Chapter 2: Tammy
It was just pass 8am when Mei woke up Sunday morning. She has been so used to waking up early for work that her internal clock forbids any sleepiness to linger around pass eight o’clock even during the weekend. Or, though she hates to admit, it could be that she’s getting older, and her body naturally does not need as much sleep as it use to.
Back in graduate school years she used to sleep through the whole weekend after studying all nights for exams or papers. At first it drove Scott crazy since he’s the outdoor-fun loving kind of guy and was forced to go hiking or biking or camping or do whatever “exciting” activities alone. He even jokingly called himself the “Papers/Finals widower”.
Mei does not remember when the alarm clock started to become a decoration piece on her nightstand, and it does not really matter. It must be true that when you started to realize how invincible you were back in the days, you are already getting old.
Stretching out in bed like a big crackling tree branch, she reached over to her phone and saw two text messages. One was from Dan checking to make sure she got home safely and saying good night. The other was from Tammy, the message was sent at midnight and it simply read: “So how did it go? Call me!” A big LOL surfaced in Mei’s head, Tammy must be dying to hear about every detail from last night since her own boyfriend was out of town and any tiny bit of excitement or gossip would save her from the big black hole called boredom. Mei quickly texted back: “meet me at Panera for brunch, @ 10 sharp.”
Tammy was Mei’s roommate. She’s 6 years younger than Mei, a freshman in the same university when Mei just started her second master’s degree in Information Systems. They happened to rent two adjacent rooms on the same floor in a nice town house just outside of campus. Mei was in her room studying when she heard the sound of people moving in and that’s when she first met Tammy. She remembered opening her bedroom door and saw this thin framed girl with wild curly hair and a pair of un- proportionally large glasses standing in the hall way, holding a big box with both hands while trying to balance another bag full of stuff with one of her elbows. Mei’s sudden appearance seemed to startle Tammy and she dropped both the box and the bag on the hard wood floor. Something inside the box made a bang and a splashing sound of some kind of metal or glass immediately followed. “Oh NO, Coodie!” Tammy immediately got on her knees and started searching in her box. Mei felt very bad and ran over to help. It ended up that Tammy lost her favorite coo-coo bird clock that day but gained a life-long best friend instead. Still, Coodie’s name was brought up as a never ending guilt trip during the past ten years every time Tammy felt the need to win an argument or just to get her way for fun.
Hopping out of the hot shower, Mei felt refreshed and energized. She’s been fit all her life; never really needed to worry about diet. At 5 foot 5 shopping for clothes was always easy. Her style has remained neutral but stylish through the years, no where near flashy; her favorite materials are anything natural like cotton or silk. Pulling out the middle dresser drawer, Mei quickly threw on a pair of jean shorts and a white linen shirt, and checked to make sure she’s got everything in the purse to conquer the world: Sunglasses, wallets, lip gloss, and cell phone. She thought about texting Dan back, but decided to wait and keep him guessing for a little while, and headed out to be embraced by the bright morning sun.
Tammy showed up late, as always, which drove Mei crazy. Oh well, what do you do when it is your best friend? Wearing a bright orange dress, Tammy looked radiant and full of life. She has put on a little weight during the past few years, which fit perfectly on her bone structure and made her absolutely stunning.
“So------, tell me, did you have to kick him out of your apartment this morning?” Tammy started giggling before she could finish her sentence.
“Come on, give me some credit!” Mei took a sip of her coffee and waved her cell phone, “I plan to text him back later, you don’t think that gives the impression that I am uninterested or anything, do you?”
After reciting the whole date by the minute at Tammy’s request, Mei felt a little dry- mouthed and decided to sit back and let Tammy fulfill her role as the BFF and put together a detailed analytical report. Pulling out a piece of napkin from the stack on the table, Tammy started writing quick words and drawing checkboxes.
“Let’s see here, Accountant could be boring at times, but stable; working for the government is a plus cause they’ve got great benefit; He’s polite, that’s a must; decent looking, wait, let me see his pictures again..” Suddenly Tammy looked up and declared in total amusement: “Mei, believe it or not, you totally scored! He’s not weird, not a psycho, makes good money and totally hot!”
The sudden burst of excitement from Tammy almost made Mei spill her coffee, “Well, hold your horses Missy, this was just the first date, I’ve only been talking to him for a week, he could be a serial killer for all I know.”
“Come on Mei, you really need to stop all the negativity and extra precautions, I am telling you, you better take actions before someone else grabs him!”
“He’s not an item on a shelf, Tammy, His name is Dan…” Mei was trying to clarify her position before Tammy grabbed onto her arm and quickly pointed over to Mei’s right shoulder with her chin: “hey, look over there, isn’t that your boss?”
Oh great, Not today! Mei hesitantly turned around and saw Mindy standing in line with her husband Joe. It’s good that they didn’t see Mei and were concentrating at the breakfast choices. Mei quickly ducked into a lower position on her chair and shushed Tammy: “Please, keep your voice down, I really don’t feel like talking to Mindy right now.”
“But why not? I thought you guys were friends?” Tammy seemed confused.
“It’s hard to explain… Remember the big project with CNR? They were going to announce the proposal lead tomorrow…”
“You mean the one you’ve been talking about for weeks? Are you going to get it?”
“Well that’s the thing, I thought it was safely in my pocket until last week, Mindy started acting weird and refused to look at me in the eye, something’s up and I just don’t feel like talking to her right now.”
“That’s crazy, you deserve that job totally!” Tammy looked over that direction again and said, “Looks like they are having it to-go, you are safe now.”
Whoo… Mei was able to let out a big sigh, but this has just completely killed her mood to talk about Dan or whoever else from the internet. Now she couldn’t help but to worry about work and whether she still got any shot at that job.
Tammy sensed the sudden shift in the atmosphere and felt a little guilty for darkening Mei’s mood. She decided that the best way to cheer Mei up was to change topics and what else could be better to talk about than her own prince charming? “So Jim’s coming back next Friday, and I think he’s finally going to propose!”
