Confessions of a Cat-holic (177)

Bobby and I officially met at an information session about Lehman Brothers' internship program that was organized in their headquarter midtown. I remembered it was the first snow some time around November freshman year in New York. Grown up in subtropical Hong Kong for most of my life, it was hard for me to see snow. Even when I traveled to Japan or Beijing for winter break, chances of me seeing snow were slim. Kelly said she never saw a palm tree in her life, that was just like me almost never seeing snow.

That first snow I saw in the United States should be the second first snow in my life. My first snow was in Beijing, when I was a kid in elementary school. I always remembered the person I had seen my first snow with. Naturally, my first meeting with Bobby was somewhat special to me. We took the subway together from midtown to Columbia and we exchanged contacts. That was how it all started.

He told me a lot about Lehman Brothers. He was a sophomore then. Even though he was a biomedical engineering major, he chose to intern at Lehman Brothers when he was a freshman. He told me how great the firm was and how he landed a job there as a private banking client of its wealth management division. I was impressed by his net worth as much as his low key subtleness. He told me I should work there too. And I listened to him. I trusted him. Of course, he didn't say it out like "You should apply to Lehman." But from our chats and conversations, I understood that there was something about Lehman's culture that could not be found elsewhere.

After that, we connected every now and then through SEAS Community. Yes, he belonged to the engineering school as well. I was sick once and had been coughing for weeks. He offered to bring me some Tylenol. I didn't accept it, worrying that would be a signal of me expressing interests. I had a boyfriend at Yale at the time. It was just inappropriate. But I liked how a biomedical student offered his prescription at the times I needed him the most.

The last time I checked his LinkedIn, he was already the director of drug product development at Akebia Therapeutics. After he finished his bachelor at Columbia's engineering school, he got a Ph.D at the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at USC. He worked briefly at Merck and Pfizer before his current job at Akebia Therapeutics. Before that, he worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at Allergan.

We had a few dates in Chinatown. I asked him to go to Little Italy with me, since it was right next to Chinatown. I really loved going to Chinatown. I could go there every weekend. It was where I got my comfort food, such as vitasoy and curry fishballs. I especially liked the egg tarts from Tai Pan, which no longer existed in Hong Kong. Tai Pan was my childhood reminiscence. They used to have a big Tai Pan shop in Aberdeen and I liked to drop by it every time I visited my friends, Cici and Lily from Aberdeen Center.

I had a cannoli takeout from a pastry at Little Italy. He asked me why I walked all the way from Chinatown to get a cannoli. I said that was for my roommate Kelly. I teased him and said I was a lesbian, and asked if he believed it. Of course not, hell no. I was not a lesbian. I liked guys. I liked Robert. I liked his looks, his family, his hometown, his interests and everything about him. But I just couldn't show it or tell anyone.

Sammy asked me how the dates went with Bobby. I could only say I cringed. And I said I cried in the middle of our dates, as if it was a horrible horrible horrible date that didn't turn out well. The tears were fake though, I was so glad to be with him. Why else would I go on a date all the way with him to dimsum gogo in Chinatown? I was pretty sure Sammy would offer to sleep with him if I ever mentioned anything about his wealth. So I had to wear my poker face again and again and pretended to have a big grin on my face whenever I was seen with Edmond.

Bobby was not just about science though. We went shopping in Soho once. He said he needed to buy something for a friend and I gladly accompanied. The shop we went to was "Anthropologie". And then we started conversations on latest fashion trends.