The Little Mermaid umm Merman

Thursday

Jiang YanLi leaned back into the car's buttery soft leather seat and ignored the slight bumps as her driver pulled out of the driveway. "I'm fine," she insisted into the phone. "You don't need to come here."

On the other end of the line, on the other side of the world, Jin ZiXuan sighed heavily. "You broke your rib. You can't drive. You can't pick up A'Ling."

"We have a housekeeper, a driver, and a nanny," she reminded her spouse. "Between them, I'm all set. And I'm on vicodin, so I'm not in any pain."

"Are you sure? You really don't need me there?" Then, his voice became muffled as if he was holding his phone to his chest, "Is it important? I'm on the phone with my wife."

Jiang YanLi could hear murmurs in the background as her husband conversed with someone, probably his secretary. With them both managing multi-national corporations, it was challenging at times to be there, in person, for each other. "You should rest," she whispered at her husband. "It's getting late there."

"I'm fine," he replied. "I can be there tomorrow. There's a plane leaving in, oh, four hours or so. I can make that. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I'm fine. We're fine. I'm going to work to persuade A'Xian. And that's it. I'm not going to do anything important today."

Jin ZiXuan chuckled softly. "You're lucky that this brother is there with you. Can you imagine Jiang WanYin dressed up?"

Jiang YanLi winced as she laughed at the mental image of her youngest brother in costume. "Don't make me laugh, A'Xuan. It hurts."

"Are you sure you don't need me there?"

"Very sure."

"I love you."

"Love you, too." Jiang YanLi pressed the end button and sighed. Saying 'I love you' was such a western thing to say. She didn't think she'd ever heard her parents saying it to each other. Not even in the early days before her mother questioned her father's fidelity. A'Xuan's parents probably never even thought the sentence in the other's general direction.

What a mess. She had three days before a massive party, and two of her employees were unavailable. Now, she was as well. Tripping over Ling'Er's blocks and spending half the night in the hospital was going to be the easiest part of her day. Persuading her brother to help her out?

***

"Oh, Hell no," Wei WuXian insisted. "See exhibit one." He pointed towards a poster on his door. It was a print from some away mission from the original series of Star Trek, with a picture of his face photoshopped onto Bones McCoy's face and Jiang WanYin's on James T Kirk's, and the sentence 'Dammit Jim! I'm an IT professional, not in CS!' in very large letters written at the top. Making up the three legs in the 'm' of 'Jim' were the letters 'a', 'n', and 'g'. "I don't do face to face with clients. That's part of my contract."

Jiang YanLi pretended to sigh; she didn't have to pretend the mask of pain on her face; the vicodin was wearing off. "Jen is four months pregnant. So she can't. And Shaniqua is leaving for her honeymoon tomorrow. With this broken rib? I'm trying to get someone, but emergency work visas are a PITA and you know it."

"Why didn't Shaniqua take her honeymoon when she got married," he groused.

"Are you really begrudging her a vacation?"

"No," he whined. "I'm begrudging her a vacation that coincides with you breaking a rib! Isn't there anyone else?"

"No." Not unless the government staff responsible for granting emergency work visas stopped laughing in time for Sharmila to fly in from the Caribbean, rest up, and then suit up for work. She was the closest.