Perfect Match Read Online Free Page A

breath.
    Agnes smiled at me warmly and said hi, but quickly turned her attention back to Patch. She focused on smoothing his hair out and giggling in his ear.
    Feb made a gagging motion as my dad’s voice called out from the kitchen.
    â€œMom’s threatening to eat all the spring rolls if you kids don’t get in here.”
    As the five of us headed into the dining room for dinner, Feb took me by the arm and pulled me back. She gestured at Patch and Agnes. “Never, I repeat
never
rent a houseboat off Capri for a week with those two.”
    â€œWhy?” I said, wishing I wasn’t always in school to miss the fun sibling bonding trips that Patch and Feb took every month. “That sounds so fun.”
    â€œFun would require your brother to keep his hands off Hag-nes for more than three minutes at a time,” Feb corrected.
    â€œAh, I can see that,” I admitted, “but double-dating must be fun. Do you go on double dates with your other friends? Have they all met Kelly?”
    Feb looked thoughtful for a minute. “To tell you the truth, Flan, since I started dating Kelly, I haven’t really seen much of my friends.”
    Huh?
But Feb had always been my friendship role model. She was legendary for her elaborate social circles. She had more friends on Facebook than anyone I knew!
    â€œBut what about Jade Moodswing?” I asked, remembering how tight they’d been at the French designer’s fashion show just last month. “Or Opal Jagger?”
    â€œI dunno.” She shrugged. “We’ve sort of just … drifted apart. Nothing dramatic. You’ll see when you get serious with someone. It’s just one of those things.”
    I looked at my sister, who was back to giggling with Kelly. I had always looked up to her, but at that moment I found myself hoping I
didn’t
end up like her. No matter how great things were with Alex, I never wanted to drift apart from my friends. It just felt so sad. There must be a way to strike a balance, right?
    Trying to put her words out of my mind, I headed for my usual seat next to Patch. But Agnes—not surprisingly—had slid in before me.
    â€œHey Flan,” Kelly said, pointing to a seat between himself and Feb. “Sit here.”
    â€œEveryone settled?” my dad asked. “Let’s grub.”
    While he distributed chopsticks, the rest of us got to work opening up the stacks of steaming white boxes of food.
    â€œNo Alex tonight, Flan?” my mother asked. She’d changed into a black and white silk kimono and laced her chopsticks through her hair. “He’s such a hunk, isn’t he?”
    â€œHe’s having dinner with his grandmother,” I said, slurping a bowl of egg drop wonton soup.
    â€œAwwww,” everyone at the table seemed to say at once.
    I looked up at them. “What?”
    â€œThat’s too bad,” my father said.
    â€œReally sucks,” Patch agreed.
    â€œWould have loved to meet him,” Kelly said.
    â€œI’m sorry, Flan,” my mother said, sounding like she’d taken empathy lessons from SBB.
    â€œIt’s no big deal.” I shrugged. “I saw him yesterday.” I mean, it would have been great to have Alex there, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t function without him. Right?
    â€œI’m just glad to be with you guys,” I said, convincing myself.
    â€œThat’s nice,” my mother said. “Isn’t that nice, dear?” she asked my father. When he smiled at her across the table, it was hard not to notice the silent closeness between them—between all the couples.
    But then, midbite of her scallion pancake, my mother hopped up from the table. “I completely forgot to call Gloria about our donation to the Guggenheim’s restructuring. BRB!”
    As my siblings and I groaned at Mom’s perpetual overuse of out-of-date slang, my dad sighed and picked up his BlackBerry. “Well, if