The Post-It

Michael offered to walk Sun Mei to the bus stop. On the way there, he explained why he had been mortified at the very idea of yelling at her in front of her kid.

"I am a child of divorce," he told her nonchalantly. "I heard a lot of yelling before my parents split up, so I wouldn't ever want to yell at someone while their kid was present."

Sun Mei opened her arms in invitation. "Well, you can yell at me all you want. I'm childless and the more I work with children, the more I want to postpone having my own."

Michael smiled in understanding. "They are a lot of work, aren't they?"

Sun Mei arched her eyebrows. "Yesterday, Lily started crying because she wanted to wear orange socks instead of pink socks."

"Fair enough," Michael said with a nod. "Is Lily the owner of those toys?" he asked while pointing at her bag.

"Yes, you got me. She is the rich toy collector," Sun Mei said. "Actually, she is rich and she has a huge toy collection," she added after some thought.

Michael laughed. "Is this your stop?"

"Yes!" Sun Mei nodded in surprise.

She hadn't realized that they had gotten there so fast. Her conversation with Michael had distracted her completely and rendered her blind again.

She had learned that he was 26 years old and he was from Florida. Luckily, he studied law at UC Berkeley, which was why he had ended up on this side of the country. Sun Mei bet that his tuition fees were way more expensive than the ones she would have to pay.

"Can I have your phone number?" he asked her straightforwardly.

Sun Mei blushed to the roots of her hair but nodded eagerly. "Yes. Yes, of course."

While she wrote down her phone number on a receipt, Michael wrote his down on a post-it and handed it to her.

Before she could feel awkward about saying goodbye to him, he smiled at her and said, "I'll call you soon. Do you have free time this weekend?"

"I have free time every weekend!" Sun Mei said. It felt good to finally have some time to meet people beyond the age of 10.

Michael laughed. "See you soon then!"

Sun Mei barely remembered getting on the bus. The ride home went by in a flash as she thought of Michael, their conversation, and what they might be doing that weekend.

When Mr. Wu came home at noon with Lily, Sun Mei greeted them at the door with a big smile.

"Someone had a good day!" Mr. Wu said as he smiled back at her. "Good news from the community college?" he asked.

"Oh!" Sun Mei had completely forgotten about that. "Actually, I will have to think about enrolling."

"Why is that?" Mr. Wu asked with a concerned expression.

Sun Mei was about to answer when Lily interrupted their conversation.

"I want my Jennifer doll! Where is it, Sun Mei?"

"It must be in my bag. Let me get it!" She quickly ran to the kitchen, where she had dropped off her bag earlier.

Mr. Wu and Lily followed her inside. Sun Mei searched through the bag blindly but was unable to locate the doll beneath the pile of brochures she had stuffed in there.

"Hold on!" she told Lily, who had started to get impatient. She immediately lifted the bag upside down and emptied the contents on the kitchen table.

"That's one way to do it!" Mr. Wu commented before his eyes landed on a small post-it note that had fallen on the floor.