- 13.
Meanwhile, Liam was walking down the street
with Maisie, looking like a zombie.
“Let’s get something to eat.”
He was used to spending like crazy, but now
he only had a few hundred bucks left. All his
credit cards had been canceled. After some
agonizing, he decided to take her to a cheap
Maisie frowned. “I don’t want to eat here.”
“What do you want?”
“That seafood restaurant you said you’d take
me to.”
He would have taken her there in a heartbeat
before, but now he couldn’t afford it.
He didn’t want to go back to his real home, to that tiny space that was worlds away from
what he was used to. It was suffocating.
“I don’t have much money right now. I’ll take
you some other time.”
Maisie didn’t say anything for a while. Then
her phone rang.
“My mom called me home for dinner. I can’t
eat with you.”
“Should I take you home?”
“Your car got repossessed. How are you
going to take me?”
“I… I’ll call you a cab.” Maybe it was his imagination, but Maisie’s tone was sharp. It
made him uneasy.
He grabbed her and wouldn’t let go. “Maisie,
you’re all I have! You’re not going to leave
me, right? I’ll get my birth certificate fixed,
and we can get married soon!”
Maisie didn’t hug him back.
After a long pause, she said, “Liam, I have to
ask… can you even afford to get married right now?”
Liam looked at her, confused. “I’m 25 years old. Of course, I can get married!”
“I’m not talking about age. I’m talking about the basics. Do you have a house? A car? Can you even afford to pay for the wedding?”
“I thought you weren’t materialistic,” Liam
said. Maisie felt like a stranger. Just a few
days ago, she was begging him to marry her.
“I’m sorry, Liam. I just don’t want to be a
burden. You’re already having a hard time. I
should go.”
So she was thinking of bir
So, she was thinking of him.
If it had been Janice, she would have ripped
him a new one.
He called up some of his old friends, hoping
to borrow some money.
But they were either “busy” or didn’t even
answer the phone. They used to be begging
him to hang out.
He sulked on the street.
He didn’t want to go back to his real home,
but he didn’t want to waste money on a hotel.
In the end, he took a long, bumpy bus ride
home.
He almost threw up when he got off. The first thing his parents said was, “You’re home! The fridge is ten years old, we were thinking
about getting a new one. What do you think?”
“Get it if you want it. Why are you asking
me?”
“Well, it’s kind of expensive. We’re a few
grand short. Can you…”
What the heck? He hadn’t been home for an
hour, and they were already asking for money.
11
“I don’t have any money.”
Liam gave them an angry look, handed them
five hundred bucks, and went to his room.
The bed wasn’t soft at all. He tossed and turned all night, unable to get comfortable.
He spent the next few days in a daze, ordering takeout and scrolling through TikTok. It only took a few days for his bank balance to go from four figures to three.
He opened his texts, but there was nothing
new. Maisie hadn’t tried to contact him.
He called her up. “Why haven’t you texted
me?”
She said, “Liam, we can’t see each other right
now. My mom doesn’t want me to.”
“Why?!” Liam jumped up in shock.
“Mara sair
“Mom said… before you marry me, you have to give my family a dowry. And the wedding and the fancy cars don’t even matter. You can’t afford to meet her demands. She won’t let me leave the house to see you. She wants
me to break up with you.”
The last time he’d gone to Maisie’s house, her mom, Mrs. Chen, had grabbed him and told him her daughter was lucky to have him.
“I’ll figure out the dowry. Maisie, just wait for
- me. I won’t let you…
“Mom’s here. I have to go.”
She hung up. Liam frantically pulled at his
hair.
He was desperate, but the thought of getting
a job made him sick to his stomach. He’d
sent out a bunch of resumes online, but nobody had responded.
And honestly, the kind of salaries he saw
made him gag.
He used to spend more than that on one
meal.
