29 Dates

by Melissa de la Cruz

  “Austin was making out with Kaylee in the parking lot,” Jisu finally said. “Just like he had with me.”

  “Kaylee? That thirsty bitch. Want me to text Jamie and Tiffany?”

  “To do what?”

  “I don’t know, scare her or something.”

  “What? Are we in the mob? And Jamie and Tiffany are our hit men doing the dirty work?”

  “Ahem. Hit women.”

  It almost felt too soon for Jisu to be laughing and she was still entirely miserable, but talking to Hiba like this was helping.

  “No, Kaylee’s not the issue here. If anything, we should pull her out of the trap she’s about to step into. I just feel like such an idiot.”

  “Don’t. Austin is a player. This is what he does.”

  “Exactly. You warned me. All of you! And I ignored it.”

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t make it right for him to do that. To you or to anyone. It’s okay to be mad, Jisu. But don’t blame yourself. He’s the snake.”

  Hiba was right. Jisu felt it in her bones how right she was, but it didn’t make her feel any better about the situation. It didn’t matter how blameless you were—getting duped like that was an experience that could only be described as miserable.

  “Besides,” Hiba said. “You deserve someone who’s on your level. Austin’s cute, yeah, but what does he really have going for him? He just wants someone vapid who will praise the ground he walks on. That’s just not you. You have your own life, your own interests. You deserve someone like you.”

  “What about you, Hiba?” Jisu asked. “You deserve someone like that, too. Anyone on your radar?”

  “No.” Hiba sighed. “But now that all this college stuff is nearly over, my mom has been really on me to meet with some of her friends’ sons. And I don’t want that.”

  “You don’t?”

  “All the Lebanese boys here just stay in the Bay Area. They come back right after college and open up their dentistry or their business or whatever and repeat the same lives their parents had. It’s so predictable. I don’t want that.”

  “Maybe I should tell Ms. Moon to expand her business and she can find someone for us at whatever colleges we end up at.”

  Hiba pulled up to the Murray household.

  “If she does, you have to give me a glowing recommendation.”

  “Hiba, when have you ever not received a glowing letter of recommendation?”

  “Hmm. Yeah, I can’t think of a time.” Hiba laughed.

  Jisu got out of the car. She felt like a wet towel wrung completely of emotions and was ready to collapse into bed.

  “Don’t beat yourself up so much about Austin,” Hiba shouted out the window. “He’s not worth it!”

  * * *

  “You’re ruining my life!” Mandy shouted and slammed her bedroom door shut.

  Another tween tantrum. Yikes. Mandy had been on her best behavior lately. What could have possibly happened during the short time Jisu stepped out?

  “Jisu.” Linda looked surprised to see her standing in the foyer. “You’re back early.” She spoke with an affected calmness, which only made whatever situation was happening seem that much worse. “I just put the kettle on the stove. Want to join me for tea?”

  It was an invitation for tea, but also an invitation to get involved and chime in on whatever drama had unfolded between her and Mandy. Jisu wanted nothing more than to trudge up the stairs to her room and slip into bed. But Linda looked especially stressed.

  “Sure! I’ll have some chamomile. Trying to go to bed early tonight.”

  They walked into the kitchen, past the office where Jeff was on the phone as he always was.

  “How was the bonfire?” Linda asked.

  “Fine... I just got tired and Hiba was tired, too, so we left early,” Jisu said. “Is Mandy okay?” Enough about my issues, Linda. Let’s cut to the chase and get to the Mandy drama.

  “Oh...yes. She’s a bit upset. Jeff just got promoted, you know. We all found out today.”

  “That’s great!”

  “Great, yes. But they want to move him to the Dallas office. Hence...” Linda threw her hands up and motioned upstairs. “Hence all the commotion you just witnessed.”

  “How soon would you guys have to move?” Jisu asked. She started growing concerned herself. What would this mean for her?

  “We don’t know yet. We’re trying really hard not to pull Mandy out of the school year and wait until the summer,” Linda said. “And of course we don’t want to put you out either.” The kettle on the stove started to whistle.

  Great. Jisu had left Ocean Beach to escape one dumpster fire only to walk right into another one.

  “Of course we would make sure you’d be all set before we even left. That is when we even figure out when we’re moving,” Linda reassured her. But her words only made Jisu more nervous.

  “I think I understand why Mandy is so upset,” Jisu said. “Being uprooted from all your friends and your whole life can be really painful.”

  “I know, but what can I do?” Linda looked just as exhausted as Jisu felt. “We’re just trying to do what’s best for all of us.”

  Jisu walked up to her room and wondered how many more days, weeks or months she had left in her bedroom. She couldn’t be uprooted again. No. Moments ago, she was upset about a stupid boy. Now she was worrying about making sure she had a place to live.

  Jisu could hear Mandy sobbing through the wall. She walked into her room. The floor was littered with wrinkled-up tissues.

  “Hey.” Jisu sat next to Mandy on her bed and gave her a hug. “It’s gonna be okay.”

  “No...it’s...not.” Mandy sobbed between each word. “My life...is...over!” She continued to cry hysterically.

  “At least you’ll be moving to another city and not an entirely different country like I did, right?” Jisu said. But her attempt to be playful and lighten the mood only backfired and made Mandy cry even harder.

  Jisu remembered how she had sobbed her way through Incheon Airport last fall. Poor Mandy. This was not going to be an easy move for her, but she’d eventually get through it.

  “There, there.” Jisu handed Mandy another tissue. “Let it out. Let it all out. You’ll feel better.”

  FEBRUARY 15, SAN FRANCISCO

  DATE NO. 22

  NAME: Kang Philip aka Phil

  * * *

  Interests:

  Hospitality, Fashion, Traveling

  * * *

  Dislikes:

  Germs, Bad Tippers

  * * *

  Jisu: Okay, so we’ve established that we both like traveling.

  PHIL: Except for your last flight from Seoul to San Francisco, where you cried during the whole flight.

  Jisu: Not during the entire flight.

  PHIL: You did say you cried for at least eight out of the ten hours it took to get here.

  Jisu: I’m starting to regret telling you that.

  PHIL: Really makes it hard to believe that you actually like traveling.

  Jisu: I was being forced out of my city and away from my friends! How else could I react? Also, no one actually likes the literal traveling part of traveling. It’s walking around the city, going to museums, eating good food and meeting new people that makes traveling fun.

  PHIL: No way. This whole time I thought people were saying that they loved sitting in a bus for hours in traffic. I mean, that’s my favorite part about traveling.

  Jisu: All right, what is an actual pet peeve of yours?

  PHIL: Hmm. When people don’t wash their hands.

  Jisu: Ew. Like when they go to the bathroom?

  PHIL: You’d be disgusted and shocked—well, maybe not shocked—at how many dudes do their business and just walk out the bathroom.

  Jisu: Bleh.

  PHIL: Yeah. I wash my ha
nds before and after. I might be a bit of a germophobe...

  Jisu: Better that than the opposite.

  PHIL: True. I also hate people who tip poorly. It drives me crazy. I have a friend who always leaves the bare minimum tip whenever we order delivery. I work as a waiter during the summer, so if people don’t tip well, I judge them.

  Jisu: Oh, my god, poor tippers are the worst! I once went on a date with a guy who left a dollar tip. We had fancy lattes and he left one dollar. One!

  PHIL: Jesus, I don’t think you can even call that a tip.

  Jisu: No, it definitely wasn’t. I waited for him to look away and make his way out before I grabbed the few singles I could find in my purse and left it on the table. I felt so bad.

  PHIL: Well, you did the right thing. Did you end up seeing that guy again?

  Jisu: God, no.

  PHIL: You know, I’m always curious about what kind of guys I’m up against with these seons. That makes me feel a lot better about the competition.

  Jisu: Do you think of this as a competition?

  PHIL: Jisu. We’re Korean. We think of everything as a competition.

  Jisu: Ha, that’s true, I guess.

  PHIL: Why do you think we’re on this seon? We’re the horses at the racetrack and our parents are in the stands, placing bets.

  Jisu: Oh, my god, Phil. That’s so dramatic.

  PHIL: They’re out there, waving our one-sheets in each other’s faces as we run around the track.

  Jisu: Wow, you’ve really thought this metaphor through, haven’t you?

  PHIL: I have! It’s basically my college essay.

  Jisu: No way.

  PHIL: Yes way.

  Jisu: So you wrote about how suffocating and controlling your parents are? How is that going?

  PHIL: I’m two for two, so I’m batting at 100 percent. Still waiting to hear from three more colleges, including my dream school, but I’m feeling pretty good.

  Jisu: That makes me so jealous. I’ve only heard from one school and I got rejected. I knew it was coming, but it stings. At least until I get my first acceptance.

  PHIL: What do you want to study?

  Jisu: Sociology. Photography. I don’t know. I hate that question.

  PHIL: Why?

  Jisu: Because I don’t know what to do, and the more people ask, the more I feel like I should know the answer. Even though deep down I know it’s okay that I don’t know. You know? Or do you have your whole life figured out?

  PHIL: Definitely not. But I think I want to do something in hospitality.

  Jisu: What does that actually mean? Hospitality? People have told me I should look into that also.

  PHIL: And you still haven’t looked it up?

  Jisu: Hey, I’m concerned with getting into college first.

  PHIL: Okay, let’s say you’re throwing a big party.

  Jisu: What kind of party? Big? Small? What’s the occasion?

  PHIL: You’re already asking the right kinds of questions. I get why people are telling you to look into this.

  Jisu: So working in hospitality just means knowing how to put together a good party?

  PHIL: Kinda. Think about what a good host of a great party is like. She’s mindful of her guests, she makes sure everyone’s happy and entertained and that all their needs are being met. It’s about keeping everyone happy and making sure they have a good time.

  Jisu: So what about it do you like? Why are you drawn to it?

  PHIL: I’ve always liked socializing. The most interesting and fun part is knowing all the people you’ve gathered into the room and watching them all get to know one another. It’s like a little social experiment.

  Jisu: Like controlled people-watching.

  PHIL: Yes, exactly!

  Jisu: I love people-watching.

  PHIL: Right, you did mention liking photography.

  Jisu: Yeah, but I’m not like an official photographer. I wouldn’t know what to do if you stuck me in a studio. I don’t even know a thing about lighting—I usually just shoot outdoors and go with my gut.

  PHIL: Well, that’s a legit form of photography. Sounds better to me even. And probably the best way to people-watch.

  Jisu: It is! It’s actually a lot of fun. I totally lose track of the time when I hit the streets with my camera.

  PHIL: That’s what we should do next. You can teach me how to people-watch with a camera. For our next date. If you want.

  Jisu: I’d like that actually, yeah. We should do that.

  23

  “I timed it and that was just a little over fifteen minutes,” Dave said.

  Dave and Jisu were practicing their IS presentation. After weeks of gathering all the photos and relevant data, they had finally completed their project. Except Dave, ever the perfectionist, insisted on running through it over and over again.

  “That’s good! We did it,” Jisu said as she eyed the clock. They had spent the last half hour at the library in the media room.

  “No, we have to keep it at fifteen minutes or right under it. Or else Mrs. French will shave off some points.”

  “I don’t think she’ll really knock us for going over by a few seconds.”

  “One point can make a world of a difference, Jees. Come on. I’ll cut down on giving different examples of nonprofits and businesses. And you don’t have to describe all the photos in such detailed length.” Dave clicked through each slide and carefully read each one for any spelling errors.

  “Dave,” Jisu said. “You’re already going to Harvard. I’m the one who’s only gotten rejections so far.”

  “Exactly—every point counts!”

  It wasn’t that Jisu was phoning it in. The presentation was complete and they had practiced countless times. Maybe Dave was trying to kill time. But he could do that with his friends, so why stick yourself in the library? If Jisu were Dave, she’d relax and take things easy for the rest of the year. But then again, maybe that’s why he was going to Harvard and she was still waiting to hear back.

  Dave queued the presentation back to the first slide. He handed Jisu the clicker. He really did want to do another round. Was he always this much of a perfectionist? Or maybe he was trying to avoid someone. Sophie, maybe? The mere thought stirred something inside Jisu. Suddenly her brain perked right up, as if she’d taken a giant swig of coffee. Had the two of them gotten in a fight? No, no. Jisu stopped herself from hypothesizing crazy scenarios. It wasn’t any of her business.

  “Okay, fine. I just need to leave soon so I can go home and get ready for my seon.”

  “How many of those have you been on?” he asked. “Are they super formal and awkward, or do they feel like real dates?”

  They had briefly talked about Ms. Moon and the matchmaking service, but Dave had never asked as many questions about it as he did now. Was he or would he soon be interested in seons? Were these questions someone asked if they were happy with their current relationship? Jisu waved away thoughts of Dave and Sophie and whatever conflicts she was trying to project on them.

  “Just a handful since I’ve moved here. It’s whatever, honestly.”

  “So they’ve all been duds?”

  “Yeah, there have been some really bad ones. But they make for funny stories, so at the very least there’s that.”

  Jisu thought back to some of the disastrous seons she’d been on. She really had done it all. Everything from getting into a shouting match to literally falling asleep on a date.

  “Except for one,” Jisu said, thinking about Philip Kang. When she’d sat down for their date, she had forgotten what number he was. She’d expected another hour wasted with a stranger she’d have zero interest in. But for the first time, that was not the case. The seon came to an end, and Jisu was sad to part ways.

  “Really?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah, actually,
my second date is with him today. Which is why I’m trying to get out of here!”

  “What made the date with him different than the others?” Suddenly Dave seemed more invested in Jisu’s dating life than in the presentation projected on the screen behind her.

  “Umm. He was nice.” Jisu clicked through to the revised slides. If she wanted to get home and change in time before seeing Philip, they had to wrap things up soon.

  “Nice? Is that all it takes for someone to win you over?”

  “Well, it’s one way in! Kindness is underrated.” Jisu clicked through a few more.

  “What else?”

  “What else what?”

  “What else do you like about this guy... What’s his name?” Dave was asking an awful lot of questions. But Jisu didn’t mind. She’d noticed that sometimes people who were in long-term relationships loved living vicariously through those who weren’t.

  “We like the same things and we dislike the same things. That goes a long way. His name is Philip.”

  “Philip... I don’t know how I feel about that name.” Dave scrunched his face. “You really want to date a guy named Philip?”

  “What?” Jisu laughed. “What’s wrong with the name Philip?”

  “It sounds a bit too...prissy. And a little bit self-important.” Dave raised his head up into the air. “Hello, my name is...Philip.” He spoke with a terrible aristocratic, posh accent.

  “He goes by Phil!”

  “Meh, that might be worse,” Dave teased.

  “None of it really matters though,” Jisu said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, even if Phil and I really hit things off, it won’t matter because I won’t be in the Bay Area anymore in just a few months. It’s not like I’d be coming back here over college breaks.”

  Jisu turned on the lights and the sudden brightness stung her eyes.

  “Yeah, I guess I never thought about it that way,” Dave said. He looked a little disheartened. “But it’s not like you’d never come back to the Bay. Unless your plan is to cut off all contact with everyone from Wick?”