As she steps back to tend to her new task, I grab onto her wrist gently, promptly her to look at me. She looks at me with araised brow, confused, but then a smile reaches her eyes. “What’s up?”
I let go of her wrist, shoving both my hands in my pockets and a sheepish smile overtakes my face. “My offer to bake you cookies still stands.”
“I’ll think about it.” Serena casually responds, and a light giggle escapes her mouth.
And there goes that laugh, the one I want to add to my favorite playlist and keep on repeat.
Chapter 10
Serena
“I’m home!” I slip inside my home. I hear chatter in the dining room and the savory aromas of my aunt’s cooking.
Must be another wedding or birthday party. My aunt’s catering business has been picking up lately. Alli texted me earlier that she came over due to my aunt needing reinforcements for egg roll duty. She even brought Grant and Priya over for extra hands.
The dining room comes into view and I catch my friends focused on rolling egg rolls, scooping up the mixture, laying it in the middle of the wrapper, and neatly rolling it. Over and over again. Ralph is towering over the counter, mincing pounds of beef to make what I’m assuming is beef lahb. Aunt Lina is standing next to him as she’s packing sticky rice into sandwich bags.
Gently placing the bag of boba drinks on the counter by my friends, “What’s cooking here?”
“Five large trays of egg rolls and three large trays of beef lahb with sticky rice,” Ralph explains over his shoulders, his eyes never leaving the cutting board.
He’s become so immersed in helping my aunt with prepping her orders. Ralph has never been a bad cook. When they met at Tanya’s dinner party years ago, he fell in love with Aunt Lina’s cooking and soon enough, her.
“That’s the last of the egg rolls.” Grant shouts, wiping his hands clean with a towel. “I can’t wait to try some. Alli says they’re the best.”
“They are the best, everyone’s been placing orders for almost every fancy occasion.” Aunt Lina explains, sauntering over to where I’m standing. “Hi sweetie,” She kisses the top of my head. “How was work?”
I replay the moments in my head like her question is a remote control hitting rewind at double speed. Busy day with customers ordering slushies, milk teas, a kid threw up in the bathroom, and then Tyler. I enjoyed our little icebreaker game. It was cute and made me forget the things running in my head like my upcoming practice back into cheer.
“Work was great.” I grab my drink from the carrier and stick a straw on the top to take a quick sip of my Thai green tea.
Aunt Lina cracks a smile, a sign of relief. “Good, good. I’ve been so busy running around two different Asian stores. You know the last party I did for the Vangs?”
I nod, somewhat remembering the name in previous invoices that are stacked in Ralph’s office.
“They’ve been referring their friends to my website and orders have been coming in faster than our home kitchen can keep up with. Tanya is cooking up the rest of the sticky rice in her kitchen now.”
Oh, wow, business really is booming.
I smile to myself and feel my heart warm. There was a point where my aunt stopped accepting orders after my dad passed away, and naturally, she worried that her clients would forget about her and go elsewhere.
All the worries washed away after the break ended, her loyal customers and friends were waiting for her comeback. Her catering business has always kept her steady to the point where she didn’t need to work a 9–5 like Ralph. It brought in decent income to take care of the both of us before our family grew into four and soon enough, six when the twins come.
“Anyways,” Aunt Lina looks towards my friends, who are finishing cleaning up their mess before our movie night. “Your friends are wonderful people. I’ll bring out some egg rolls in a bit for your movie snack.”
“Thank you, Ms. Lina.” Priya chimes in next to me. “Serena is a great friend. She’s becoming my bestie, close to ranking number second on my top ten list.”
Alli joins us shortly, with Grant following behind her in seconds, boba in hand. “Ready?”
I beam in agreement and gesture a finger toward the laundry room, which leads out to the back door. “Lead the way.”
Four of us saunter into my backyard, giving a small tour of the family photos along the way. Grant laughs at my cheer photos from when I was six years old, loving my bowl haircut.
“For your information, the bowl haircut is a right of passage,” I explain. Then we learn how Grant got a bowl haircut when he was younger after his childhood barber misunderstood directions.
“It’s so cute on you, but I was a troll, an actual troll.”
Just as I’m about to turn towards the door, Priya’s voice catches my attention. “Who’s this?”
