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raised eyebrow, as she kept shuffling the contents of her pan.
    “What’s up with you?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. What’s up with me?” I swept around and wrapped her in a tight waist hug. She wriggled until I set her free.
    “Stop being so weird!”
    “Can’t give my meimei a hug?”
    Gina spat a string of Chinese at me which I couldn’t understand. She sighed and translated. “You can be as loopy as you want, big sister. Just don’t attack me when I’m by a burning stove.”
    “Yeah, you’re really slaving over it,” I said, unable to keep from ruffling her hair one last time.
    I took a gander at the delicious scramble she was cooking. The sausage and onions in her pan glistened at the peak of caramelization. I could barely keep from drowning in my own spit.
    “Oh god, that’s the best thing I’ve ever smelled,” I said.
    “This is for me and Daddy. I didn’t know you were going to be up so early.”
    “It’s fine Regina,” my dad’s voice boomed. We both looked up to see him coming out from the dining room, still reading his tablet. “Don’t let my stomach come between some quality sisterly bonding.”
    “It’s alright, Dad,” I went over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll have her make me some more. We can’t have you going hungry before work.”
    “I’m not making anyone anything,” Gina yelled from behind us.
    My dad peered down the nose with a similar look as Gina’s, though on his tall, regal form, it looked less childish and more inquiring. He had that same slight narrowed brow as when he was puzzling over some engineering design he’d brought home from work.
    “What’s up with you?” he asked.
    “Nothing!” I forced an incredulous laugh and went back to the kitchen before he read the truth off my face.
    I was heading into my junior year at U Mich. I wasn’t late coming home or anything, and my folks knew I had boyfriends but before. I certainly didn’t need permission to have sex. But that didn’t mean I wanted my dad knowing I’d been banged in a car at work.
    Oh boy, just with that thought, my cheeks felt ready to melt off. This nervous energy would only make me more suspicious. I couldn’t last here for much longer.
    “You know what?” I said to them, backing towards the hall. “It’s fine. I didn’t mean to intrude. I’m gonna head out and get something with Jada.”
    “You know I’, just messing,” Gina said. “We can split three-ways. I’m not that hungry.”
    “Eat,” I said. “Those college apps look like they’re killing you. You know the point of starting early is to not get stressed right?”
    “Yeah, well, being tightly-wound runs in the family.”
    “Hey!” Dad said, finally looking up from his tablet.
    “Unless someone sets us loose, of course.”
    Gina said this directly at me, eyes narrowed like a hawk.
    Fortunately, Dad had already step backed into the dining room. I might have inherited his scientific mind, but my sister had emotional insight way beyond her age. In five minutes, she had me pegged.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”
    I fled back to my room. She’d hold my secret, though she’d press for details eventually. I’d just have to delay that moment until I could come up with an alternative history.
    I switched out into jeans and a tight yellow top that suited my mood and rang up Jada. I bribed her into breakfast by offering to pay on account of the tip I’d gotten last night.
    I wondered if she heard the smile of my lips as I said those words.
    I got to the door just as Dad did and gave him a shoulder hug before sweeping out in front of him. Even as I reversed my little car out the driveway, he stood there giving me a strange look.
    I drove back to the financial district the same way I’d come last night . Maybe it was just a sunny day, but everything seemed to have a halo around it. I looked out at the Detroit River and it almost looked to me like the