Short Soup (3 page)

“Better than you?” Toni couldn’t help teasing her mother.

“Almost, almost! Heh.” Chuckling, Pearl wiped the mugs dry and stacked them away. “Good thing Dion take over restaurant. More free time for me and Aunt Queenie and your dad and Uncle Kai. We’re not young any more. Your dad got problem with his varicose veins. Uncle Kai got high blood pressure. Doctor tells him to slow down.”

For decades the Laus and the Chans had run the Happy Palace, taking turns to mind the children at home. They’d opened for lunch and dinner six days a week all year round with each family taking a week’s holiday during the slow winter months. The restaurant had consumed eighty per cent of their time for most of their lives, and now they were suddenly going into semi-retirement.

“You’ll still be helping out at the restaurant, won’t you?” Toni asked.

“Only when it’s busy. Dion hire new staff.”

“What are you going to do with yourselves?”

“Lots of things. Aunt Queenie and me are taking zumba classes. The husbands are going to play golf.”

Zumba? Golf? What was going on here? “I give you a month – two months tops – before one or other of you start interfering with the restaurant. Poor Dion doesn’t know what he’s in for. The four of you will be breathing down his neck, telling him how to do things.”

Pearl looked offended. “We trust Dion. He’s very good boy.”

Toni dropped her gaze to her fingers clasped together on the table top. Somehow every time the conversation touched on Dion she had a strange squirmy feeling in her stomach. That meeting at Fly Point had stirred up something in her, something she didn’t care to examine too closely. She hadn’t even mentioned to her mother that she’d run into Dion earlier.

Wiping her hands on a dish towel, Pearl sat down next to her and cleared her throat. “Are you upset we handed the restaurant over to Dion without talking to you?” she asked, a worried frown pleating her forehead. “Your
bahba
and I thought you wouldn’t mind. You have good career in accounting. You never liked working in the restaurant, and you don’t even enjoy cooking. But if you have a problem we can talk to Dion. Tonight, ah?”

“No!” Toni sat bolt upright in her chair. “Of course I don’t mind about the restaurant.”

“You don’t?” Her mother still looked doubtful.

“Dion is welcome to the Happy Palace. He’s made his life here.” He belonged here in Piper Bay, whereas she … well, she didn’t exactly know where she belonged. All her career prospects were in Sydney. At the moment she was staying with a friend, but once she landed a good job, she would find her own apartment. All signs indicated her future lay in Sydney, and she’d only be coming up to Piper Bay for the occasional weekend or holiday. “My life is in Sydney,” she said aloud as if to convince herself.

Pearl tilted her head to one side, toying with the sugar basin in the middle of the table. “Maybe you could move back here,” she said almost shyly.

Toni blinked. “And what would I do here?” she cautiously replied.

“Everybody need a good accountant.” Pearl lifted her shoulders. “Lots of new businesses here, lots of new people. They all need help with their taxes.”

Toni bit her lip. What her mother was describing was basic bookkeeping. In London she’d been involved in risk management, dealing with staggeringly large sums of money. She’d worked hard and excelled at her job. It had been an intense, rewarding environment, and she wasn’t sure she could settle for helping people fill in their tax returns, as much as that was a necessary service.

“You don’t have to live here with us,” her mother continued to wheedle. “You can rent one of those new apartments or maybe a house. Dion got a nice house with water views. Maybe he can help you find a place. Ask him when he comes over tonight.”

“Mum, listen to me.” She leaned across the table to emphasise her words. “I’m not moving back here. Next week I’ve got a job interview in Sydney, a well-paying job with good prospects. That’s where I want to be.”

Her mother pressed her lips together. She looked like she wanted to continue the argument, but after a few moments she nodded and let out a sigh. “We all happy here in Piper Bay, but we always know your future is bigger than this town. I don’t mind you live far away. I just want you to be happy.”

Toni’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s not what you used to say. Before, it was always study hard, get good grades, go to university, establish a career. What happened to all that advice?”

Pearl lifted her shoulders. “That all good advice I give you. Now I give you more good advice.”

Toni rested her chin on her hand and sighed. If her mother had simply insisted she pursue a certain career or marry a certain kind of man, it might have been easier to fulfil her wishes. Being happy was a much harder task.

Toni opened the door and grinned at Dion. “You’re just in time. Dinner’s on the table already.”

Dion’s chest twinged at the sight of Toni. She’d changed into a pink cotton dress with thin straps and a long hem skimming her ankles. The soft fabric hugged her breasts and waist, pulling his gaze to her cleavage where her turquoise and silver pendant dangled. Her hair was pulled off her shoulders into a ponytail, exposing the clean lines of her neck and jaw line. He found himself gulping. She looked even better than this afternoon. Then, he’d caught her off guard, but now she seemed back in control, her breezy greeting putting him in his place.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to keep everyone waiting,” he said, stepping into the Laus’ hallway. He automatically removed his shoes and felt the cool tiles beneath the soles of his feet.

In the dining room adjacent to the kitchen his parents were already seated at the table. Toni’s father beckoned him to sit down as Toni’s mother brought in a final dish from the kitchen. Dion slid into a seat next to Toni and tucked his legs under his chair. Over the years they must have shared thousands of dinners like this. Everything was so familiar. A white table cloth covered the table, and over that was a clear plastic covering because it was easier to wipe clean. On the table were several dishes – chow mein, roast duck, char siu, gai lan, wonton soup – and a huge pot of steaming white rice. Enough food for eight or ten people, the only concession to the warm weather being a side salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato. A family dinner like so many others. Except he didn’t feel his usual self.

He darted a glance in Toni’s direction. Sitting beside her, he couldn’t get a good view of her face, but he was all too aware of her body just a few inches away from him, close enough so he could catch a hint of her perfume every now and then. He felt like leaning in for a better sniff. The smooth skin of her neck fascinated him. What would she taste like? He found himself tilting closer, then jerked back as she swung round towards him.

“Dion? You want some duck?”

He realised she was holding the platter of meat towards him. “Uh, yeah.” Confused, he helped himself to a few pieces. Barely hungry, he forced in a few mouthfuls.

Across the table his mother narrowed her eyes on him. “New shirt, ah?”

He nodded, pretending his mouth was too full to allow speech. Not for anything would he admit he’d been late because he’d changed his shirt three times, unable to decide which one was right. He couldn’t remember when last he’d done that.

His mother’s eyes narrowed even further. “Where’s the shirt I bought you?” She nodded towards Toni’s mother. “I got it at Myers in Newcastle. Expensive brand. On sale, fifty per cent off.”

Also striped tomato-red bright enough to sear his eyeballs. He’d long ago given up trying to tell his mother about his fashion preferences. To her, the fifty per cent discount more than made up for the shirt’s garishness.

“It’s a bit hot for summer,” he improvised.

His mother shook her head and muttered something to Pearl.

Beside him, Toni whispered to him, “Is it bad?”

“Thick red and white vertical stripes. I look like a bloody barber shop quartet.”

She smothered a chortle. “You’ll have to ‘accidentally’ shrink it in the wash.”

She’d leaned closer to him to avoid being overheard, and the warmth of her body radiated over him. He became conscious of how near she was, her left thigh practically nudging against his right. A crazy desire to slip his hand under the tablecloth and caress her thigh gripped him. The tips of his fingers tingled and twitched as he imagined what she would feel like. Beneath the thin cotton of her dress her thigh would be warm and firm. His gut clenched as he struggled to control the need surging over him. When they were kids and he was going through his bratty stage, he’d sometimes annoyed her by pinching her knees under the table and getting her into trouble when she squealed and spilled her food. Funny how circumstances had changed.

“Dion, have some wine.” He became aware of Toni’s dad waving a wine bottle in his direction. Without waiting for a reply, Uncle Shen poured out a generous glassful and handed it across the table. He turned to Toni. “See, your favourite wine. Margaret River.” He topped up her already filled glass.

“Um, thanks, Dad. That’s more than enough,” Toni replied. She made a moue at Dion, lowering her voice as she added, “Dad’s under the impression I drink a lot of white wine just because of my last visit …” She trailed off, her eyes growing slightly shuttered.

Dion’s forehead furrowed. He hadn’t been here on her last visit. He’d been thousands of miles away in Hong Kong, working his butt off in a hot, strange kitchen.

“You’ve never told me much about your trip to China.” She lifted her eyes to him, a trace of hurt in them. “Just a few things on Facebook before you shut your account.”

He’d stopped using Facebook because he couldn’t bear to see all those photos she’d posted; photos of her and Nick doing happily married couple things. He stared down at his plate, his mind churning with thoughts. He was tempted to spill out a few. She’d be shocked, but so what? She was still drinking wine that reminded her of her ex-husband. Why? Didn’t she want to forget everything about the S.O.B?

“I never thought you’d travel overseas, let alone work there,” she continued. “I always thought you were perfectly happy here in Piper Bay.”

That’s how much you know about me
, he felt like retorting but knew it was only frustration getting the better of him. Toni was right. He’d never had the urge to go backpacking around the world like so many of their friends and classmates had done. But after Toni’s wedding he’d been seized by a restlessness that wouldn’t be satisfied until he was well away from Piper Bay. He’d jumped on a plane to Hong Kong with not much of a plan except to do anything to stop himself from thinking about Toni.

“I thought it was time to explore my cultural heritage,” he said to Toni, giving her the same explanation he’d given anyone else who asked.

Looking intrigued, she slurped up a noodle. “And what did you discover? Did you feel as if you’d ‘come home’?”

“I was an oddity. I stuck out like a sore thumb.” He gave a deprecating laugh. “Don’t get me wrong. I had a great time, I learned so much, but at the end of it I was glad to get back here. This is where I feel at home.”

She nodded, an odd expression in her eyes. “East, west, home’s best – right?”

Her soft words wrapped around him, and he found himself staring at her helplessly.
Toni, if only you could hear what I want to say to you
. But he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to say to her. There’d been a time when he thought he knew. Eighteen months after she’d taken off for Sydney, the eviscerating showdown with his dad had cleared the fog in his brain. He’d seen what he’d become and realised what was missing in his life – Toni, the girl he’d grown up with, the girl he’d always taken for granted, the girl he’d never contemplated in any kind of romantic light. He couldn’t explain what he felt about her, but he knew he had to tell her or he’d burst. So one afternoon he had driven down to Sydney, planning to surprise her, imagining she’d be delighted to see him. But outside her residence hall he’d got the shock of his life.

There, on the smooth lawn was Toni, rolling about with a guy. They were kissing – no, not just kissing, they were practically devouring each other; mouths glued together, arms and legs entwined, panting and groping, oblivious to the rest of the world. He’d been too stunned to move. This couldn’t be his Toni Lau? She’d always been reserved, dignified with her boyfriends. She didn’t allow them to paw at her. But here she was, practically doing the nasty right there in public.

Fury had shot through him. He’d wanted to fling that sleazy snake off her and punch his lights out. Instead, he’d turned around, walked back to his car, and vomited in the bushes.

The guy she’d been making out with was Nick Fleming; the man she’d married. The man who’d cheated on her.

Now, Dion couldn’t pinpoint what he felt for Toni. Once, he’d believed he was in love with her, but after all this time he wasn’t so sure any more. How could he tell if his feelings were real or just fantasy, the result of years of fruitless daydreaming?

“Toni, have some more wonton,” Pearl said. “I made it specially for you.”

Toni turned away, breaking Dion’s concentration. He realised the back of his neck was damp, his hand fisted on his knee, a hard cramp in the centre of his abdomen. Shit, after all these years of wishing Toni was free, now she was, but he wasn’t prepared for the physical shock of her presence.

“Thanks, Mum.” Toni beamed at her mother as she accepted a bowl brimming with clear broth and wontons. “My favourite. Haven’t had this in ages.”

Dion continued to gaze at her as she lifted the spoon to her mouth. When she pursed her lips to blow on the hot soup, his stomach clenched even harder. His emotions might be scrambled, but there was no denying what his body wanted. The years of fantasising had only sharpened his appetite.

“Mm.” Closing her eyes, she let out a sigh. “Yeah, that hits the spot.” Her eyes fluttered open, caught him staring at her. She blushed faintly. “I hope you haven’t taken my mum’s wontons off the menu at the Happy Palace.”

He cleared his throat. “No. I wouldn’t dare.” But he had altered the recipe a little, something he wasn’t going to admit right now. No point kicking up a storm of protest. Let everyone try them first and then they could criticise him if they wanted.