arriving

The airport air felt heavy, warmer than the stale chill of the plane. Don followed Mike through the crowd, his small suitcase rolling behind him. People bustled past with excited chatter, and the smell of coffee and fried food clung to the air.

Mike spotted them first — two of his closest friends waiting just beyond the arrival gates, waving. “There they are,” he murmured to Don.

Don’s chest tightened. His mind flickered — not to Don’s history with these men, but to Xue Li’s memory of greeting men in train stations, of knowing exactly how to make her smile soft enough to disarm them.

Mike leaned closer. “Remember, you’re my wife now. Just play the part.”

“I know,” Don said in his slightly broken English.

They reached the barrier, and Mike’s friends came in for hugs. Don accepted theirs gently, arms light around them, a faint perfume still lingering from the bottle Xue Li had packed in her old life.

“Wow,” one of them said, grinning. “She’s beautiful, Mike.”

Don felt heat rise to his cheeks, unsure if the blush was his or hers. “Thank you,” he said, lowering his gaze in a way that felt automatic.

The four of them walked toward the parking lot. Mike’s friends asked polite questions — how long they’d been married, how the trip was — and Don’s answers came in clipped, careful phrases. “China very busy. Many people. Good food. We… happy.” His grammar carried the music of Mandarin, his vowels softer now.

At one point, as they loaded the bags into the trunk, Don caught his reflection in the car window — small frame, long black hair falling into his face, posture slightly turned inward. He looked like a stranger.

In the backseat, one friend whispered something to Mike about how lucky he was. Don didn’t hear the words exactly, but the tone — the admiration — made something warm stir inside him. Was it Don feeling proud, or Xue Li feeling desired? He couldn’t tell anymore.

As they drove toward Mike’s apartment, the city rolling past outside, Don leaned against the window and thought: In their eyes, I am her. Maybe in my own eyes too.