Page 91 of Love Limits

Instead, they were sketching increasingly bizarre outfits that they knew they would never make.

Something buzzed and they fished out the phone they’d been sitting on.

Zhong: You’re off today, right? Want to come over?

Zhong: I’ll be working, but I picked up some nice fruit for a salad.

Ugh. Of course they wanted to come over. But was that all it was?

Ash: maybe. let me see how my day goes

Zhong: I know you’ve been having a rough week. How’s Mr. I?

Ash: fully recovered. back at the center

Zhong: I’m so glad. If you need anything, I’m here for you.

That was just the trouble. Zhong was completely there for them. They just couldn’t figure out if it was enough.

Zhong sent a picture of a cute cartoon dog sleeping in an almost-empty salad bowl, its belly round from gobbling it all up.

Did Zhong even understand what any of that meant to them? That they wanted to be his plump little puppy, happy to follow along at his heels and grow round and sleepy with the food that he made?

Another text came through and they switched to the other message stream.

Josh: Hey sweetheart. How’s your day?

Just seeing the endearment made them feel warm inside. But also conflicted.

Zhong never called them sweetheart. Or anything, actually. On the other hand, nicknames and endearments weren’t really a thing in ASL. You couldn’t use them to get someone’s attention, like you did with vocal speech, and signing someone’s name at them was a bit weird.

Ash: doing laundry and drawing

Technically both true. They didn’t know Josh well enough yet to tell him more. Especially when he was the subject of their stress. But one day, maybe they could. Maybe he would be their forever Daddy who they went to with all of their problems.

Josh: I’m glad you’re having a good day.

Josh: Unfortunately, I have some bad news. I need to work a late shift on Thursday because two of the other doctors are out.

Josh: I can’t go to the mosh, but if you’d like, I’d love to teach a sweet pup some new tricks next week.

Josh: I swear I’m usually not this busy and I promise I’ll make it up to you.

Ash didn’t know how to reply. It wasn’t just the disappointment of missing the mosh, because at this point they knew they’d be too keyed up to go on their own.

It was also that the plan was ruined. It was supposed to be Thursday see how things go with Josh. Friday talk to Zhong.

If they had to wait another week, they thought they might become that little rubber band that actually snapped.

They wrote to Landon.

Ash: josh just cancelled on me for the mosh.

Landon/Lena: For a good reason?

Ash: yeah

Landon/Lena: That sucks. Talk to zhong.