Weddings and Wasabi by Camy Tang Page B

drama-queen teenager.

    But how could she know that this path was right for her or not? She needed a sign.

    God, please give me a sign. Anything to help me know what Your will is.

    Until then, all she could do was prepare for Trish’s wedding as best she could. And hope God wouldn’t strike her down with lightning. Or worse, send a freak hailstorm to destroy all her Malaysian basil plants. That would certainly answer her question about if this was His will or not.

    Mimi nabbed a carrot and crunched it. “One day, we’ll all work for you in your own restaurant, Jenn.”

    “I wish,” she said.

    But Mika, Sarah, and Karissa were nodding as if it were completely possible.

    “Why would you want to work in my restaurant? Won’t you all want to run restaurants of your own?”

    “I need to learn all your secrets first.” Sarah winked.

    “It’s too much work,” Mimi said. “Remember, I’ve seen first-hand how to run a restaurant.”

    “That’s flattering, guys, but I need to crawl before I can walk.” A restaurant of her own—she’d love it. The freedom to create her own dishes, to change the menu anytime she wanted, to experiment. Suddenly, that dream didn’t seem so far-fetched, because she wasn’t chained to Aunty Aikiko’s restaurant. But first she needed to get this catering business off the ground. “Let’s practice the appetizers really quickly.”

    “Won’t most of that already be pre-made?” Mimi asked.

    “Yes, and we’ll   only have to pop them into the oven in timed batches. But I want to practice so Sarah can get the timing and frying temperature down for the Asian popcorn chicken, and so I can see how many of the French savory pastries we can get done for each of her batches.”

    “I know the Malaysian basil isn’t quite ready yet,” Sarah said, “and we’ll be practicing with regular basil for today, but can we do a batch or two with a little Malaysian basil? I don’t know if it’ll wilt differently from regular.”

    “Good point. I’ll go out and get some.” Jenn took off her apron and headed out the back door.

    The sunlight greeted her, but her thoughts were still stormy. What if she was going about this all wrong? What if God wanted her to work for Aunty Aikiko? Really, would it be that bad?

    Yes, it would be that bad. She’d be a drudge, and Aunty would be able to treat her that way because Jenn was family. Jenn wouldn’t have any outlet for her creativity, just overseeing the same dishes week after week, month after month, year after year.

    One of the goat kids left off playing with his (her?) sibling and approached Jenn. Aw, how cute, it wanted to come to her …

    No, it bypassed her completely, instead traveling around the side of the porch toward the gate guarding the basil plants.

    It was then that she noticed sounds coming from the side of the house. Suspicious sounds. Like plastic pots being crunched by goat hooves.

    The basil!

    Jenn bounded off the porch and turned the corner.

    The gate to the basil was open. Unlatched.

    And Pookie stood in the midst of a chaos of overturned pots, contentedly munching on a Malaysian basil plant.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

    Aunty Aikiko had gotten her ultimate revenge.

    Jenn supposed she deserved it, after attacking Aunty’s home with a stealth infantry armed with water cannons.

    “I’m sorry,” Mom moaned, sinking into the living room sofa. “I didn’t see anything wrong with letting Aikiko look at the basil. I watched her very carefully while she was in there.”

    “It’s not your fault, Mom.” Jenn dropped onto the sofa next to her parent. “It would have been rude to refuse her.”

    They sat there, side by side, in silence. Jenn felt like she had the one time when she discovered the dog really had eaten her homework, a cake for one of her high school home ec classes.

    Like a CSI, Jenn had examined the gate. No sign of forced entry. Meaning it had been left unlatched when Aunty Aikiko left.

    Jenn had