Chapter six
Chapter Six
A couple of minutes later Mike walked into the office.
“What’s going on with Fang Boy?” he looked around and saw that Kathy was there as well as Vicky. She was looking at him with her eyebrow raised in question.
“Sorry didn’t realize Vicky wasn’t alone, just a friendly nick name for Henry.” He added quickly.
“Did you talk to him?” Vicky asked anxiously.
“Are you kidding? Do I look like I have a death wish? He had a look on his face that definitely said ‘leave me alone’. No one with a brain in their head would get within 10 feet of him. What’s going on Vic?”
“I’ll explain later. What are you doing here anyway?” she asked.
“We had a date for dinner, remember?” his tone said it was obvious that she didn’t.
“Was that tonight?” she asked innocently. Mike just nodded. “Oh well, silly me. Hey why don’t we all go?” she nodded her head at Kathy while looking at Mike.
“Would you mind? I’d really like a chance to get to know you better” Kathy asked as she smiled brightly at Mike.
“Yea, ok, that would be fine” Mike agreed with a puzzled look on his face. “Is Chinese ok? Or somewhere else?”
“Anyplace would be fine with me, as long as it’s quiet, so we can talk” Kathy put her arm around Mikes and they turned toward the door. After a few steps Vicky stopped.
“Oh geez I just remembered I have to get these papers filed. Coreen isn’t back yet and I have billing to do as well. Why don’t you two go on ahead and if I get this done in time I’ll meet you. Ming Dragon right?” She smiled sweetly at Mike and he returned her look with one of his own, one that said ‘What the hell are you doing?’
But he just said “Fine, call me later if you want to talk.” Translation “You’d better have a good excuse for this”. Then he and Kathy left.
When she was alone Vicky thought back to earlier in the day when she’d had a chance to talk with Kathy herself.
“You know you are a very confusing person Kathy. With me you were very businesslike and professional, with Mike shy, polite and almost careful. Why the difference?”
“When you live a long time you learn to adapt to your surroundings, time, people and customs. Sometimes it gets to be a pain and you just react. When I first met you it was as a potential client, and I felt that is how best to approach you. With Mike I wanted to make a good first impression and believe it or not I was very nervous. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. I talk to my family differently than I did the cops I worked with, and differently still with those I’m really comfortable with.” Vicky agreed.
“When I was small the way you spoke depended a lot on who you spoke too. And it was as much a part of you as how you walked, behaved etc. Now things are much more relaxed, casual. But old habits die hard and sometimes they just blend.”
“When did you grow up?” Vicky asked.
“Oh look at the time, I must fly. I have an appointment I can’t miss. We’ll have to finish this later. Ok?” then Kathy hurriedly left the office.
Now Vicky wondered if the reason for the hasty retreat was due to the fact that Kathy didn’t want her to know she was related to Henry, at least until they met face to face.
“Looks like it’s time to dig out the old history books” Vicky said to herself.