Ling studied herself critically in the mirror, turning this way and that, even looking over her shoulder to see what his view of her from behind would be. Her raven hair was lustrous and twisted into a chignon held in place by an ivory comb. She thought it made her look older. More sophisticated.

Her dress was black silk, a hand-embroidered dragon trailing from the edge of its mandarin collar to the hem and there was a thigh high slit in the side that showed off her high heeled and black nyloned covered legs to perfection. Ling smiled. She looked good. Very good. Better than that Soong Li who was always putting the make on Lao Jun.

They teased her about him. They always had. The way she looked at him with those puppy dog eyes of hers, pushing everyone out of the way to wait on him when he came into Mei Fong. Always hoping to catch a glimpse of him on the days when he didn't come into the restaurant. But Ling didn't care. She knew something that her family and friends did not and she had known it from the first moment she had laid eyes on him when she was nine years old.

Ling walked quietly across the living room, coming to stand beside Jun as he gazed out over the bay. "It is beautiful, isn't it?"

The look in Jun's eyes as he turned to answer her was everything she'd hoped... and more. "Wassa matter? Cat got your tongue?"

__________________
Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse can happen to you for the rest of the day.