“Ayo, makan!”
“Makan, makan!”
For a few minutes, we’re quiet as we tuck into delicious, steaming plates of siu mai and har gow.
“You look healthy, Meddy,” Big Aunt says in Mandarin.
“Yep, you really do,” Nathan says. Unlike mine, his Mandarin is flawless. Yet another reason why Ma and my aunts adore him.
“Really? I think you look a bit tired, dear,” Ma says, before Fourth Aunt obviously kicks her under the table.
“Remember, you’re supposed to be supportive?” Fourth Aunt whispers in a volume loud enough to be heard over the din of the restaurant.
Ma nods and faces me again. “Ah yes, I was wrong. You don’t look tired. You look radiant, very well-fed, so different to when I last saw you.” Still, when she smiles, it’s obvious that she’s trying her best to hide her sorrow.
I reach out for her hand. “Ma,” I say, gently. “I see you literally every day. You know exactly how I look.” Which is true. The woman pops up at my apartment first thing every morning with a stash of home-cooked food, and most nights I have dinner at her place. It’s not so bad; my apartment’s on Broadway, one block away from the Asian supermarket she goes to, so she makes every excuse she can to drop by. And as much as I hate to admit it, I love seeing my mom every day. It’s made moving out a lot less hard on both of us.
“Aiya, your mom just misses you,” Second Aunt scolds without any bite.
“I know, I miss you too,” I say, squeezing Ma’s hand.
“I don’t like this whole modern thing where young women live on their own,” Big Aunt says.
“Yes, it’s very dangerous,” Second Aunt agrees. They’re so much more annoying now that they’re agreeing with each other.
“Yes, Nathan, this is all your fault. Meddy moved out of my house because of you,” Ma says.
“Whoa, why me?” Nathan cries, raising his hands and looking incredibly adorable.
“Maybe so you can be having all the sex,” Ma grumbles in English.
“Ma!” I give Nathan an apologetic grimace, but he just shakes his head with silent laughter. I mean, she’s not wrong, but STILL.
“It’s okay, I am very modern,” Ma says, switching back to Mandarin.
“Since when?” Fourth Aunt mutters.
“I’m so modern I don’t even care if you get married or not, as long as you give me my grandbabies.”
“Ma,” I groan. But Nathan looks far from being scared off. He’s laughing easily, his eyes twinkling as he watches me interacting with my family. “Are you done embarrassing me? Because I actually have something to show you,” I say.
Ma waves at me to go on, and I rummage in my bag and take out a glossy magazine, which I put in the middle of the lazy Susan. There’s a moment when Big Aunt and Ma look around for their reading glasses. Then they all lean forward and squint at the magazine.
“Martha Stewart Wedd—oh my god,” Fourth Aunt says. “No! Really? We’re in there?”
I grin at them. “Yep, really. It’s on page 20. A three-page spread with pictures of everything—the cake, your flowers, the amazing makeup.”
“The resort,” Nathan adds. “All captured beautifully by Meddy.” He grins at me, and my heart splits wide open. It always does at that smile.
My mom and aunts squeal and chatter happily as they flip to the pages showcasing Jacqueline and Maureen’s wedding. “Wah, the cake is so, so pretty,” Second Aunt says.
Big Aunt smiles at her and says, “And the brides look very beautiful.”
Ma beams through her tears. “Look, our business name is there.” And sure enough, underneath the big title is a list of vendors, clearly listing the name of the family company. And, below that: Photographed by MC Photography.
I’m no longer part of my family’s business. We’re affiliated, and I’m always referring clients to them and vice versa, and sometimes, as was the case with Jacqueline and Maureen’s wedding, we work together. But other than that, I’m mostly done with big weddings. Breaking away was hard at first for all of us, but they soon got used to Seb, which is unsurprising because he’s amazing, and I soon found my niche: photographing the in-betweens. I do just about everything, from engagements to newborns to families who just want to capture the joy in their lives, and I love it. My website is filled with kissing couples and laughing babies. I guess it doesn’t hurt that I often suggest Nathan’s gorgeous resort as the location of their shoot. The cross-pollination has been good for all of us.