CHLOE BAKER'S LOST DATE

Chapter Thirty-One: Dim Sum

"What was she like?"

I smile at my memories of her. "She was so fun. Like always in a good mood, I remember. Some people don't get along with their sisters, but we did. I'm glad about that."

"What's your best memory of her?"

"It's weird to say it, but that day. Right up until the end, it was this amazing day on the boat. Perfect weather. I got up on water skis for the first time. We had this awesome picnic. I remember thinking: this is a perfect day. Which is a weird thing for a little kid to think. Maybe I had a premonition." I shiver at the thought of it. I used to think that when I was kid, if I'd said something, I might've saved her. But that's silly. No one would've listened to me. And my feeling wasn't specific. Just a generalized feeling of contentment.

Maybe that's why I don't trust being happy. Because it means something bad's about to happen?

Jack plays with his chopsticks. "The day my Mom got diagnosed with MS, we'd gone to the park together. To the bridge. And we were standing there and she was telling me about meeting my dad for the first time or their date, maybe how he proposed, and she was so happy and lit up and I had a similar thought. Like, I am the luckiest kid. My mom is so great. And then she got this funny look on her face and her knees buckled. It turns out she'd been having symptoms for a while but brushed them off and that was her first attack."

"That sounds really scary."

"Yeah, it was." He stares at the dumpling on his plate. "Sometimes I used to think that I made it happen to her. Like somehow my thoughts had given it to her."

"Kids think stupid things sometimes."

"They do."

I squeeze his hand. "Tell me something funny you did as a kid. Something cute."

"I wet the bed until I was eight."

"Um..."

"Too much?"

"No. I like it that you feel comfortable enough with me to tell me something like that."

"Your turn."

"Hmmm. No bedwetting stories, but I did use to make up songs when I was a kid and sing them to other people."

"Interesting."

"Embarrassing, you mean."

"I think it's cute. Do you still sing?"

"Only in the shower."

"I'd love to hear it."

"You really wouldn't. You're a professional. I'm not your next act."

"No?"

A woman arrives with a new set of baskets. Fried squid and greens and some items I've never heard of. Ben fills up our table again with food.

If I keep dating this man, I'm going to have to start limiting how much I eat.

"Everything is delicious, Ben, thank you for bringing me here."

"Of course. I want to show you all the New York things."

"You really love it here, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. You don't?"

"There are things I love for sure. But this city can be a lot."

"It can be, I get that."

"You'd never want to live anywhere else?"

He puts some fried squid on his plate. "Why do you ask?"