Crazy Rich Asians (5 page)

It would be just after dinnertime in Cupertino, and on the nights she wasn’t at Nick’s,
it became Rachel’s habit to call her mother right as she was getting into bed.

“Guess who just closed the deal on the big house on Laurel Glen Drive?” Kerry Chu
boasted excitedly in Mandarin as soon as she picked up the phone.

“Wow, Mom, congratulations! Isn’t that your third sale this month?” Rachel asked.

“Yes! I broke last year’s office record! You see, I
knew
I made the right decision to join Mimi Shen at the Los Altos office,” Kerry said
with satisfaction.

“You’re going to make Realtor of the Year again, I just know it,” Rachel replied,
re-fluffing the pillow under her head. “Well, I have some exciting news too … Nick
invited me to come with him to Asia this summer.”

“He
did
?” Kerry remarked, her voice lowering an octave.

“Mom, don’t start getting any ideas,” Rachel warned, knowing that tone of her mother’s
so well.

“Hiyah! What ideas? When you brought Nick home last Thanksgiving, everyone who saw
you two lovebirds together said you were perfect for each other. Now it’s his turn
to introduce you to his family.
Do you think he’s going to propose?” Kerry gushed, unable to contain herself.

“Mom, we’ve never once talked about marriage,” Rachel said, trying to downplay it.
As excited as she was about all the possibilities that hung over the trip, she wasn’t
going to encourage her mom for the time being. Her mother was already far too invested
in her happiness, and she didn’t want to get her hopes up … too much.

Still, Kerry was brimming with anticipation. “Daughter, I know men like Nick. He can
act the bohemian scholar all he wants, but I know deep down he is the marrying kind.
He wants to settle down and have many children, so there is no more time to waste.”

“Mom, just stop!”

“Besides, how many nights a week do you already spend at his place? I’m shocked you
two haven’t moved in together yet.”

“You’re the only Chinese mom I know who’s actually encouraging her daughter to shack
up with a guy.” Rachel laughed.

“I’m the only Chinese mother with an unmarried daughter who’s almost thirty! Do you
know all the inquiries I get almost every day? I’m getting tired of defending you.
Why, even yesterday, I ran into Min Chung at Peet’s Coffee. ‘I know you wanted your
daughter to get her career established first, but isn’t it time that girl got married?’
she asked. You know her daughter Jessica is engaged to the number-seven guy at Facebook,
right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the whole story. Instead of an engagement ring, he endowed
a scholarship in her name at Stanford,” Rachel said in a bored tone.

“And she’s nowhere as pretty as you,” Kerry said indignantly. “All your uncles and
aunties gave up on you a long time ago, but I always knew you were waiting for the
right one. Of course, you had to choose a professor just like yourself. At least your
children will get a discount on tuition—that’s the only way the two of you can afford
to put them through college.”

“Speaking of uncles and aunties, promise me you won’t go telling everyone right away.
Please?” Rachel pleaded.

“Hiyah! Okay, okay. I know you are always so cautious, and you don’t want to be disappointed,
but I just know in my heart what’s going to happen,” her mother said merrily.

“Well, until
something
happens, there’s no point making a big deal out of it,” Rachel insisted.

“So where will you be staying in Singapore?”

“At his parents’ place, I guess.”

“Do they live in a house or an apartment?” Kerry asked.

“I have no idea.”

“You must find out these things!”

“Why does it matter? Are you going to try to sell them a house in Singapore?”

“I’ll tell you why it matters—do you know what the sleeping arrangements will be?”

“Sleeping arrangements? What are you talking about, Mom?”

“Hiyah, do you know if you will be in a guest bedroom or sharing a bed with him?”

“It never occurred to me—”

“Daughter, that is the most important thing. You mustn’t assume that Nick’s parents
are going to be as liberal-minded as I am. You are going to Singapore, and those Chinese
Singaporeans are the most uptight of all the Chinese, you know! I don’t want his parents
to think I didn’t raise you properly.”

Rachel sighed. She knew her mother meant well, but as usual she had managed to stress
her out about details Rachel never would have imagined.

“Now, we must plan what you will bring as a present for Nick’s parents,” Kerry continued
eagerly. “Find out what Nick’s father likes to drink. Scotch? Vodka? Whiskey? I have
so many spare bottles of Johnny Walker Red left over from the office Christmas party,
I can send you one.”

“Mom, I’m not going to cart over a bottle of booze that they can get there. Let me
think of the perfect present to bring them
from America
.”

“Oh, I know just the thing for Nick’s mother! You should go to Macy’s and buy her
one of those pretty gold powder compacts from Esteé Lauder. They are having a special
offer right now, and it comes with a free gift—an expensive-looking leather pouch
with lipstick and perfume and eye-cream samples. Trust me, every Asian woman loves
those free gifts—”

“Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll take care of it.”

Nicholas Young

Nick was slouched on his battered leather sofa grading term papers when Rachel casually
brought it up. “So … what’s the story when we’re staying at your parents’ place? Are
we sharing a bedroom, or would they be scandalized?”

Nick cocked his head. “Hmm. I suppose we’ll be in the same room—”

“You
suppose
or you know?”

“Don’t worry, once we arrive everything will get sorted.”

Get sorted
. Normally Rachel found Nick’s Britishy phrases so charming, but in this instance
it was a tad frustrating. Sensing her unease, Nick got up, walked over to where she
was sitting, and kissed the top of her head tenderly. “Relax—my parents aren’t the
kind of people who pay any attention to sleeping arrangements.”

Rachel wondered if that was really true. She tried to go back to reading the State
Department’s Southeast Asia travel advisory website. As she sat there in the glow
of the laptop, Nick couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful his girlfriend looked
even at the end of a long day. How did he get so lucky? Everything about her—from
the dewy just-back-from-a-morning-run-on-the-beach complexion to the obsidian-black
hair that stopped just short of her collarbone—conveyed a natural, uncomplicated beauty
so different from the red-carpet-ready girls he had grown up around.

Now Rachel was absentmindedly rubbing her index finger back and forth over her upper
lip, her brow slightly furrowed. Nick knew that gesture well. What was she worrying
about? Ever since he had invited Rachel to Asia a few days ago, the questions had
been piling on steadily. Where were they staying? What gift should she bring for his
parents? What had Nick told them about her? Nick wished he could stop that brilliant
analytical mind of hers from overthinking every aspect of the trip. He was beginning
to see that Astrid had been right. Astrid was not only his cousin, she was his closest
female confidant, and he had first fielded the idea of inviting Rachel to Singapore
during their phone conversation a week ago.

“First of all, you know you’ll be instantly escalating things to the next level, don’t
you? Is this what you really want?” Astrid asked point-blank.

“No. Well … maybe. This is just a summer holiday.”

“Come on, Nicky, this is not ‘just a summer holiday.’ That’s not how women think,
and you know it. You’ve been dating seriously for almost two years now. You’re thirty-two,
and up till now you have
never
brought anyone home. This
is
major. Everyone is going to assume that you’re going to—”

“Please,” Nick warned, “don’t say the m-word.”

“See—you know that is
precisely
what will be on everyone’s mind. Most of all, I can guarantee you it’s on Rachel’s
mind.”

Nick sighed. Why did everything have to be so fraught with significance? This always
happened whenever he sought the female perspective. Maybe calling Astrid was a bad
idea. She was older than him by just six months, but sometimes she slipped into big-sister
mode too much. He preferred the capricious, devil-may-care side of Astrid. “I just
want to show Rachel my part of the world, that’s all, no strings attached,” he tried
to explain. “And I guess part of me wants to see how she’ll react to it.”

“By ‘it’ you mean our family,” Astrid said.

“No, not just our family. My friends, the island, everything. Can’t I go on holiday
with my girlfriend without it becoming a diplomatic incident?”

Astrid paused for a moment, trying to assess the situation. This was the most serious
her cousin had ever gotten with anyone. Even if he wasn’t ready to admit it to himself,
she knew that on a subconscious level, at least, he was taking the next crucial step
on the way to
the altar. But that step needed to be handled with extreme care. Was Nicky truly prepared
for all the land mines he would be setting off? He could be rather oblivious to the
intricacies of the world he had been born into. Maybe he had always been shielded
by their grandmother, since he was the apple of her eye. Or maybe Nick had just spent
too many years living outside of Asia. In their world, you
did not
bring home some unknown girl unannounced.

“You know I think Rachel is lovely. I really do. But if you invite her to come home
with you, it
will
change things between you, whether you like it or not. Now, I’m not concerned about
whether your relationship can handle it—I know it can. My worry is more about how
everyone else is going to react. You know how small the island is. You know how things
can get with …” Astrid’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the staccato scream of
a police siren.

“That was a strange noise. Where are you right now?” Nick asked.

“I’m on the street,” Astrid replied.

“In Singapore?”

“No, in Paris.”

“What? Paris?” Nick was confused.

“Yep, I’m on rue de Berri, and two police cars just whizzed by.”

“I thought you were in Singapore. Sorry for calling so late—I thought it was morning
for you.”

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s only one thirty. I’m just walking back to the hotel.”

“Is Michael with you?”

“No, he’s in China for work.”

“What are you up to in Paris?”

“Just my annual spring trip, you know.”

“Oh, right.” Nick remembered that Astrid spent every April in Paris for her couture
fittings. He had met her in Paris once before, and he could still recall the fascination
and tedium he felt sitting in the Yves Saint Laurent atelier on avenue Marceau, watching
three seamstresses buzz around Astrid as she stood Zen-like, swathed in an airy confection
for what seemed like ten hours, guzzling down Diet Cokes to fight off her jet lag.
She looked to him like a figure from a baroque painting, a Spanish
infanta
submitting to an archaic costuming ritual straight out of the seventeenth century.
(It was a “particularly uninspired season,” Astrid had told him, and she was
buying “only” twelve pieces that spring, spending well over a million euros.) Nick
didn’t even want to imagine how much money she must be blowing on
this
trip with no one there to rein her in.

“I miss Paris. It’s been ages since I’ve been. Remember our crazy trip there with
Eddie?” he said.

“Aiyoh, please don’t remind me! That’s the last time I ever share a suite with that
rascal!” Astrid shuddered, thinking she would never be able to erase the image of
her Hong Kong cousin with that amputee stripper and those profiteroles.

“Are you staying in the Penthouse at the George V?”

“As always.”

“You’re such a creature of habit. It would be super-easy to assassinate you.”

“Why don’t you try?”

“Well, next time you’re in Paris, let me know. I might just surprise you and hop the
pond with my special assassin’s kit.”

“Are you going to knock me out, put me in a bathtub, and pour acid all over me?”

“No, for you there will be a far more elegant solution.”

“Well, come and get me. I’ll be here till early May. Don’t you get some sort of spring
break soon? Why not bring Rachel to Paris for a long weekend?”

“Wish I could. Spring break was last month, and we interim-adjunct-sub-associate professors
don’t get any extra vacation days. But Rachel and I have the whole summer off, which
is why I want her to come home with me.”

Astrid sighed. “You know what will happen the minute you land at Changi Airport with
this girl on your arm, don’t you? You know how brutal it was for Michael when we first
started going out publicly. That was five years ago, and he’s still getting used to
it. Do you really think Rachel is ready for all that? Are
you
ready for it?”