In a Book Club Far Away(2)
From behind them, a crash sounded, followed immediately by the clatter of dishes. Regina winced at what she imagined had found its way to the floor, perhaps the tray of vegetables from Pickett Farms, which she had driven two hours for.
But she didn’t move.
“What the hell are you guys doing over there?” Alexis pressed her hand against her blond hair, which was pulled taut into a bun, and went to the doorway. With her back to Regina, Alexis took command of the chaos that had erupted. Both former military, Regina and Alexis had divided up the labor so that it ran like an Army unit, like a chain of command.
Their system had worked, thus far. Regina found comfort in using the rules that had been ground into her since becoming a soldier, and she thought it the right way to do business. Regina was the good cop, and Alexis, the scarier one despite being the smaller of the two, was the bad cop. They both abided by standard operating procedures, by lists, by following orders. Finally, she and Alexis believed in BLUF, bottom line up front, with the overall business mission taking precedence over feelings and emotions.
All truly the Army way, despite Regina having left the Army more than seven years ago.
When Alexis turned back to her, she said, “Okay, back to our business. As I was saying, I’m stepping out for about an hour. Are you due anywhere?”
“Nope. I’m here all afternoon.”
“Great. Because…” Alexis’s shoulders slumped. “We need to do another monthly roundup.” She gestured toward the local Boy Scout troop calendar on the wall, open to the month of March. The picture was of two Scouts whittling down pieces of wood. One of these Scouts, fair-skinned and freckled but with dark brown eyes and hair, was Regina’s son, Miko.
Regina dropped her eyes, and the last bit of warmth she’d felt from her receiving the package shriveled up. The talk. The talk of business finances, and whether The Perfect Day Catering would survive. She stood quickly to walk Alexis out. “Yes, of course.”
Alexis nodded and led the way to the kitchen.
Regina’s eyes swept across the humble starter kitchen, cozy even for her staff of five part-time employees. One hundred percent of her employees had other jobs elsewhere, which made for, sometimes, a hodgepodge of a skeleton crew whose employment loyalties were challenged by their steadier paychecks. Despite its three-year anniversary coming up, The Perfect Day Catering still clamored for purchase in their military town, where there was a limited amount of clientele.
Currently, two employees rolled lumpia, and one skewered marinated pork onto sticks. One was off to the side making batter for Food for the Gods. And their last and newest employee, the culprit of the crash, was at the sink washing vegetables he had, indeed, dropped, now flanked by Alexis.
Soon, all of these parts would come together like an orchestra. The next night was the biggest catering job they’d had yet, an eighteenth-birthday party. The Filipino debutante party, wedding-like in scale, was a departure from their usual promotion party and Army-unit event. The event would boast a coordinated dance, a princess dress worn by the celebrant, and a horse-drawn carriage that would sit in front of the VFW for picture taking.
The event had been a risk to undertake, but it was time to level up. Not only was it the rare occasion that Regina could fix the recipes she’d learned from her own mother—because there weren’t a ton of Filipino cultural events happening in their tiny town—but the company had nothing in the books scheduled for another month. The profit from this debutante party was already earmarked for rent and utilities, leaving little for much else.
Regina’s tummy soured at the thought.
“What are you thinking about?” a voice whispered from behind her, which made Regina jump and spin around.
“Ma! Geesh. I swear you’re always in my shadow.”
Gloria Castro gave Regina a mischievous smile.
Her mother seemed to be everywhere Regina turned, in both good times and in bad, and at the most critical junctures in her life. Much like right then, when Regina’s mind was in a vortex of doubt.
And like a shadow, Gloria was wearing all black, though not as part of the catering staff. This was her perpetual mourning attire. Regina’s lola, the Castro matriarch, had died almost five years ago, but Gloria had never kicked the habit of wearing black to honor her mother. On her most whimsical days, Gloria wore shades of gray and, depending on her mood, might surprise everyone with a pop of color in a statement necklace, a fancy bangle, or pointed, impractical shoes. And despite this outward appearance of gloom, Gloria was as cheerful as ever.
“So?” Gloria asked.
“So, what?”
Gloria’s eyes widened.
“I’m not thinking about anything. But wait…” Regina looked at her watch. “Miko’s supposed to be at baseball in fifteen minutes. Is everything okay? And speaking of, you didn’t forget to bring oranges did you?” She ran through the never-ending list in her head. Today was her son’s baseball clinic, and she was the team mom but occasionally delegated her responsibilities to her mother at business crunch times.
“Dios, I know what time it is! Don’t worry, Miko’s outside with Alexis. But the mailman caught me at the door on the way out and this looked important. You know, that Mr. Leong is such a handsome man. Fit, too, carrying that bag and driving his car. So good at parking.”
“I’m ignoring you, Ma.”