Serena met with Jacob for dinner after work. The spontaneous streak in her still ran strong, and today it brought her to a restaurant. Sporting the Cheong-Sam, and wearing make-up that hid her skin age, she arrived at said restaurant.
He was sporting a suit smart enough for a dance, and his hair. solidified with gel, stood straight up. They locked eyes, stunned for a second, before finding their voice again. He called her beautiful. She called him charming.
The waiter served them a complimentary plate of peanuts and a cup of tea, which Alicia would’ve devoured if she were here. But she wasn’t, so Serena had it all to herself. The salt and oil from the peanuts chilled her hands under the air-conditioner.
Without hesitation, Jacob offered his jacket and wrapped it around her.
He shared his latest adventure out cycling: A chicken sat on his bicycle, and he tried to shoo it away by throwing leaves at it. The chicken talked back like a bratty teen, reminding him of its beak and claws. In fear of being pecked, he switched tactics and lured it away with food.
He lost five dollars to a chicken.
This story had them laughing as loudly as etiquette allowed.
Serena shared her adventure in baking, and the trial-and-error she went through to perfect her cheesecake. It wasn’t as interesting. What interested them more was the list of pastries she wished to bake. Every time she conducted research, that list grew. Jacob offered to be her taste-tester, which Serena exposed as a coy attempt to score free dessert. She caught him red-handed.
After dinner, they took a walk along a nearby park. Even at this hour, people were still cycling and rollerskating.
Jacob shared the first time he tried rollerskating, where he fell into muddy grass and swore to never touch it again. Serena chuckled, mentioning the courage she lacked to even try.
She wasn’t sure why, but this throwaway banter somehow signalled to them it was time to kiss. So they did. The memory of her last kiss, however, threw a wet blanket on this otherwise romantic moment, and left a sting in her stomach where butterflies should’ve been.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“Huh?” She didn’t realise how wet her eyes got. “Nothing, just… ah, nothing. Forget about it.”
“Are you remembering some of your bad experiences?”
Her silence answered his question.
“May I ask what happened?”
She considered it, but, “No.”
The spontaneous streak led her to spend the night at his place. This was a step too far. Next morning, she rejected his offer for breakfast and ran home. Thank goodness the girl had enough independence to send herself to school and make breakfast, but not to wash her cutlery.
Her scars were crying wolf. Jacob was one in sheep’s clothing. If she believed him, she would fall for his trap and get eaten. She will hate herself for repeating history and blame herself for the next two decades. She will regret ever dare dreaming of having anything more than a retail job and a bratty daughter.
This degree of kindness was impossible for Fate. It was too good to be true; history taught her that. Fate was many things, but it was not inconsistent.
And this wasn’t even addressing the elephant in the room: Alicia.
It took a day of radio silence to compose herself. To make it up to him (and keep the can of worms that were her emotions a secret), she accepted his job application as a taste-tester, and let him try her chocolate cake. In his words, it was like “drinking maple syrup”. Too thick and too sweet. She noted that on her phone and made mental edits to the recipe. This time around, they watched a movie with their heads resting on each other.
It took another week to announce him to the world. Gen teased her, comparing them to the lead couple in the drama she watched; she ignored this. Kelly encouraged her, reflecting her own experiences and giving advice on what made a successful relationship; she had heard it all before. Cheryl approved this, glad that she now had an extra pair of hands to manage Alicia; she absorbed this in her chest.
Wei Xiang gave a smile of a proud father. “Let him in, Serena. He is not him.”
“But what if he is?”
“That would count as a code red.”
She hugged him and restocked her painkillers.
It took yet another week to introduce him to Alicia. The plan was to invite him over for lunch and spend the afternoon baking a chocolate cake together. Kill two birds with one stone. She gave Alicia notice three days before, who, as expected, gave the cold shoulder.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Jacob came ten minutes early, thwarting Serena’s plan to have Alicia greet him by the door. She rushed the girl off the couch and away from the TV to compensate, and gave a final reminder on displaying manners. Jacob, meanwhile, took in their humble home, which was much worse off than his.
“Alicia, this is Jacob. Jacob, this is my daughter, Alicia.” She gestured to them both.
Nothing.
“Hi!” Jacob waved.
Nothing.
“Ahem! We have a guest in the house!” Serena raised her voice.
Alicia got up.
“You’re not allowed to lock yourself in your room this time. It’s rude. Come introduce yourself.”
An insufferable eye-roll came from the girl. She spoke as if skim-reading a boring textbook, “Hi my name is Alicia, your hair looks nice.” She yanked his hand and shook it.
“Sorry. She’s in a bad mood.” Serena hid her face on his shoulder.
“It’s okay. I understand.”
Serena called everyone to the kitchen for a briefing. Today, they were going to make chocolate cake. She went through the recipe step by step, then assigned everyone a role. Jacob was in charge of making the batter, Alicia was in charge of frosting and toppings, and she was in charge of supervising them both.
Jacob did his job the best he could, trying and failing to stop himself from dipping his fingers in the batter for a taste. Serena protested this, and his counter-argument was to feed her a taste too. It worked.
Alicia stood at the back, eyes glued to her phone while she waited for her turn.
Serena called the girl here, and gave her a taste. Alicia licked it, and commented it was, “Nice.” , then got back on her phone. No further elaboration, no requests for seconds.
Bad start. Serena needed to break the ice between them. She tried enticing the girl by sharing Jacob’s favourite wonton noodle place. According to him, the cooking could rival their Malaysian counterpart. It got the girl to talk, but her phone stayed up.
“What’s the address?”
“I can bring you there,” Serena said in a playful voice.
“Kat can bring me.”
“Tsk! Didn’t I tell you to stop hanging out with her? She’s a bad influence!”
Another eye-roll.
“Stop rolling your eyes at me! Especially in front of a guest.”
Jacob brought her back right before she disappeared into anger.
“It’s in Chinatown.” He said.
They finished the batter and passed it to the girl. It was Alicia’s turn. Similar to the cookies, the girl went overboard with the chocolate chips, covering every inch of it in brown. Serena had to stop her before it ruined the entire cake, but she was glad it kept Alicia engaged. It seemed the magnetism of good pastry overpowered her stubborness.
Serena placed it in the oven, and Alicia sat way too close to it while gaming.
“Don’t stare at it, come to the living room and chat.”
Alicia did not budge.
“Alicia! Not in front of a guest!” She leaned in and whispered, “Do you want him to think there’s something wrong with you?”
Alicia turned her body away.
Jacob waited for them at the couch, searching the channels for a good show to put on. Serena couldn’t keep him waiting for long before he grew suspicious, and if he saw Alicia like this…
Since Alicia’s eyes were also on her phone, Serena could play it off as a gaming addiction. Or, she could say she tasked the girl to watch the cookies, and play this off as her obedience.
Jacob came to check on them. She went with the gaming addiction excuse.
After Jacob left, she dragged the girl into her room, and demanded they end this cold war. It was unbecoming of a family, her family, to behave like this.
“We are going to have a proper conversation. Now!” She crossed her arms. “What do you think about Jacob?”
Alicia turned away.
“Enough of this nonsense! We are going to talk with each other like how normal parents talk to their children!” She turned Alicia back around. “Explain yourself.”
Nothing.
“I’m not doing this, Alicia. I’m sick of it. This is the last time we will ever deal with this. If you still wanna be stubborn, then I give up. Either we talk now, or we will never talk again.”
She saw a slight flinch from Alicia.
“I won’t ask about your O’Levels. I won’t remind you to study, or brush your teeth, or anything. We’ll just do our own things and not bother each other. Sounds good?”
Alicia looked at her for a split second.
“What do you want me to say?” Serena knew what Alicia wanted her to say. Alicia wanted her to apologise for the Motel 91 incident. Simple as that. But Serena couldn’t do it.
Every time the words came to mind, a visceral reaction followed, where every fibre in her body worked in harmony to block those words, those thoughtcrimes, from ever coming out.
Because why should she? She was the mother. The parent. The leader. Since day one, everything she did was for Alicia, and nothing else. That night, she gave up sleep, endured the migraines and aching bones just to set Alicia on the straight path.
It wasn’t wrong. It was noble. It simply went awry. If Alicia didn’t run, she would have nothing to apologise for. But because of the girl’s foolishness, she had to get on her knees and beg the emperor for forgiveness?
She had to apologise for her foolishness?
Fine. If it’ll get her to talk again.
“Fine. I’ll say it.” She gritted teeth, balled fists. “I’m sorry for bringing you to Motel 91 and… ditching you there with the junkies. I was wrong.” Each deep breath made the apology easier to vomit out. “I promise I won’t do anything reckless or drastic like that again, okay?”
Alicia looked at her, or rather in her general direction. She seemed to undergo the same struggle of forcing words out of her mouth.
“Jacob is nice.” She said, “He’s…nice.”
Serena hugged her, letting out a breath she held for a month.
The cold war had ended.