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But he just rested his hand on the open door and had to hope he wasn’t making obvious heart eyes at her.
“Right.Good thing we’ve got that cleared up,” he said instead.
She darted out of the open door.“I’d better, um, get baking.Thanks again for the excellent coffee.I’ll see you later!”
* * *
Maddie
I made the Lane Cake with pandan powder.Usually pandan cakes were chiffon cakes flavoured with pandan root, but the powder was an easy fix.Plus, I wasn’t entirely sure I would have been allowed to carry an actual plant through customs.
I talked to the camera as I baked, explaining the history of the cake.A sponge cake, Lane Cake lent itself well to pandan flavour and the end result of layers of the green colour with coconut frosting was a homage to the original as well as a delicious nod to my favourite cakes in Chinatown, London.
I edited the video, fixed the lighting, uploaded it, and then walked over to the Han family’s restaurant.I knocked on the door marked “DELIVERIES” and Lara’s voice streamed out with, “It’s open!Come in!”
The tinkling of the bell, the hanging Chinese lanterns with silky red tassels, the ancient lion head on the order counter, the black lacquer with red Chinese calligraphy; it was the same as my last visit four years ago, and the same as when I’d come here as a little girl, when Lara and I had chased each other around the order counter, snapping open fortune cookies and reading them to each other.
I used to be so afraid of the lion head when I was very small.Now, it made me nostalgic and reminded me of running amok with Lara and Marcus.
She enveloped me in a huge hug.She was helping her parents prep for opening today, and she smelled of sesame oil and spring onions, and I breathed in greedily.We exchanged a flurry of greetings and exclaimed over each other’s outfits before her parents, Pete and Sarah Han, emerged from the stripy plastic curtain separating the delivery area from the kitchen.Another round of hugs followed, and then they strong-armed me into helping them prep for an hour while we caught up.
It didn’t take much effort.I loved food and being near it and making it, and while baking was my number one love, meals were a close second.
Peter offered me dinner, but I very reluctantly had to turn it down, explaining that I was meeting Rick at the diner.
“Uh huh,” Lara said, giving me the side-eye.
“He has come home from the Army ready to have babies,” Sarah said, using her huge cleaver to chop coriander at an alarming speed.
“Mom!”Lara gasped.
“Mark my words,” she said, grinning at me.
Lara shook her head at me.“She said that to his face when he first came back.The perils of a small town.”
I laughed, suppressing the urge to ask what Rick’s response had been to the suggestion of babies.The image of little tow-headed kids with his irresistible grin flashed through my mind, followed by a pang that it wouldn’t be my future.“Here.Let me take a picture for my mum and dad.”I tugged out my phone and snapped a shot of us all working away diligently in the big prep area.
I was settling in.It was good to be here with people I loved.
ChapterThirteen
Buoyed up by my time with the Han family, I practically skipped back to Jess’ place to get ready to go to the diner with Rick.The pressure to find the right outfit was on, much more so than it had been for girls’ night with Emma.
As much as I’d have liked the excuse to go shopping, I had no time, but what I did have was a best friend, so Emma and I messaged back and forth for a while until we settled on a cute, sunflower-print sundress topped with a cardigan.
I got dressed in record time, grabbed my purse and applied some lipstick just as Rick knocked on the door.
He looked tastier than ever.The tattoo of two koi carp snaked around his forearm, detailed and vibrant, and without thinking, eager to see it close up, I reached out to touch it.
A breath away, I withdrew my hand.“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”He extended his arm so I could inspect the work.“I like showing it off.”
“It’s stunning.Why koi carp?”
“My unit had these two soldiers.Brothers, Chinese-American.They each had a little tattoo of a koi on their wrists.”His jaw clenched.“We lost ‘em.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, unbelievably touched that he would honor his fallen brothers like this.“So now you wear them on your arm.”
