She hung her long inky locks over the side of her bed and sighed. She was reading her favorite Forbes magazine when the sight of him stopped her breath. Liam Alexander was simply beautiful. His too long russet colored hair gave him an almost pirate-like look, his dimpled smile pulling one almost magically from her own lips. Her eyes gorged on the words that seemed to leap from the page she was reading.
" They're hiring! They're hiring!"
Her mother ran into her room, well as much as a genteel Chinese lady could run, at any rate. Rapid fire Mandarin impaled her.
" Ma, speak English please," she begged.
Her mother shook her head in disdain. This child has always stood out, she tried with everything she did to be different from her brother and sister, Mae Lee thought in annoyance as she watched her youngest child pour over yet another 'geijin' periodical.
" I said, why are you yelling?"
Giselle looked up at her mother, wondering not for the first time if she was adopted. She was an over achiever just like her older siblings but that's where the similarities began and ended. Their parents had fled Beijing over 20 years ago and yet they still spoke only Mandarin to each other. Her parents, both Accountants had tried to get her to follow them into the family accounting firm but she had resisted and they had relented, only after she had won numerous awards in her final year at Harvard Business School.
" I have an interview on Friday, " she said simply, knowing her mother seldom shared her enthusiasm.
" Stop yelling, Giselle."
She left as quietly as she had entered and Giselle sighed in acceptance before once again pouring over Liam Alexander's every word. Technically, she thought, she hadn't lied, L Space, Alexander's groundbreaking company was having walk in interviews on Friday and she was definitely going so she hadn't lied...much.
She could hear her sister's condescending tone so that must mean dinner was ready, she thought sadly. How she hated these family dinners that served only to point out the stark differences in her personality and her family's. They were Chinese living in Manhattan,she was a New Yorker who lived in Manhattan. They ate noodles and wontons she ate burgers and fries. They were quite simply..polar opposites.
Dinner was chicken in black bean sauce with wontons and egg rolls, yuk, she thought, eating slowly. Luckily, she had Janine, she thought, stifling a grin.
" Giselle! Listen when your older sister is talking!" She had tuned out the rapid fire back and forth in Mandarin only to find that they were talking about her.
" What is it, Sulin? What now?"
" Father thinks it's time you started acting like a Lee and give some thought to your future..."
" I have an interview at L space on Friday so.."
" That is not what father means, Giselle, he means marriage prospects..."
" What the.. marriage? I'm 21 for Gods sake!"
Han Lee glared his displeasure at her outburst before stomping from the table and upstairs to his study.
" I got married at 19, while still studying..."
Giselle was getting angrier by the second. Its wasn't that she didn't love her family but they were quite simply, impossible to please .
" I don't even have a boyfriend how could I get married Sulin?"
As she rose from the table, she didn't see the look that passed between her mother and sister.
" The Hans have a son who's your age, he's an intern at John's Hopkins."
" No."
Her mother moved towards her with malignant purpose.
" We did not ask a question. You will meet him tomorrow at 12noon for lunch."