Page 45 of Paint Eater
“Oh shit, it’s your boy,” a slim Asian woman cooed, hair long and pulled back.
“Oh, that’s him?” a massive guy said, grinning in a downright disconcerting way.
“Who? Oh! Ooooh is that him?” yet another person asked, their hair long and bright red.
Jay was flushing hard between them, throwing them a glare. “Can you guys be cool? Jesus.”
They could not, in fact, be cool, judging by how they spilt into the waiting area and introduced themselves. Logan nodded, shaking one hand, fist-bumping another, returning a hug.
“We were wondering who was distracting Jay during work. You’ve put his head in theclouds, man,” Georgie, the one with red hair, said as the rest nodded.
Jay pushed everybody away, planting himself between them and Logan. “Guys! Damn, are you serious? Chill.”
There was a still moment as Jay and his co-workers seemed to communicate silently.
At last, Hana looked at Logan, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry. It’s good to meet you, dude. Don’t worry, Jay hasn’t been, like, talking about you non-stop or anything, it’s just that he doesn’t bring many friends around.”
“Yeah,” agreed Georgie. “We barely get to meet his…friends.”
Jay rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to retort, but at that, an older Korean woman stepped into the room. Her arms and neck were bare and covered in tattoos, hair short.
“You three, finish cleaning your stations,” she ordered. Despite her stern voice, the three of them smiled, shrugging and waving at Logan.
“Yes, ma’am,” T-cup said, clicking their heels together and saluting.
“It was nice meeting you,” Hana said to Logan, followed by the other two as they filed out.
“Urgh,” Jay complained. “Thanks, Sunja.”
Sunja nodded at him, a small smile on her face, before turning her piercing eyes on Logan. “You must be Logan.”
“Yes. Nice to meet you.” He could tell he was using his stuffy dinner party voice, but he couldn’t help himself. He felt like he was meeting Jay’s other parent, and even though Logan knew none of this was permanent, he wanted to make a good impression.
Sunja introduced herself, smiling. Instead of comforting, he couldn’t help but think that the expression had a sharp edge to it.
Jay seemed at ease, though, so maybe it was normal. “I wanted him to see the shop,” Jay said, grinning.
Sunja nodded, still looking at Logan. “You two have been hanging out a lot, huh?”
Logan glanced at Jay. “Yes.” He tried to think of something else to say but couldn’t come up with a single thing.
“Sofia mentioned you.”
Logan felt himself go cold. He had the strange urge to apologise even though Sunja didn’t sound disapproving.
Jay nodded. “Mom loves him.”
“She did seem impressed. You studying business?”
Logan nodded.
“Well, if you ever need help from a small-business owner, I’m happy to help.”
Logan felt guilt curdle in his stomach. He wouldn’t know her long enough for that. “Thank you.”
Jay looked surprised. “Hey, why are you being so nice to him? You weren’t like that with me when I first started working with you,” he complained.
Sunja raised her eyebrows at him. “I’m not trying to fixhissloppy lining.”
