The Mathematics of Love ✔

Chapter 28

"Oh, what a cool but entirely irrelevant comment," I interrupted, dropping about the most obvious hint to my clueless brother.

Kevin threw me an odd look. "Irrelevant?"

I stomped on his foot and jerked my head toward Vanessa.

"Ow! What--oh." Clearing his throat, Kevin adjusted his necktie for the five hundredth time that evening and turned toward Vanessa, who was still keeping her head down. "Nessa, you look really pretty."

At this, she blushed beet-red. "Thanks. You look...handsome."

"More than usual, you mean?"

"Yes. Usually you look like something plucked out of a trash bin." The insult seemed to topple out of Vanessa's mouth before she could stop it. She smiled slightly. And with that, the odd tension was broken.

Mom and Dad took their spots next to Alexander, which caused him to stiffen like a marionette that had just had its strings cut. His expression snapped instantly to one of alertness and alarm.

"Mr. and Mrs. Pang." He addressed my parents in Chinese, which caused Mom and Dad to smile in spite of themselves, Kevin to roll his eyes, and Vanessa to look very confused.

Alexander was careful to compliment their dress and restaurant choice. The picture of charm and politeness, as always. As the waiter came around to take our orders, Alexander more or less carried the whole conversation and saved us from all the awkwardness I'd been anticipating.

Mom smiled fondly at him. "You impressed us with your piano playing last night. We had no idea you would be in the show!"

"Believe me, neither did I," Alexander admitted. "It was an emergency."

Dad's eyes rolled up to the ceiling. "Of course Kevin would have an emergency on his big night."

Kevin said, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Mom subtly smacked Dad under the table. "How kind and mature of you to step in, Alexander! And Kevin--your father is just saying stupid things."

"Stupid things?" Dad repeated, outraged.

"He was very impressed with you last night. We all were. Very, very impressed. Weren't you, dear?"

"Not very, very. One very, perhaps."

Mom stomped on Dad's foot again, her smile still intact.

"Ow! Yes--um--very, very impressive. Two very's."

Kevin's expression shifted oddly as he seemed to fight with himself over whether or not he should smile. In the end, a huge grin broke out across his face. Getting any kind of non-insult from Dad was near impossible. Getting an actual compliment, straight from the horse's mouth, was unheard of. "Thanks, Dad."

Dad cleared his throat gruffly. "Whatever. So this, uh, band--where are you planning to play next?"

As Kevin launched into detail about a potential tour and other gigs KevNCrew had lined up, our food began to arrive. This provided the perfect distraction so that I didn't have to think about Alexander sitting right next to me, probably carrying certain expectations of me. I'd ordered a simple spaghetti and meatballs. Although the dish was warm and smelled heavenly, I found I had no appetite.

"Not hungry?"

I looked up at Alexander, met his dark, concerned eyes, and immediately looked away again. God, I was pathetic. My palms were sweating. I rubbed them against my legs and swallowed hard. "No, I just...I..." C'mon, Nancy, you can do this. It's like ripping off a bandaid. I squeezed my eyes shut.