Chapter 3

I set the tiger pufferfish I'd paid a fortune for off to one side.

Samuel noticed and asked, curious,

"Eric, what've you got in that foam box?"

I kept my answer vague on purpose.

"Just a fish."

The Fresh Breeze Grand belonged to Melvin Greer's family. Watching Samuel sit there with everyone fussing over him, I felt the corner of my mouth pull into a mocking smile.

I walked into the back kitchen like I owned the place and gave the staff my instructions.

"Everything in the Fresh Breeze Grand today goes on Samuel Barnes's tab. The customer is king, so every dish he orders uses the most expensive ingredients."

"Put them on every table. Don't hold back on anything."

The head chef leaned in close to my ear and warned me carefully,

"Mr. Graves, a spread this big, can the people out there actually cover it?"

The corner of my mouth ticked up.

"What the customer wants isn't ours to decide."

"All we can do is give the customer what he asks for."

Seeing how firm I was, the head chef threw himself into the work and started arranging the food and drinks.

I leaned against the wall of the back kitchen. The washing, the chopping, the searing in the wok, none of it grated on me. If anything, it settled something in me.

Little by little the kitchen filled with the rich smell of cooking.

Samuel had the look of a man without a care in the world. He'd tipped his chair back with his feet up on the table, idly fiddling with his phone, when he suddenly bellowed,

"Why isn't the food out yet? You people are unbelievably slow."

Not long after, the staff brought the dishes out in a neat procession.

"Giant deep-sea conch, seafood bisque, duck slow-braised with rare herbs and ginseng, braised premium shark-fin soup, each one plated with an eye-catching flair, a pleasure just to look at."

Brandy and fine wine were carried up from the cellar and set out at every table to breathe.

Looking at the costly dishes and drinks on the table, Samuel's freeloader friends gaped and cried out,

"Getting to eat a full-blown gourmet feast like this in my life, I owe it all to Samuel."

"A spread like this, there's no amount of envy that could get you here."

"That settles it, from now on I'm rolling with Samuel."

The Barnes relatives chimed in from the side, faces wreathed in smiles.

"Eating at a grand banquet like this, and Samuel still thought to invite us. He really is such a good, devoted boy."

"Not like that Barnes son-in-law, Eric Graves. We just wanted him to bump us up the line at the hospital, and he came up with every excuse to put us off."

"At the end of the day he doesn't carry the Barnes name. A big-shot doctor like him, why would he ever think much of poor relatives like us."

The one talking was Polly's cousin-aunt. Back then her son had only scraped a bit of skin off, yet she'd screamed for emergency treatment when there were patients ahead of him who needed surgery.

The hospital ran on triage. There was no way they'd jump her son up the line over a scratch that small.

Hearing himself praised by being measured against me, Samuel doubled over with delight. He raised his glass and launched into a grand speech.

"Thank you all, family and friends, for thinking so highly of me. Everyone eat as much as you want, do whatever makes you happy."

"As the host, I should do my duty by you all. Everything spent today is on me."

The words were barely out before the room broke into loud applause.

Everyone lifted their glasses to toast Samuel.

"To today's host, may everything go your way, may fortune pour in, may luck shine on you."

Amid all the flattery, Samuel steadily lost himself.

He stood on the platform and made his grand pledge.

"From now on, if anyone in your family comes down with an ache or a fever, just come to my brother-in-law. For my sake, he won't charge you a cent."

The words had barely landed before the whistles rolled up one after another from below.

"Samuel, you're a legend!"

"A generous guy like Samuel, that's who I respect."

Samuel's face swelled with pride at the praise.

While everyone was busy chewing through the food, he came over to where I stood and taunted me,

"Your own celebration dinner turned into my stage. Doesn't sit too well with you, does it?"

"I just love the look on your face when I've got you pinned under my foot and there's nothing you can do about it."