James looked up from the snaking queue and muttered a silent curse. He had barely moved in the past ten minutes. This is taking longer than he had imagined.
He reached in for his phone to check the time. The iPhone Face ID algorithm got his face right every single time and unlocked it automatically, even when all he wanted was to steal a peek at the clock face. He had been amongst the first few in Singapore to receive the phone and was throughly impressed by the technology. But after a while the novelty has worn off and he found himself getting irritated occasionally.
His mother had sent him multiple WhatsApp voice messages about the dinner tonight. Some he listened to, others he left untouched. She would record them at the coffee shop whenever she has a free moment, and the background noise was deafening.
He had no doubt that all the messages will be about the same
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