there could be any more beauty in the world, but the universe had made a carbon copy of hers. A blush of jealousy that her sister's husband already had the joy of calling someone like Emilie his own rushed through his body.

She nodded before taking up a spoonful of congee. “Do you have any siblings?”

“No, it was always just me.”

After swallowing, she asked, “Do your parents still live in North Carolina?”

He knew this question would be coming, and he was prepared for it. “My mom died of cancer when I was thirteen, and my dad died in May.”

She nearly choked on her second spoonful of soup. “This past May?” Placing her spoon down, she reached for his arm over the table. “I’m so . . .” She stopped. “I know there are no words.”

He swallowed against the tightness in his throat, allowing his head to hang heavy with a resigned exhale. The gentle weight of her hand on his forearm was more soothing than she would ever know. “Thank you.”

Her fingers wrapped and then squeezed his arm before releasing it. “Do you want to talk about it?”

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