“Have a safe flight tomorrow.” Farrah’s mom’s voice crackled over the line. “Message me when you land.”
“I will.” Farrah stuffed another bikini into the crevice of her bulging suitcase. Six swimsuits for one week should be enough, right? “Do you want anything special from Thailand?”
“No. I’m trying minimalism,” Cheryl Lau decided. She’d kept her maiden name even after she married Farrah’s dad, which turned out to be a fortuitous choice, given how that relationship turned out. “I’m doing a big spring cleaning this weekend.”
“Mom, it’s October.”
“You know what I mean.” Farrah could practically hear her mom waving a dismissive hand in the air. “Anyway, I have to go. I’m going ballroom dancing tonight at Blue Coast.”
“Ok. Have fun. Talk to you later.”
“Talk to you later. Remember, message me!”
Farrah hung up and tossed the phone on the bed, where it landed with a thump next to Olivia.
“You and your mom are so cute.” Olivia sounded envious. “All my mom ever asks me is what my grades are and whether I’ve heard back from my internship yet.”
Farrah cocked her head. “When do you hear about your internship?”
“Four to six weeks.” Olivia jiggled her foot. “They review applications on a rolling basis.”
“You’ll get it.” Farrah squeezed in one last bikini—just to be safe—and flipped down the lid. “Help?”
Olivia hopped off Farrah’s bed and sat on the suitcase while Farrah struggled to zip it up.
“It’s one of the most prestigious internships in finance,” Olivia said. “CB Lippmann accepts ten interns every summer. Ten! Do you know how many people apply? Ten thousand. That’s a 0.001% acceptance rate.”
“I doubt ten thousand people apply every year.” Farrah tugged on the zipper, praying it won’t break. Sweat broke out on her forehead. Forget the gym. Packing was a whole workout unto itself.
“Fine, that may be an exaggeration, but there are at least a thousand applicants. That’s still an infinitesimal acceptance rate.”
“You are the smartest, most hardworking person I know. If you don’t get it, the game’s rigged.”
“Babe, this is Wall Street. Of course the game’s rigged.”
The zipper gave way without warning. The unexpected force knocked Farrah on her ass. “Shit!”
Olivia burst into laughter. She stood up and grabbed Farrah’s hand, hauling her off the floor.
“I was waiting for that to happen.”
“Thanks a lot.” Farrah pushed her carry-on into a standing position. Oof. “This is probably over the weight limit.”
Olivia nudged the case with her foot. It didn’t budge. “It’s definitely over the weight limit.”
“I hope the airline doesn’t check.” It was a risk, but Farrah sure as hell wasn’t going to repack. It was close to midnight, and their flight left at eight tomorrow morning.
“Speaking of summer internships, how’s your portfolio going? It’s due in January, right?”
Olivia reclaimed her seat on Farrah’s bed. Farrah had replaced the lumpy white comforter with a pretty pink one she found at a local market. Add pink, white, and gray velvet throw pillows, a framed sketch on the wall, and two tiny succulents on the nightstand, and the place looked a lot more inviting.
Her roommate Janice kept the original bedding and didn’t decorate at all. Looking at the two sides of their room was like looking at a before and after picture.
Farrah itched to do something about Janice’s bare walls, but a) Janice was never there for her to bring it up, and b) she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries.
She’ll have to make do with half a decorated room.
“Yeah. I’m making progress.” Farrah was close to completing her second design, a restaurant inspired by the stark, contemporary lines and splashes of bright color she’d seen at M50. She’ll need to tweak it, but at least she knew what she was doing. She had no idea what to do for the third design.
“Must be all the gallery hopping last weekend,” Olivia quipped. “Alone time is good for the soul.”
Farrah coughed. “Right. Alone time.”
She hadn’t told her friends about her excursion with Blake. It wasn’t like they went on a date. It wasn’t worth bringing up.
Her discomfort didn’t go unnoticed.
Olivia narrowed her eyes. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.” Farrah swiped her sketchbook from her desk. “Hey, wanna look at my designs and tell me what you think?”
“Yes, after you tell me what you’re hiding. Oh my god, did you meet someone last weekend?” Olivia clutched Farrah’s arm, her eyes wide with excitement. “Are you having a secret affair?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m with you guys all the time. The logistics wouldn’t work.”
“You weren’t with us Sunday.”
Farrah sighed. Once Olivia got an idea in her head, she was like a pit bull with a bone. “Fine. If you must know, I ran into Blake on my way out and, on the spur of the moment—meaning it wasn’t planned—I asked him to join me. We went to a few galleries and came back. The end.”
Olivia’s grip tightened. “You’re having a secret affair with Blake Ryan!”
“I am not!” Farrah wrenched her arm away and shook it out. “Jesus, you cut off my circulation.”
“Don’t change the subject. You spent an entire day with Blake and didn’t tell us about it. Why?” Olivia wiggled her eyebrows. “What naughty things did you get up to?”
“None. You read too many erotica novels.”
For someone so status-driven, Olivia was surprisingly open about her less-than-highbrow reading habits.
“They’re great inspiration. Sammy has no complaints.”
Farrah wrinkled her nose. “Ew. TMI.”
Waaaay too much information.
As she’d expected, Olivia caved and hooked up with Sammy at 808 earlier that week. They’d gone on their first date the next night and were fast becoming one of FEA’s most nauseatingly cute couples.
Farrah was thrilled (the 100 kuai she received for winning the group’s bet on when Olivia and Sammy would get together was a bonus), but their relationship also reminded her of the utter lack of romance in her own life.
“Once again, changing the subject. I know he’s not your ‘type’—” Olivia placed the word in air quotes. “But maybe that’s a good thing. Leo’s your type, but he’s taken. Are you still into him?”
“Who, Blake?”
“Leo!”
“Uh.” Farrah pictured Leo’s curly dark hair and easy smile. As usual, her stomach fluttered at the mental image, though the sensation was more muted than usual. “I’m getting over it.”
“That means you’re not over it, which means you need to get over it, because we have a whole school year ahead of us. You’re young, hot, and single in Shanghai. You can have any guy you want except, you know, Leo. As your friend, I’m obligated to make sure you don’t spend your time here moping over unrequited love.”
“Come on. I have other things going on in my life.”
“Yeah, but you still think about him all the time. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Farrah fiddled with the binder rings on her sketchbook.
“That’s what I thought. Now, you know what they say. The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. In this case, that ‘someone else’ is a Greek god lookalike whose name rhymes with Jake Bryan.”
“Not going to happen.”
Olivia let out an exasperated huff. “I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn. The boy is HOT. Capital H, capital O, capital T. Have you seen his abs?”
“No.” Farrah raised her eyebrows. “Have you?”
Olivia’s cheeks colored. “I may have snuck a tiny peek when I saw him coming out of the shower on my way to Sammy’s room.”
Farrah’s eyebrows arched higher.
“Stop. I went to return Sammy’s pen. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, Blake is the perfect person to help you get over Leo.”
“He’s cute, but he’s so—’ Farrah searched for the right word. “Cocky.”
“Mmm. I bet he is.”
“Olivia!” It was Farrah’s turn to flush red.
Olivia laughed. “Look, you said you’re not waiting for The One to lose your virginity to. It’s probably better that way. Less pressure. And since we’re in Shanghai, what better way to lose your virginity and get over Leo than by hooking up with a hot guy who knows what he’s doing? Because trust me, Blake looks like he knows what he’s doing.”
On paper, it made sense. Farrah was physically attracted to Blake. She even enjoyed hanging out with him (most of the time).
But Blake thought romance was a con, which was the most blasphemous thing Farrah could think of.
Then again, it didn’t matter what he thought of love if it was going to be a hookup, right?
Ugh. Her head hurt.
Olivia placed her hand on Farrah’s arm. “Remember, we’re studying abroad. What happens in Shanghai stays in Shanghai.”
Did it? Farrah wasn’t so sure.
Yet later that night, after Olivia left and moonlight streamed through the curtains like a river of silver silk, Farrah found herself mulling over Olivia’s words. She thought about them over and over until she drifted asleep to dreams of Texas and crystal blue eyes.
