His Convenient New York Bride. Andrea Bolter

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       CHAPTER TWO

      “CAN I TAKE a shower, please?” Mimi poked her head into her brother’s bedroom. It was inconvenient that she had to go past his bed in order to get to the bathroom but that was the price paid for camping out on his sofa bed while she was unemployed.

      “Gaaaaah…” was Aaron’s half-awake reply as he rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head. “Get. A. Job.”

      “Working on it, bro.”

      As she showered and dressed, she knew she was at the point of overstaying her welcome. Aaron’s place was, plain and simple, a compact New York apartment meant only for one person or a couple at most. Minimalist and sleek with black furniture, it was perfectly detailed for the up-and-coming lords of Wall Street such as her brother.

      Aaron had offered to lend her money to get her own place when she broke up with Gunnar and moved out from the apartment she shared with him. But a junior designer didn’t command a very big salary and she didn’t know how she’d pay her brother back. She knew he’d absorb the cost if he had to, but she also knew that he was saving money to buy an apartment rather than continuing to lease, and she didn’t want to derail his plans.

      After showering, she made breakfast.

      “You interviewing again today?” Aaron asked when he emerged clean and suited up for his workday.

      “Yep.”

      “Maybe you’ll get this one.”

      “We’ll see if Gunnar has managed to ace me out of yet another job.” Mimi shrugged as she portioned out the eggs she’d just scrambled, handing one plate to Aaron.

      He went to sit down at the table but there was nowhere to put his dish. The surface was piled high with everything from Mimi’s sketch pads to her electronics to her sewing machine. She rushed over to make room, stacking things on one of the chairs and the sofa bed. “Sorry.”

      The coffee table had been moved aside in order to open the sofa bed, which was not yet folded up for the day. Mimi’s clothes and shoes and whatnot were also spilling out of two suitcases in the middle of the floor. There were fabric swatches and sewing tools everywhere, and even a pair of slippers on the end table. In short, Mimi’s life lay in front of them.

      “Honestly, Mimi, I don’t know how much longer I can live like this. You know, Jin asked me again if you’d want to stay with him. He’s got the huge flat all to himself now and there’s plenty of room.”

      “No, I, no…” Mimi tripped over her words.

      It was true that the whole third floor of Jin’s Chinatown building was living space. The showroom was at street level and the second floor was the studio. Shun had bought the building when he’d started to make some money with LilyZ and it had never been occupied by anyone other than the Zhang family ever since.

      When Bai finally couldn’t stand Wei’s disrespectful ways one minute longer and divorced him, she moved to the Upper East Side to be near her sister. No one knew where Wei had stayed before he died. Jin had lived in the Chinatown flat by himself until Helene moved in, and was now alone there again.

      However, Mimi staying with Jin would be intolerable. How could she ever tell him or her brother that just the proximity she typically had with Jin was, and always had been, enough of a struggle? Seeing him several times a week, sharing meals, hovering together over a garment, confiding their joys and sorrows.

      Feeling his sparks.

      It was all already too much.

      If Jin was behind her in a room, even if she didn’t see him she’d know he was there. She could recognize the sound of his breathing. Knew what size shirt he wore. His favorite movie. Song. Flavor of ice cream.

      But while they’d shared cottages in the woods and summer beach shacks, moving into his flat would be another matter entirely. Going to sleep under the same roof, waking up to each other day after day, night after night.

      That would be skidding too close to thoughts that were only allowed out in the wee hours.

      Aaron and Mimi finally sat down at the cleared table with their breakfast. Changing the subject, she reminisced, “Remember how Dad used to snip fresh chives onto eggs?”

      “I like that you always put cheese in them. But yeah, he’d bring the little potted plant from the windowsill over to the table.”

      The siblings had grown up in a happy home full of warmth. Delia and Benjamin Stewart walked arm in arm together down the street just as they did through everything in their lives.

      Until the death do СКАЧАТЬ