“How many minutes on Table Three’s beef wellington?” Vina called out as she plated a hanger steak with a side of shallots and butter.
“One more minute, Chef,” Sasha, the chef at the meat station, called out.
“Oscar, did you hear that?” Vina turned slightly to glance at her Sous-Chef.
“Yes, Chef,” Oscar called back. “Working on the salad right now.”
Marcus, the chef in charge of appetizer, sidled next to Vina with a pan of risotto. “Table Six’s risotto.”
“Let me see that.” Vina dipped her spoon into the rice mixture and tasted it Making a sour face, she said, “Overdone. Do it again.”
“Sorry, Chef,” Marcus apologized as he raced back to his station.
“Don’t be sorry. Be better,” Vina warned. Despite her curt tone, she was actually enjoying herself. Some people found the high-pressure high-temperature atmosphere of a restaurant kitchen too stressful, she found it exhilarating. She loved the organized chaos that came with a busy kitchen. She loved the merging of sweet, sour and spicy scents as food sizzled and boiled. She loved cooking with people with various talents, loved learning new recipes. But most of all, she loved the delighted expressions of diners after they tasted her food. It made her proud that she’d done that – made them happy.
“Sasha, how are we on that wellington?” she called out again.
“Walking to the window,” Sasha answered as she took out the meal from the oven and started towards Vina.
“I’m right behind you,” Oscar called out. The two chefs arrived at Vina’s side almost at the same time.
“Nice. Nice.” Vina nodded approvingly as she cut the wellington and inspected it. The pastry was puffy and flaky enough, and the meat at the center was slightly pink, just the way she liked it. Smiling, she transferred it from the cutting board to the plates, she’d already set out. “Good job, Sasha.”
“Thank you, Chef.” Sasha smiled. “I’m starting on the Table Eight’s chicken.”
“Hurry with it. They’ve been waiting for more than ten minutes.”
“Yes, Chef.” Sasha strode away.
“What about my salad?” Oscar asked, his tone a tad pouty. “Isn’t it good?”
“It’s always good,” Vina complimented as she spooned some of the aforementioned onto the plates. “That’s why I don’t even bother saying anything anymore.”
He grinned. “Thank you, Chef.”
Vina chuckled as she watched him strut back to his station like a rooster who’d just been told it was the Don Juan of the henhouse.
Despite it being a Monday, Tellers was booming and their diners kept the kitchen busy. Vina spent the next hour shifting between tasting food, plating ready meals, taking orders, reading them out to her chefs and sometimes even helping out at stations that were lagging behind. In fact, she was so busy that she didn’t notice that April was around until the woman showed up at the kitchen window.
“What are you doing here?” Vina looked up from the meal she was plating. “Aren’t you supposed to be off today?”
“How am I supposed to rest at home when Stacy keeps messing up?” April complained.
If it were up to her fiancée Roman, she would’ve already quit working. But April refused to take a break because she was just in her first trimester of pregnancy. Was she supposed to spend the next seven months with her feet up? As a compromise, the couple had agreed to hire an assistant-hostess to help April out while she took three days off each week instead of one. Unfortunately, their current hire, Stacy, was not quite as experienced in handling their front-house as April was.
“How could she let the front-desk reserve all the tables? How many times have I told her to hold at least two tables for high-profile walk-ins?” April complained, “She almost sent Mia González home. Mia González.”
“I assume this Mia González is someone important?” Vina asked even as she handed the ready plates to a waiting server.
“Of course. Don’t you watch TV? She’s a telenovela actress – a very popular one.” April ranted on, “It’s lucky that I’d booked a table under an anonymous name otherwise we would have been screwed.”
Vina spun around to give her chefs the details of the next order before she turned her attention back to her friend. “I’m sure Stacy would’ve found a way to handle it. If you keep holding her hand, she’s never going to learn to think on her feet.”
“I suppose you’re right.” April sighed. A moment later, she perked up. “Enough about Stacy. I didn’t come into the restaurant because of her. I came here because of you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
Grinning, April leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially. “You got yourself a fake boyfriend.”
“Hush!” Vina immediately glanced sideways to make sure none of their coworkers were listening in on the conversation. “You’re not supposed to talk about that here.”
“Sorry. Sorry. But I’m dying of curiosity here and talking on the phone just isn’t cutting it,” April whined with a pout.
“Fine, we’ll talk about it later. After the kitchen’s closed,” Vina promised just as a waitress came by with an order.
“I’ll hold you to that,” April warned before she headed back to the dining room.
Soon, Vina was once more distracted by the business of running a kitchen. Unfortunately, April was a woman of her word. When the kitchen eventually closed for the night, she was still hanging around the restaurant, waiting for her.
As soon as Vina changed out of her chef-coat and into her street clothes, April sidled up next to her. “You’re driving me home.”
“I am?” Vina’s eyebrows shot up. “What about Roman?”
As if he could tell he was the topic of the conversation, Roman emerged into the dining room. At over six-feet, Roman was quite the midnight-haired giant when compared to Vina. But he and April, who was almost as tall as him, were quite the match. They made a handsome couple that was currently the envy of everyone who worked at Tellers.
“Are you ready to go, baby?” he directed his question to April.
April slipped her arm into the crook of Vina’s arm as she smiled at her fiancé. “Vina’s driving me home.”
“Why?” Roman frowned. “You and I are going in the same direction, aren’t we?”
Despite being engaged and expecting, the two didn’t as yet live together.
“Don’t ask questions.” April edged closer to him and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you at home.”
Leaving the poor man gaping in disbelief, the two women left the restaurant. They were barely in the car before the grilling began. How was the date? What did you do? Was it fun? Was he a gentleman?
Vina studied her friend with raised eyebrows. “You do realize that it was a fake date, right?”
“Fake. Bake. It was still a date,” April dismissed. “But I’m glad to know it went well. When is your next date?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What are you doing?”
“Not sure.”
“Well ask him.”
“I will, later.”
“No, ask him now,” April cajoled. “I want to know.”
“It’s almost eleven,” Vina tried to reason with her friend. “He’s probably asleep.”
“And maybe he’s not. Just try.” April was practically bouncing in her seat as she wheedled, “I’m really curious. Aren’t you?”
Yes, Vina was curious. She was also very eager to hear Orion’s voice again, which was the main reason she hadn’t called him the whole week. This was a fake relationship – she wasn’t supposed to miss him or want to hear his voice. Any meetings or calls between them were supposed to be strictly business – not for pleasure. The sooner she remembered that, the better.
The other reason she was a little hesitant to call him was because of the hard-on incident. Though she’d pretended to be blasé about the whole incident and even tried to forget it, it had left her feeling unsettled and, frankly, turned on. From what she’d seen, Orion wasn’t a small man. Her dreams in the last few days had been tempered by imaginings of her peeling off his joggers so she could check him out for herself and maybe test-drive him. If she talked to him and heard that deep sexy voice again, no doubt, those dreams would’ve only worsened.
“Call him,” April cajoled, giving Vina her best puppy dog eyes. “Please.”
Vina sighed. “Ugh! Fine, if you insist.”
Though her face was expressionless as she reached for her phone, on the inside she was a bundle of nerves. The thought of talking to Orion made her nervous – and excited. After pairing her cell-phone with her blue-tooth headset and setting it up for a hands-free call, she dialed his number.
He picked up on the first ring. “Vina, Vina, Vina.”
“Were you just sitting there waiting for me to call?” she teased with a smile.
“Of course. I’m watching the most boring movie ever and was just waiting for something to distract me,” he countered with a chuckle. “How are you doing?”
“I’m good.”
“Are you home too?”
“Nah, just getting off work.”
“It almost eleven.”
“The trials of working in a restaurant,” Via said.
April waved her hand impatiently, her way of telling Vina to get on with the real reason for the phone call.
Rolling her eyes, Vina asked Orion. “I just wanted to confirm that we’re on for tomorrow.”
“Of course we are,” he said, a smile in his voice.
Even though she was aware of April watching her every action and expression, Vina couldn’t help the smile that instantly creased her face. “What are we doing? Will it painful?”
“I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” He chuckled “But beware; it’s going to be a worthy punishment for what you did to me last week.”
“The class wasn’t that bad.” She laughed.
“Oh yes it was,” he insisted but there was a note of laughter in his voice. “It almost crippled me. My clients kept asking me if I needed a crutch.”
“You’re such a wuss,” Vina teased. “I’m sure whatever you have planned for me, I’ll be able to handle it.”
“We’ll see about that,” he threatened ominously. “See you tomorrow at ten, dress casual.”
“Yes, sir,” Vina said. A moment later, the two said their goodnights and ended the call.
“Aw, you two lovebirds were so cute,” April oohed as soon as Vina got off the phone.
“You need to check the definition of cute.” Vina snorted. “That was not cute. That was just a normal conversation between business partners.”
“Business partner, my foot,” April scoffed. “You know Orion could be The One.”
“Please don’t start that nonsense again!” Vina rolled her eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you there is no ‘The One’ for me.”
Ever the romantic, April insisted, “Everyone has The One. And if you just open your heart-”
“Stop. Stop. Stop.”Vina held up her hand to halt her friend’s words. “April, I get it. You believe in happily-ever-after and marriage. But I don’t. I think it’s bullshit. Still, have you ever heard me come after you for being a romantic? Did I say anything when you told me you and Roman were getting married?”
“No,” April said softly.
“Then why is it so hard for you to do the same for me?” Vina glanced at her friend. “Why can’t you accept that this is just who I am. I don’t want to meet ‘The One’. I don’t want to get married.”
Vina knew she sounded snippy, but she was just so tired of people acting like her relationship choices were somehow strange just because they didn’t match everyone else’s. She just wanted to be left alone to live her life as she pleased.
April was silent for quite some time before she sighed. “I’m sorry. I guess I can be pushy about my opinions sometimes.”
“Yes you can.” Vina sighed. “But I know you mean well.”
“I do.” Her expression earnest, April added, “I just want you to be happy.”
“And I am.” Vina offered her friend a reassuring smile. “I’m very happy with my life just as it is.”
BY THE TIME Vina parked her car in front of her family’s home it was past eleven. Usually by this hour, everyone would be asleep. However, tonight the lights on the ground-floor were on. They were waiting for her. Thankfully, her father’s car wasn’t in the driveway which meant he wouldn’t be involved in whatever intervention Doo-shim had planned.
As soon as Vina stepped into the house, she was met by the sight of her mother and grandmother seated in the living-room. The two women turned at her arrival.
“You’re here?” Doo-shim greeted while Na-ri gave Vina a nervous smile
“I am.” Vina kicked off her sneakers to put on house-slippers. “You two are up late.”
“We were waiting for you,” Doo-shim said. “Come and sit down.”
“What is it?” Vina set her purse on one of the side-tables by the door before crossing the room to sit next to her mother. She gave Na-ri a questioning look, but Na-ri’s response was just a shrug as if she didn’t know what was going on either.
Doo-shim plucked a file from her lap and slapped it on the coffee table. “Stop seeing Orion.”
Well, that was dramatic! Barely holding back an eye-roll, Vina asked, “Why?”
“Because of this.” Doo-shim gave a long-suffering sigh as she pushed the file towards Vina.
Vina glanced at the file but didn’t pick it up, mostly because she was one hundred percent sure it contained intrusive information about Orion – information she didn’t need to know unless he revealed it himself
She eyed her grandmother. “Halmeoni, do you know people get sued for this kind of stuff? ”
“Is that the problem right now?” Doo-shim huffed indignantly. “Getting sued is the last thing you should be worried about when you’re involved with the son of a heathen.”
Vina’s eyebrows shot up. “Son of a heathen?”
Doo-shim turned away from Vina to glare at Na-ri. “How could you let her get involved with that man when you know about his mother?”
“Eomma doesn’t know anything about Orion or his mother,” Vina quickly rushed to her mother’s defense.
“All I know is that she used to be an announcer,” Na-ri said. “Is there something wrong with her?”
“Something wrong?” Doo-shim guffawed. “So much is wrong with her. Did you know that she got remarried after Lee Sang-joon died?”
Vina and Na-ri traded looks, but it was Vina who spoke. “No, we didn’t.”
“The disrespect!” Doo-shim huffed.
“Disrespect?” Vina was genuinely confused.
“How could she remarry and dishonor her husband like that?” the older woman clucked disapprovingly.
What? Vina frowned and, before she could stop herself, asked, “So remarrying is wrong? But dad also remarried.”
“That’s different. Men are different,” Doo-shim said. “A woman should remain faithful to her husband’s memory.”
Vina’s jaw dropped. The sheer double-standard behind the statement was so ridiculous, she didn’t even know how to point it out.
“That’s not even the worst part.” Doo-shim leaned forward and lowered her voice as if she was about to reveal a state secret. “The man she married was younger than her.”
Vina laughed. It was a low laugh but, nonetheless, her grandmother heard it and shot her a sharp look. Vina quickly covered her amusement with a gasp. “No, she didn’t.”
“She did.” After a brief pause, Doo-shim added, “And they divorced.”
“Nooo,” Vina gasped, this time she made sure that to widen her eyes and part her lips so that her grandmother could see how absolutely scandalized she was.
“She’s terrible, just terrible.” Doo-shim turned to Na-ri. “We can’t let our Im-na go to that house. I even heard that she regularly visits a shaman in Seoul. Heathens!”
“Eomma’s mom also believes in shamans,” Vina helpfully reminded her.
Doo-shim shot Na-ri a sneer.“That’s why your mother is the way she is.”
“But you still let her marry Dad,” Vina pointed out.
“Stop confusing me.” Doo-shim quickly waved away that bit of common sense before she continued with her tirade, “If it was just those things then maybe… maybe I would let you marry her son. But you know what I heard?”
Vina arched her eyebrows. “Mm?”
“I heard that half of Lee Sang-joon’s property went to charity, while his sons had to share the other half.” Doo-shim pursed her lips and frowned in apparent disapproval. “Even worse, Yoon-ah is also just as loose with her money. Rumor has it that she gives out more than half her salary to an orphanage she started back home.”
Vina didn’t even bother asking if being charitable was a bad thing because, judging from her grandmother’s expression, it obviously was.
“How are they supposed to live if they keep giving out their property like that?” Doo-shim asked.
“I think they’re living just fine,” Vina said, a hint of weariness.
“They have a lot of money now – but at this rate they’ll end up broke. How are you supposed to live with a broke husband?” The elderly woman shook her head slowly. “No way. You can’t go to that house.”
“Halmeoni, have you forgotten that I also work and I get paid pretty well,” Vina reminded her. “If Orion and I ever got married, trust me, we’d be just fine.”
“But you’ll quit as soon as you’re married,” Doo-shim reminded her. “Then what will you eat?”
Vina didn’t bother saying that she had no intention of quitting her career because it would be a waste of breath. In Doo-shim’s world, a woman’s real career was bearing kids, raising them and catering to her husband. Everything else was just a distraction.
Trying a different tactic, Vina gestured towards the file. “Everything you’ve told me is about Yoon-ah. There is nothing in there about Orion. Is his business doing well?”
Though she was frowning, Doo-shim nodded. “Yes.”
“Then we don’t need to worry about him,” Vina said. “Once you meet him, you’ll realize that he’s a very driven man. If he wasn’t, he would’ve merely sat down to enjoy his father’s money. Instead he started his own business. He’s the kind of man who’ll end making his own fortune.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Doo-shim reluctantly agreed.
“And like you said, despite their charitable endeavors, they are still wealthy,” Vina pointed out. “Lee Sang-joon has been gone for seventeen years now. If they’re not yet broke, I doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.”
Vina was quite aware that she sounded just as money-mad as her grandmother but the only way to win this game was to work within the confines of her grandmother’s flawed logic and greed.
“You’re right,” Doo-shim agreed. “But what about his mother. I don’t think we can bring her into our family.”
“Our family is hardly the poster-child for purity,” Vina reminded her grandmother. “Have you forgotten that dad has a mistress in-”
“Im-na.” Na-ri slapped Vina’s thigh to remind her that was a no-go topic. Doo-shim’s stormy expression made it clear that Vina was skating on thin ice.
Vina quickly backtracked, “I’m just saying that we’re not perfect so you shouldn’t expect a perfect man.” She added, “Besides that, I’m not exactly the catch of the century. You’re always telling me that because I’m thirty-one, I shouldn’t be too picky. Well, you’re being too picky now. If you set our standards are too high, I’m going to end up single.”
“God forbid!” Doo-shim trembled like that was the worst possible thing that could happen. It was enough to make her back off. “Okay fine. But I’m going to have to meet this Orion myself and decide.”
“That’s okay. You’ll meet him eventually, and you’ll like him,” Vina promised. “But let’s wait a little while longer. We don’t want him to think we’re too desperate, do we?”
“Of course not,” her grandmother enthusiastically shook her head.
“And given enough time, I’ll be able to read him and decide if he’s worth my time.”
“You’re right, you’re right.,” Doo-shim gave Vina an approving look. “You have so much common sense. You must get that from our side of the family.”
Vina offered her a thin smile. “Of course. Where else would I get it.” She plucked the file from the coffee table and waved it. “Let’s not tell Dad about this right now. You know how he can get.”
“Of course not,” Doo-shim agreed readily. “He’ll just ruin it. We’ll wait until we know that young man a bit more.”
And that’s how you sell ice to an eskimo. Grinning, Vina headed up the stairs to her bedroom.