Single Sashimi (15 page)

Esme sighed. “Wow, you took care of that so well—”

“I’m not done yet.” She marched out to the lobby and approached Mr. Whittaker. “Gerry will be out momentarily. We apologize for the wait.” She turned to Darla with a glittering smile. “Darla, sweetie, can I see you for a quick moment?”

Darla stopped mid-chew, giving Venus a nice view of her pink gum smashed against her molars.

“Close your mouth, dear.”

She closed it. “But the desk—”

“It’ll only be a minute.” Venus showed more of her teeth.

Darla rose slowly, like a guillotine victim mounting the steps to her doom. Which wasn’t too far from the truth. Venus followed closely behind her into the hallway. “My office, dear.”

The three of them entered Venus’s office. Esme closed the door, and Darla jumped at the sound.

Venus didn’t sit down. She stood in front of her desk and took full advantage of her heels to look down at the hapless girl. “The next time a man in a three-thousand-dollar Versace suit walks into the lobby, you do
not
play computer games while he’s standing there.”

“I wasn’t—”

Venus stopped her with a finger in her face. “Don’t. Lie. To. Me.”

Darla closed her mouth and started to shake.

“You also don’t call Gerry when both you and the man in the three-thousand-dollar Versace suit can hear her all the way in the lobby. You get your lazy butt up off that chair, and you go to Gerry’s office to let her know that a man in a three-thousand-dollar Versace suit is waiting to speak to her.”

“I didn’t know he had on a three-thousand—”

“You treat every person who walks through those doors as if they have on three-thousand-dollar suits. You will also get rid of your gum.” Venus grabbed her trash can and held it in front of Darla’s face. She spit it out. “And you will start dressing like a receptionist. None of this stuff.” She flicked at the faux pink fur glitter shell top, which Darla had paired with a black leather miniskirt and black boots.

Darla’s cheeks turned as pink as her top. “I can dress the way I want to.”

Venus brought her face close. “Sure you can. And I’ll speak to Drake and get you sacked within the hour.”

Darla sniffed and raised her chin. “Gerry and Drake are my cousins.”

No wonder they kept this little tramp. “Good. Because there shouldn’t be nepotism in a company, anyway.”

Darla’s eyes glazed over. “Nepo…po…”

“Nepotism. Hiring one’s relatives. Bad business practice.” Venus crossed her arms.

Darla looked both confused and frightened, and not sure what she was confused or frightened about.

“Get back to work.” Venus was about to grab the door handle, but Esme anticipated her and opened the door for her. Darla shuffled out.

Esme closed the door behind Darla, then clapped her hands together. “You were wonderful!”

Her enthusiasm startled Venus, but after a second, she gave a small smile. “Thanks.” She would have been more friendly, but her annoyance at Darla didn’t quite take the place of French Roast. She dropped her purse on the floor. “About the Web director—let me get some coffee, and I’ll look into it.”

Esme followed her to the break room. “I haven’t told anyone else about it yet except Gerry.”

“Who just told everyone—oh, man!” The coffeepot was empty. Venus resisted the urge to bang it against the counter.
Deep breath. Just make more coffee. Just a few more minutes.
She reached in the refrigerator for the bag of Starbucks. “The other programmers probably already know by now. I’ll talk to them about taking up the slack for the next few days. Who’s next in charge?”

“Lisa.”

Oh, no. “The girl Gerry was chewing out?”

Esme bit her lip and nodded.

Venus filled the pot with water. “I’ll give her a few minutes and then talk to her.”

“I, umm…might have a solution?”

Venus poured the water in, then switched on the coffeepot. “I’m all ears. Got a Web director up your sleeve?”

“Uh…actually, my friend Macy is a Web director, and she’s looking for a job.”

Venus whirled and stared. She remembered to close her mouth after a second. “You’re kidding me.”

“No.”

“Is she good?”

Esme smiled. “She’s very good.”

“Tell her to send her resume—”

“I have it, actually. I’ll email it to you.”

The smell of coffee rose from the pot. Venus had to stop herself from hovering over the machine to suck up the fumes. “I’ll look at it today.” Could this be the answer to her problem, so easily taken care of? “Thank you
so
much.”

She grinned. “Glad to be able to ease some of the stress from today.”

Esme had been invaluable last week. She’d told Venus of problems immediately, fixed the ones that she could, efficiently did everything Venus asked her to, and never seemed annoyed when Venus was feeling peevish. “Esme, I couldn’t have asked for a better operations manager.”

It came out of her in a rush. She wasn’t used to dealing with women so well—aside from her cousins, who loved her almost because they had to.

“Thanks.” Her smile grew brighter.

“Where did you work before here?” Venus dragged her eyes away from the pot. Coffee in a few minutes, coffee in a few minutes…

“A small startup. It died after only a few months.” Esme peeked up at Venus with shining eyes. “I heard you worked for Oomvid.”

Her favorite subject. “I did.”

“You were laid off?”

“No, I quit.” And good riddance.

“You quit?”
Esme’s mouth hung open, exposing her pearly bottom teeth.

“Um…yeah.”

“Why would you ever quit Oomvid?” She said it in a tone like asking someone why they’d tear up a winning lottery ticket.

Venus paused to pick her words. The gaming community was dangerously small, and even though Bananaville wasn’t a game development company, some of these programmers could switch over to the dark side one day. “I wanted the opportunity to be CTO, and I also was tired of a large company. I missed the environment of a small startup.” Hey, that actually sounded rather good.

“But…” Esme bit her lip again, making a cherry-red mark. “But it was
Oomvid.
”

“It was Oomvid, not Mecca.” Ooh, her tone had been a bit sharp. “I thought and prayed a lot before deciding to quit.” Did ten minutes count as praying a lot?

“Oh, well if you prayed…”

Wow, Esme was Christian? “Do you go to church?” The coffeepot burbled, signaling the end of Venus’s pain and torture. She grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured it to the brim.

She slurped some from the edge.
Bliss.

Esme’s eyes brightened. “Oh, yes. I go to—”

“Darling!”

Venus nearly spit out her coffee. She turned to the break room doorway, where a figure in cream wool and ostentatious pearls sashayed inside.

“Mom! What are you doing here?”

I
came to see my daughter!” Mom struck a pose in the middle of the break room, which would have been rather funny if it hadn’t been in the break room of
her
company.

“It’s a little early for you, isn’t it?” Luckily, it was early for most—although not all—of Bananaville too, and the break room was empty except for her and Esme.

“Hello, dear, I’m Venus’s mother, Laura Sakai.” Mom’s eyes had lighted on Esme, and the look in her mother’s eyes made Venus gnash her teeth.

Mom used to have the same look at family parties when she greeted Venus’s skinnier, prettier cousins. Not quite embarrassed of her gargantuan daughter, but not quite acknowledging familial ties with her either. Obviously admiring the other girls while trying to ignore the fact her own daughter disappointed her.

And even when that daughter became skinnier and prettier (although still not as stick-thin as aforementioned cousins), she disappointed her mother because she didn’t suddenly turn into the compliant half of a picture-perfect mother–daughter duo that Mom had wanted all those years. No, Venus wasn’t about to suddenly fall in with Mom’s idea of how a good daughter would make
her
look.

Hence the exuberant charm exerted for Esme, who dressed in flowy feminine dresses instead of power suits with masculine lines, who stood a good six inches shorter than Venus (ten inches shorter than herself in heels), who was only twenty-five, and who had the sweet and pleasing demeanor Venus had never perfected.

“So how do you like working for Venus?” Mom’s question seemed innocent, but Venus read the bite behind her words.
How difficult is it to work for Venus?
Why did Mom seem to want to embarrass her so often?

Esme, however, didn’t fall for it. “Oh, she’s wonderful! So efficient and organized.” She gave a bright smile to Venus. “I haven’t worked with anyone so professional in any of my other jobs.”

Mom’s sugary expression faltered.

Was she serious? Venus tended to intimidate her coworkers or incite cattiness. Esme seemed to actually
like
her. “R-really?”

Esme rolled her eyes. “I can’t begin to tell you the kind of incompetence I’ve had to put up with.”

That sounded like something Venus would say. Sunlight flickered into the dark room that was her heart. “I enjoy working with you too.” What a strange feeling. She was getting along with a woman who wasn’t one of her cousins.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, dear.” Mom’s voice cut into their fuzzy-wuzzy moment, slicing with its hard edge. “Venus, I need to talk to you.”

“Fine. Let’s go to my office.” She turned and walked out, sipping her coffee. She did
not
want to face her mother unloaded.

Mom followed her out. “What do you mean, ‘fine’? That’s so rude. I thought I raised you better.”

“You didn’t raise me, Mom.”

She sniffed. “You
chose
to live with your father.”

“Because Dad never made me feel unworthy just because I was fat.” She flung open her office door.

“I never made you feel unworthy.” Righteous indignation, but more affronted rather than hurt by her words. Venus had no illusions about how much her mother loved her.

“You also never visited me at work or called me to go to lunch until
after
I’d lost weight.” Venus shut the door behind her mother.

Why did she keep revisiting the old argument? Why did it still sting? Why couldn’t she just let it go? This was completely illogical, and Venus was never illogical. Well, mostly never.

“Mom, let’s just forget it. I’m glad you came by to see me.” Would God forgive that lie if it was meant to make her mom feel better? Good intentions counted, right? Do unto others—she’d want someone to lie to her.

Mom’s mouth still pinched, but she perched on the edge of the chair across from Venus, who sat behind her desk.

“So, Mom, what are you doing today?”

“Obviously not as much work as you.” She sniffed.

Venus counted to ten. Then she did it again for good measure. “Did you want to go to lunch today?”

“No, since you’re so busy.”

Venus dug her nails into her thighs under the desk. “Mom, I really am busy. My Web director quit this morning, I had to reprimand an employee, and it’s not even eight o’clock yet. If you’re going to be difficult, you can leave now and I’ll call you tonight.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how they sounded. Oh, no.

Mom’s nostrils flared, her bosom heaved, and her back was so straight, Venus wondered if it would snap like a ruler. But she exhaled long and hard through her nose, then settled back into her seat. “I came by to ask you about a dinner party I’m throwing in a couple weeks.”

“When?” Venus opened her PDA.

“Saturday the seventeenth.”

Venus’s stomach burbled like a sulfurous hot water spring. Oh, brother. This was going to totally hack her mom off. “I can’t.
Yeh-yeh’s
—I mean, Dad’s father’s seventieth birthday party is that night.”

“So your father’s family is more important than me?”

Here we go.
“Mom, it’s Grandpa’s
seventieth birthday.
It’s a big deal in Chinese culture.”

“Because obviously your Chinese side is more important than your Japanese side.”

Sometimes, Venus wondered who was the child and who was the parent. “I don’t have time to discuss this, Mom. Did you have anything else you needed?”

“For a Christian, you’re terribly mean to your own mother!” Her voice broke.

Venus squeezed her temples with her thumb and fingers, but her nails bit into the skin. She wanted to laugh and scream at the same time. Her selfish, hypocritical mother talking to her about God.

Honor your father and mother.

No, she didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to remember that verse. Sometimes she wondered if she’d spent most of her life—post-divorce, anyway—avoiding that particular commandment. It simply wasn’t possible. Her mother was too much. “I’m not arguing with you, especially about a religion you know nothing about.” After all, wasn’t a mother supposed to love her children?

“So now you’re saying I’m stupid!” Her voice rose past the whiney stage straight to hysterical. “My own daughter calling me names!”

“Mother—”

“After all I’ve done for you! I bore you in my body for nine months. You gave me terrible back pains and even worse, you gave me
varicose veins
!”

Venus winced at the shriek in her voice. Everyone in the building could hear her. “Mom!”

“And all I get is your smart mouth. Well, you certainly didn’t get that from me. And you didn’t get your hips from me either, thank goodness. No one can blame me for giving you bad genes—you got that all from your father!”

What? “Mom, everyone can hear—”

“I don’t care if they hear me! They all need to know I have an ungrateful daughter who can’t even come to a small dinner party. She’d rather spend the evening with an old man—”

A brisk
knock, knock
was the only warning before the door opened. Drake walked in. “Venus, I—oh, hello Mrs. Sakai.” His face blossomed, and Venus’s heart blipped in response even though he wasn’t even looking at her. “I’m Drake Yu. I don’t know if you remember me, but my mother introduced us at your mother’s last Christmas party. It’s so nice to see you again. You’re looking well.”

Mom preened and actually batted her eyelashes. “Why, thank you.” Gone was the harpy of only a few seconds ago. Venus wanted to hang her head in her hands. Her mother switched moods faster than an Intel processor.

Drake touched her elbow and raised her to her feet. “I’d love to introduce you to my sister, who’s the founder of the company…”

Behind her mom’s back, but visible to Drake, Venus opened her eyes wide and made a neck slashing motion with her hand.
Bad idea.

“…right after I get you comfortable in my office. Here, let me get the door. Can I get you some coffee? There’s a wonderful Vietnamese coffee shop across the street. Let me get, uh…”

Venus mouthed to him,
Darla.

“… Darla to get us some while we chat. How have you been the past year? My mom says she sees you in Japantown every so often…” The door to her office closed behind them.

Venus deflated and plastered herself over the surface of her desk. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t bad enough the Web director had quit, but she had to deal with her mother at this insane hour of the morning, only to be rescued by Drake of all people. She hadn’t even finished her first cup of coffee. She really needed chocolate.

She opened her stash drawer and took out her 72% dark chocolate bar, but the bitterness made her tongue curdle. This just didn’t cut it.

She forced herself to swallow more coffee instead. She’d love some Vietnamese coffee, sweet and strong enough to melt your teeth…
No, you have more self control than that.

The door suddenly opened and Drake walked in. “The drama queen has left the building.”

“So soon?”

“Bruce Whittaker was walking out of Gerry’s office just as we got into the hallway, and the two of them decided to go for coffee together.”

Oh, the gray-haired man. “Excuse my ignorance, but who’s he?”

“Potential investor, friend of my father.”

“Ah.”

Drake dug into his pocket and handed her a small orange package.

Reese’s peanut butter cups.
Venus almost swooned. Her mouth began to water like a bubbling mountain spring. She closed it, but that made her breathe through her nose, and the chocolaty peanut butter scent filled her sinuses and her lungs with a sugar buzz. “I don’t eat chocolate.”

“You need this.” He dropped it on the desk in front of her.

Defying her brain, her fingers felt the crisp ridges along the edges of the packaging. “I don’t eat Reese’s—”

“Now you’re lying.”

“—anymore.” He remembered? “A lot has changed. It’s been six years.”

“It’s been five years and five months since you walked out of my office, and you were so upset with me that you left an entire box in your desk drawer.”

Oops. Busted.

“You look like you’re going to bite into it without unwrapping the package.”

That wasn’t too far from the truth. She sighed, then ripped it open.

It melted on her tongue. Salty and oh, so sweet. A little sticky, but not gooey She groaned. She hadn’t had one in
years.

Without even asking her, Drake reached out and broke off a piece from the other cup. Popping it into his mouth, he asked, “So, that’s your mother?”

She groaned an entirely different groan.

Venus couldn’t look away.

Josh, a tall high school boy, clutched his stomach with one hand while the other still held the half-eaten slice of pizza. Except it was no ordinary pizza—this one had gobs of dried red pepper flakes piled on top of it. Sweat streamed down his face, and he grimaced as he chewed.

Herman sat next to him, the instigator of this agonizing “game,” wincing as he gathered the courage to take a bite of his own pizza, also loaded with red pepper flakes.

First one to finish won.

The high school kids gathered around, cheering and laughing. They loved challenging Herman because he was up for anything. Including excruciating bites of food that would probably melt his intestines tomorrow.

Leaning against the wall next to Venus, Rachel huffed. “He’s supposed to be my date for the Monster’s Ball, and now he’s going to be too sick to go! I’ll kill him!”

Naomi tittered. “If the pizza doesn’t kill him first.”

“You actually have a Monster’s Ball?” Venus studied Rachel’s face to see if she was just pulling her chain.

“Well, it’s just a ball where the girls dress up and the guys dress grungy.” Naomi sighed, echoed by a couple of the other teens.

“And it’s in a couple weeks?”

“The weekend before Halloween.”

“Do you guys dress as something?”

“We try.” Sarah gave a sigh that came up from her gut and emptied her lungs.

“Oh, ignore her.” Rachel flapped a hand in her direction. “She’s still peeved her mom wouldn’t let her go as a belly dancer last year.”