Wearing Gloves Indoors

Twenty minutes later, while Sun Mei was having coffee with a quiet but sly Vivian, she received a text from Mr. Wu.

"Sun Mei, did you forget to tell me something??"

This was bad. Mr. Wu never used more than one question mark. He was in the publishing business, so he took punctuation very seriously.

"I'm sorry that I fell asleep on the couch with you?" Sun Mei texted back uncertainly.

"My nails, Sun Mei!! I left the house with painted nails!!"

"Oh, that's right. We never got around to removing the nail polish!"

"I know! I realized it when one of our most successful authors pointed it out and asked me if this was a new trend!"

"What did you say?"

"I don't remember. Probably because it was nothing coherent."

Sun Mei couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What's so funny?" Vivian asked her suspiciously as she sipped her cup of coffee.

"Mr. Wu went to work with painted nails. He forgot to remove the nail polish."

Vivian looked perplexed. "Why did he paint them in the first place?"

"I told him to."

"Did you?" The older woman raised her eyebrows.

"For Lily. It was an idea I had for Lily," Sun Mei explained in a rush.

"Sure," Vivian said, looking completely unconvinced.

Sun Mei ignored the look she was shooting her and texted back Mr. Wu.

"Did you remove it now?"

"I can't! I don't have any nail polish remover and I can't go out to get some. I have a meeting in five minutes that will last about two hours!"

"What are you going to do? I'd offer to get you some, but I wouldn't arrive in time."

"It's okay, I found a temporary solution."

"Which is?"

"I'm wearing gloves."

"Indoors?"

"It's January."

"It's San Francisco. Plus, when I came to the office party, it was so hot that I wanted to take my top off."

"You never said that!"

"Because I wanted to boost your party-organizing confidence."

"I could have adjusted the thermostat."

"You could adjust it now."

"And make it colder?"

"Well, making it hotter would make things harder for you."

"Now that you mention it, I really don't like the team I am meeting with."

"Is Jenny a part of that team?"

"How did you know?"

"Gut feeling."

"We are picking the cover of her book today. All the options look dreadful, but at least the kissing pictures are not among them."

Sun Mei felt her heart tighten a little.

"What did you do with those?" she asked.

"I shredded them. I have one of those cool machines in my office."

"Can I use it once?"

"What do you want to shred?"

"Oh, I'll find something."

Sun Mei, who felt happier about the turn the conversation had taken now, smiled at Vivian.

"He's wearing gloves in the office to hide his nails."

"I wish someone would turn up the thermostat and take pictures of him sweating."

"That's very sadistic of you."

Vivian smiled enigmatically at Sun Mei. "We can't all be as close to the boss as you are…"