Wrong Door

Karen welcomed them home quickly with one of her forced smiles and then excused herself before heading to some other part of the house to work in peace. She was absent during most of the playdate, so all Sun Mei had to do was watch Lily and Julie play reluctantly in Julie's room.

The little girl's room was actually as big as a hospital wing but slightly more well-decorated. Unfortunately, even though she had an abundance of toys that could rival Lily's huge collection, the girls did not seem to get along well.

Every few minutes, Lily would look at Sun Mei and say loudly in Chinese, "Can we go home yet?"

"What did you say?" Julie asked just as loudly every time, even though Lily had obviously repeated the exact same thing again.

"I'm talking to my nanny," Lily snapped at her in the end. "It's private. Don't be nosy."

"Doesn't your nanny speak English?"

"She does, but she speaks even better Chinese."

"Girls, why don't we play with Julie's dolls?" Sun Mei suggested, trying to diffuse the situation.

To her frustration, Julie and Lily kept bickering all the time, to the point that she was too afraid to leave them alone to go to the bathroom. In the end, she had to ask Lily in Chinese to behave herself so that she could leave for a few minutes without worrying that they would kill each other.

Even though Lily did not seem happy, she nodded reluctantly.

"Julie, can you tell me where the bathroom is?" Sun Mei asked the other girl, as Karen had not told her earlier.

"Which one?" Julie asked.

Sun Mei resisted rolling her eyes at her answer. "The guest bathroom that's closest to your room?"

Julie frowned in thought. "There's one down the hall on the left."

As it turned out, Julie could not tell left from right, because when Sun Mei opened that door, she walked into a man's study instead.

She knew it was a man's study because a man was sitting behind the desk when she entered.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I made a mistake. I was looking for the guest bathroom."

"Hold on, hold on…" Then man, who was in his 50s and probably was Julie's father, stood up slowly. "You must be Mr. Wu's nanny."

"I am Lily's nanny," Sun Mei corrected him.

The older man laughed and fixed his brown hair. "I am Julie's father. What's your name?"

"I'm Sun Mei. Nice to meet your, sir."

The man smiled and shook her hand firmly. "Sun Mei… What a pretty name," he said, holding her hand a bit longer than necessary.

Sun Mei immediately decided that she did not like him. When he eventually released her hand, he motioned for her to take a seat. "Please… Make yourself comfortable."

"I really need to go to the bathroom and get back to the girls," Sun Mei said as firmly as possible.

The man leaned back against his armchair. "They can fend for themselves for a bit," he reassured her. "Would you like to see my library?" he asked, pointing to the shelves around him.

Sun Mei did not want to tell him that Mr. Wu worked for a publishing company, so his library couldn't hold a candle to the one they had at home. She realized that would probably be impolite.

"Sure…" she said reluctantly. "But I have to be back quickly."

The man nodded so enthusiastically that she doubted he had heard the last part.