Page 58 of See You at the Sunset

“Grandma!”

Henry turned to Jia. “You told her?”

“I was having a crisis. The man that fired me was also the man I had mind-blowing sex with? Oh, and he happens to be our neighbor’s grandson? I think yes, I definitely told her. I needed Mimi’s wisdom.”

“Mind-blowin’, you say? Way to go, Hank. I knew you had it in ya,” Dennis said, patting Henry’s back. His face beamed with pride brighter than when Henry had graduated law school.

“Come on, Mimi, let’s dance and let these kids get back to canoodling,” Dennis said, grabbing Mimi by the hand and leading her to the dance floor.

“You know, if you two want some privacy, we can arrange to stay at the prom for another, oh, say, hour or so?” Mimi called back as she was led away.

“Oh god. I think our grandparents just gave us permission to sneak off and have sex,” she said laughing. The fairy lights that decorated the room sparkled in Jia’s eyes.

“But apparently just a quickie,” Henry teased. The offer was tempting. But he was going to make his next real time with Jia better than their first. A hand job was hot. A quickie could be fun. But Henry had something else in mind in this moment.

He pulled her by the hand he was holding and drew her close to him “Shall we?”

Jia smiled and nodded and followed him to the center of the crowd where he put his arm around her waist and drew her against his body. “I thought you didn’t dance,” she whispered into his ear.

He didn’t. But he would.

“I can sway back and forth a little. If that’s enough?”

“It’s everything.”

“Well, don’t the two of you make a beautiful pair,” Betty said as she and Herbert danced past them. Herbert sat in his wheelchair as Betty pushed and spun them around to the music.

“You two put us to shame with your moves,” Jia said back. Betty’s smile spread across her whole face.

“Are we voting for a prom king and queen? Because I know who I want to win,” Gordon called out from the snacks table.

“Hear! Hear! They’ve got my vote too,” Gladys said, clinking red solo cups of spiked punch with Gordon.

Henry looked down into Jia’s eyes. They sparkled as if she had her own fairly lights that lit up from within. He’d never felt this accepted and embraced by people as he did by the people of The Sunset. And that included Jia. He pushed back fears of the other shoe dropping. He quieted the voice in his head that wanted to reason how these feelings were fleeting and they, as morbid as it would sound, were all on a ticking clock of some sort or another.

Instead, he allowed himself for this night to feel... happy. To lend his heart in this moment to someone else other than just himself.

He bowed his head and met Jia’s lips. Just a soft whisper of a kiss.

And the two of them danced the night away to “Winter Wonderland” on a blistering hot summer night.

With the promise of more to come.

23

Jia was one of those types that got the postcoital gooey and mushy feelings. She didn’t think Henry would love this about her. But she couldn’t help herself.

“Something smells great in here,” her grandmother said, joining Jia in the kitchen.

“I made a pie,” she admitted.

“A pie is very nice. I hear young men love pies.”

“Oh, well, it’s like a belated welcome pie... for, um... Dennis. And Henry if he wants some.”

“Jia, honey, the way you braided the top of the crust, that’s a thanks-for-the-fuck pie if I ever did see one.”

“Grandma!” Jia gasped.