LCTM Chapter 9

    The next time Zoë awoke, the clock read 2:37 AM. Her nose was refusing to let her breath, thus making her breathe through her mouth, and drool all over Shang's nice pillowcases.

    "Oh, shit." Zoë mumbled, and turned the pillow over. Shang growled in his sleep, and pulled his arm around her waist tighter, thus bringing her closer to him. Then the phone rang. How utterly typical eh?

    " Shang...wake-up man...Dammit Shang! Ah hell..." Zoë grumbled, and picked up the phone.

    "Hello?" She said sleepily.

    "What!? Who is this?" A female voice exclaimed in Mandarin on the other line.

    "Crap!" She lapsed into her English. Then she said, in halting Mandarin: "Hold one moment, please."

    Then she smacked Shang in the head.

    "Ow! Shit Zoë, what'd the hell you do that for?" Then he noticed the phone. "Oh crap..."

    Zoë snickered, and handed him the phone.

    "Hi Mom! How are you doing at 8:00 AM in China, 3:00 AM here? Who was that? Oh, just a friend Mom. No, Mom, it's not what you're thinking. I'm sure I'll find a nice girl to marry soon enough. What makes you think she'll be Chinese Mom? She doesn't sound like a man Mom. Well, she's sick. That's what I'm doing Mom. Why do you think she'd be over here when she's sick if I wasn't taking care of her? Yes, Mui gave her a check-up. Uh huh. Yeah Mom, okay, I'll talk to you later. Give the family my regards. Okay, bye." And he hung up the phone.

    "Uh, er, next time you pick up the phone." Zoë mumbled to him as he crawled back under the covers. "Hey, stop trying to get fresh with me hoe." She grinned at him as he tightened his arms around her waist once again.

    "You know you like it bitch," he muffled a reply from the back of her neck, submerged in the golden hair.

    "You wish dork."

    Shang just chuckled.

    Knock knock. Knock knock knock.

    "Woo hoo! Shangy-poo!!!" A feminine voice called from outside.

    "Open up Shang!" Another, masculine voice yelled.

    "Go away you two!" Shang bellowed in the bedroom.

    When the knocking became more insistent, and it was clear they wouldn't go away, Zoë sighed, and threw back the covers. She padded across the floor in her green frog slippers, and opened the door into the apartment.

    "Shang's being a dork, per usual." She stated in welcome to Kin and Mui.

    Kin looked the slightest bit surprised she was there, and Mui just smiled, walking in through the door. Shang growled hello as he walked to the kitchen, and began making coffee.

    "So Shang," Kin started, " we got a call from Aunt Xiang. Said you had someone over. Guess it was true." he smiled at Zoë. Which got a well-deserved smack from Mui, and a glare from Shang.

    "She's sick Kin. I've never seen you do something this nice for a girl." Mui pinched him.

    "Maybe I haven't found the right girl." Kin smiled again at Zoë, which she just raised an eyebrow at.

    "Zoë? You want tea or coffee?" Shang called from the kitchen, purposely changing the subject.

    "Both please. And a lot of creamer in my coffee, but nothing in my tea if its not too much trouble dear."

    "You sure you want both?" Mui eyed her.

    "Sure as day hon." And she collapsed, on purpose, in the middle of the floor.

    "Uh, Zoë, sweetie, dear, are you okay?" Mui asked, kneeling next to her.

    "Not really, but I never have been, so it doesn't really matter now does it? Don't worry, I always collapse on the floor back home. At least here, there's no cats to come and bother me." She smiled at Mui.

    "Miao?"

    "Ah, Shang, you never told me you had a cat."

    "Uh, er, meet Xiao Mao. But we call him Biao for short." Shang laughed nervously.

    Zoë sighed as she came face-to-face with a small, black kitten. "Hello Biao. I'm Zoë." He purred in welcome, and rubbed against her hand. "My cats are gonna be mad when they find out I've been petting another cat. Oh well, the little buggers are spoiled anyway." So, she picked up Biao, and went to sit down on the couch and have her coffee and tea.