Chapter 2

I picked up the paper Bess had crumpled.

「Why does it say two hundred dollars off if the utilities come up short even once?」

She snatched it back and threw it in the trash.

「I was just filling out a chart, it doesn't mean anything.」

「Four of us live together, everything has to be written down, so nobody argues about it later.」

I asked why the money had to be sent to her.

My daughter's face darkened.

「Mom, what are you saying? You think I'm cheating you out of money?」

「I'm your own daughter. You don't even trust me?」

That one line, your own daughter, choked off everything I'd meant to say next.

And I ended up thinking I was the one reading too much into it.

Every bit of her tuition, all her living expenses growing up, had passed through my hands.

When she needed money she just asked. There was no reason to go around in some big circle.

After that, the menus Bess sent me only got longer.

Delia wanted diet meals.

Julia got hungry at night, so I had to have late-night snacks ready.

Jemima had a boyfriend now, so every time I had to make an extra portion.

What they ate, what time they ate, all of it came to me from Bess.

One grocery run cost me three or four hundred dollars, at least.

Every time I asked about the grocery money, she'd say:

「We'll settle up at the end of the month.」

Later that turned into:

「Nagging over a few hundred dollars makes it look like our family is broke. Don't embarrass me.」

I stopped asking.

Bess's father died young.

I was afraid people would look down on her.

If she wanted to save face in front of her roommates, and I could carry a little of it for her, then I'd carry a little more.

One day, Bess called me out of nowhere.

「Mom, come over tomorrow.」

「Grayson Head's coming to eat for the first time. Make a few extra dishes.」

Grayson was her boyfriend.

I told her the diner had a birthday party booked, a whole table, I couldn't get away.

She got worked up right away.

「This is the first time I'm formally having him over, and you can't tell what matters more?」

「His family's well off. Both his parents have solid, respectable jobs.」

「If we end up getting married someday, don't you want to make a good first impression?」

The moment I heard the word married, I gritted my teeth and said yes anyway.

That birthday party was booked by a regular.

I called to say I suddenly couldn't take it, and the man on the other end was quiet for a long while.

「Joy, I set this up with you a week ago.」

「If you can't do it now, I'll just have to go somewhere else.」

Before he hung up, he added:

「And I won't be ordering from your place anymore.」

I held the phone, sick to my stomach.

But it was the first time my daughter was bringing a boyfriend home. I couldn't let her lose face.

The next day I bought sea bass, pork ribs, and two pounds of jumbo shrimp.

Bess met me at the door, and the second she saw the apron I'd brought, she frowned.

It had the diner's name printed on it.

「Why did you wear that here?」

「You can't cook without an apron, or your clothes get dirty.」

She yanked the apron off me and stuffed it into a cabinet.

「Grayson doesn't know either, so don't slip up in front of him later.」

I asked her what she'd told Grayson.

She kept her head down, smoothing her clothes.

「I said our family owns a few restaurants.」

「That my dad's away doing business most of the year, and my mom handles the books and doesn't really cook.」

For a long moment I couldn't say anything.

Her father had been dead more than ten years.

His grave was up in the hills west of town.

Every year we went to visit him together, just the two of us.

And now, to make her boyfriend think the family had money, she'd turned her dead father into a man off doing business somewhere.

And turned me, the woman who stood at the stove every single day, into an owner's wife who never went near a kitchen.

After Grayson came in, Bess introduced me the same as always:

「This is Aunt Joy.」

「She used to work for our family. She cooks all right.」

Grayson didn't so much as say hello. He just handed me his coat.

「Hang this up for me, would you.」

At the table he complained the sea bass had too many bones, then said the shrimp weren't fresh enough.

I explained I'd bought them that morning.

Bess cut me off at once.

「Aunt Joy, stop butting in.」

「We're talking. Go clean up the kitchen.」

I carried the empty plates back to the kitchen.

Grayson's voice drifted after me.

「That maid of yours doesn't really know her place, does she.」

Bess gave a little laugh.

「She's from a small town. Never been anywhere.」

「Don't hold it against her.」

Grayson asked again:

「How much a month?」

「A maid like that should be pretty cheap, right?」

Bess paused.

「She's someone we know. It doesn't cost much.」

The plate in my hands nearly slipped.

After the meal, Grayson pushed the half-plate of leftover shrimp toward me.

「Pack it up. I'll take it to the office tomorrow.」

Delia set a bag of dirty clothes by the kitchen door too.

「Aunt Joy, there's room in the washer, just throw these in while you're at it.」

I kept at it right through the evening.

When I left, Bess didn't ask how the birthday party had gone.

She only reminded me:

「Don't buy sea bass next time. Grayson doesn't like anything with a lot of bones.」

I picked up my phone to look for a bus back to town.

On the kitchen counter, Bess's phone lit up all at once.

Three payment alerts popped up one after another.

【Delia: Maid fee, six hundred.】

【Julia: Maid fee, six hundred.】

【Jemima: Maid fee, six hundred.】

I looked up.

Bess was standing in the doorway, her face gone white.