Short Soup

by Coleen Kwan

  Dion’s mother leaned towards her. “I see you talking to Melissa.”

  Toni nodded and couldn’t help asking, “Did she and Dion, you know, go out together?”

  Queenie nodded. “Last year, but not any more.”

  “I like her,” Dion’s dad chipped in. “She’s smart. She and Dion get on well.”

  Pursing her lips, Queenie shook her head at Kai. “Dion get on with everyone. Even ex-girlfriends.”

  That was true. For all the many girlfriends he’d had, Dion managed to stay on good terms with them after the inevitable breakup.

  “Why can’t he stick with one girl?” Dion’s dad continued. “He’s twenty-seven already. Time he picked a girl and settled down.”

  “Wah, you expect too much from him!” Queenie exclaimed in Cantonese. “You want him to succeed here, you want him to chose a girl and get married. He can’t do it all. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the right girl. Better he takes his time than choose the wrong wife and regret it later.” Stopping short, she threw an apologetic glance at Toni. “Sorry, but you know what I mean.”

  Toni was saved from answering by the arrival of the first dishes. The others oohed and aahed at the unusual appetisers, but though the food looked delicious Toni was distracted. She couldn’t stop eyeing Melissa who wafted from table to table, chatting to guests about the food, refilling glasses, and directing the waiters. The woman appeared to be good at her job and she was attractive and friendly, Toni conceded. She could see why Dion would be drawn to her. But he wasn’t any more, was he? That peck on the cheek he’d given Melissa had definitely been platonic. Maybe Melissa still had a “thing” for him but the feeling wasn’t reciprocated. Toni grimaced. Since when had she become so interested in Dion’s love life? He’d seldom discussed his girlfriends with her. He could have, but he hadn’t, and she’d never asked. And she wasn’t about to start asking now. It was none of her business.

  “Try this.” Her mother slipped a quail’s egg into her bowl. “Very tasty.”

  She sampled the egg, and then the other appetisers. The fresh, zingy flavours took her by surprise, distracting her from Melissa. Around them everyone was nodding and looking pleased, and as the next courses were served, the buzz of anticipation rose higher.

  “Ah, wonton!” Pearl leaned forward in anticipation. “Let’s see if they good as mine.”

  Toni bit into her wonton. The wrapper was silky smooth, the filling a spicy mix of pork, prawn and bamboo shoots. Eaten with the accompanying clear chicken broth, the dish was sublime, and, Toni had to concede, better than her mother’s. Not that she could ever admit that.

  “Not bad,” she said as Pearl waited for her opinion.

  “Better than not bad. He put in something different.” Pearl made a few sucking noises with her tongue. “What is it? I must ask him.”

  It was quite a while later before they saw Dion. When dinner was more than half over, he emerged from the kitchen and stopped at each table to chat to the guests. Even though he must have been working frantically in the kitchen, he managed to appear relaxed and calm as he worked the room like a pro. As Toni followed his progress, her admiration for what he’d achieved grew. Dion had never nursed any serious ambitions about anything. He’d been happy to accept whatever life dealt him. But look what he’d achieved tonight. His new menu was wowing the whole room, and he’d managed to impress his harshest critics – their parents. They were still clucking in approval, and it was plain they couldn’t be prouder of him.

  When Dion reached their table, the Chans and Laus burst out in spontaneous applause. Face pink, he bowed his head in acknowledgement. “Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said when he’d recovered. As his parents settled down, he moved closer to Toni. “Hope you enjoyed it too,” he said almost shyly.

  “Dion, your cooking is amazing. I never knew you could …” She trailed off, not wanting to blunder as she struggled to find the right words. “I’m so impressed. I’ll be coming back to Piper Bay a lot more often now.”

  “Will you?” He smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m glad you liked it. I made the wontons specially for you.”

  “Ah, your wonton,” Pearl interjected. “Very nice. You put something different in them, ah?”

  “Some pickled ginger, a little cloud ear mushroom, a dash of cognac.”

  “Mm, you show me one day. Your mother, too.”

  Dion nodded, eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Of course. No problem.”

  “You work very hard, Dion. We all proud of you.” Pearl gestured towards the room, which had become rather noisy as people waited for the final courses. “You better get back to the kitchen.”

  He nodded then turned back to Toni. “A few of us are going out to unwind after all this. Want to join us?”

  She glanced at her parents for a brief moment before replying, “Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

  “Great.” For the first time that night he gave her a genuine smile. “I’ll give you a lift home afterwards. See you later.” He brushed his fingers over her shoulder before hurrying back to the kitchen.

  “You going out with Dion?” Shen tapped his fingers on the table cloth.

  To her surprise she saw faint disapproval printed on her father’s face. “Uh, yes, Dion and some of his friends. I shouldn’t be late,” she felt forced to add, even though it was faintly ridiculous having to explain her movements to her father. She was twenty-seven, give or take a day, not seventeen.

  “Don’t be.” He continued to frown at her.

  She stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “Okay, Dad.” Honestly, why was he coming down on her? It was just a casual invitation. She’d be with Dion’s friends, who would include Melissa, she was willing to bet. Just a few friendly drinks to celebrate his success, that was all it would be. Nothing like last night would happen, she was sure of that. Still, the tingling in her blood wouldn’t die down.

  Two hours later Dion walked into the restaurant’s main room. The tables were clear, the crowd had dispersed, and just Toni and Melissa were still there, standing at the hostess desk. With Dion were Gary and Ronan, his assistant cook and kitchen hand respectively, who had just finished cleaning the kitchen with him. He had exchanged his chef’s jacket for a plain, charcoal-grey shirt and washed the smell of cooking from his face and hair. “Okay, ready to go?” he said to the two women.

  “Hell, yeah.” Melissa gave him a wide grin, her lips bright red from the freshly reapplied lipstick. With her metallic dress and killer heels she looked ready to hit a casino, not share a few quiet after work drinks. “Where’re we going? Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we drive down to Newcastle and go clubbing?”

  Behind Dion, Gary uttered a groan. “I’m too knackered to go all the way to Newcastle.”

  “Oh, pooh, you’re no fun” Melissa spun round to Dion. “How about it, darl? I’ve got my dancing shoes on, just like old times.”

  Dion’s gaze slid past her to Toni, who hadn’t moved from the hostess desk. In her bluish purple dress she looked like an untouched violet. At the sight of her his heart panged. The adrenalin rush of the opening still pumped in his veins, and he had enough energy for anything, but the last thing he wanted was to take Toni to a noisy, crowded nightclub where they’d have to shout to be heard.

  “We’ve been on our feet all day,” he pointed out to Melissa. “We’re going to the Dolphin Bar.”

  “That old place.” Melissa pulled a face before shrugging. “Oh, fine then, if that’s where you want to go.”

  Not for the first time Dion was glad he and Melissa had broken up. She was lively and fun to be with, but only in small doses. “Yeah, that’s where we’re going.” He glanced round at the others. “I’m giving Toni a ride. Anyone else need a lift?”

  “Oh, me, please.” Melissa gave an exaggerated wink. “I’m in the mood for a night out, and I don’t want to leave my car overnight outside the Dolphin Bar.”

  Suppressing a sigh, Dion ushered
the two women outside and over to his SUV. “You don’t mind the Dolphin, do you?” he asked Toni when they were briefly alone. The Dolphin Bar was an old-fashioned pub on the outskirts of town. It was a little daggy but cheerful and wouldn’t be too crowded at this time of night.

  “Not at all.” She smiled at him. “To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to traipsing all the way to Newcastle.”

  In the car Melissa insisted Toni sit up front, then spent the entire trip with her head poked between the front seats while she quizzed Toni about her future plans. “Wow, that must have been tough for you,” she said when Toni confessed she was recently divorced. “I guess you’ve gone off men for a while, huh? I don’t blame you. Men can be such pigs.” Pinching Dion’s shoulder, she snickered. “Present company excluded, of course!”

  Dion rolled his shoulder. Melissa was getting on his nerves. Usually he enjoyed her company, but not tonight.

  “Oh, Dion can be a pig too, sometimes,” Toni said. Dion gripped the steering wheel harder, shooting her a confused glance. Was she ganging up on him with Melissa? “Once he offered to give me a surfing lesson,” Toni continued, “and then left me on the beach while he tried to impress some girl with his prowess on the surfboard.” He blinked, trying to recall the incident. Hmm, maybe she was right about that. She grinned at him. “But that was a long time ago. You haven’t been a pig in quite a while.”

  He didn’t know how to respond to that. Luckily, the drive to the Dolphin Bar was already over. They parked behind the pub and met Gary and Ronan inside. As expected, the place wasn’t too full, and they managed to find a corner table away from the main bar.

  Dion ordered a magnum of champagne, much to the bartender’s surprise. He poured out a glass for everyone. Melissa banged the flat of her palm on the tabletop. “Speech! Speech! Come on, Dion.”

  He shushed her down. “Okay, just a quick word. Well done, everyone, but especially to Gary and Ronan. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

  Gary grinned. “Too right, mate.”

  Dion raised his glass. “Here’s to the Happy Palace.” Everyone joined in the toast.

  “Woo hoo.” Melissa downed her champagne in one gulp. “Refill, please.” Dion tipped a dribble of alcohol into her glass.

  “What are the bookings like for tomorrow?” Gary asked.

  “Better than expected. We’ll get a lot of people just turning up too.” For a while he discussed business with Gary. “Sorry,” he said to Toni after a few minutes. “Didn’t mean to talk shop all the time.”

  “No, I’m fascinated,” she said without a trace of sarcasm. “I’m glad you’re talking about cash flow and projections. Sounds like you have a solid business plan.”

  “My bank manager insisted I have one before he approved my loan application.”

  “Oh.” A worried frown hovered on her forehead. “I didn’t know you had to borrow money.”

  “It’s not that much. The repayments are well within my budget. Don’t look like that or you’ll start reminding me of my dad.”

  Her face cleared. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”

  When the champagne was gone, Dion got up to buy everyone a round of drinks. He returned from the bar to find that Gary had squeezed himself in next to Toni and had her deeply engrossed in conversation. Gary was thirty, single, and not bad-looking in a clean-cut way. He was hard working, innovative, and a great asset to the restaurant. Dion hadn’t thought he was a ladies’ man before, but now he was monopolising Toni like a seasoned smooth operator.

  It was none of his business. If Gary’s attentions were bothering Toni, she knew how to make her feelings clear, but she seemed to be enjoying his company. Dion’s gut snarled with jealousy.

  He passed the drinks around. Melissa began talking but he wasn’t paying her any attention; couldn’t pay attention to anything except the sight of Gary and Toni’s heads hovering together. After a few minutes Melissa gave up on him and turned to Ronan.

  It seemed Gary was going to monopolise Toni all night. Each time Dion heard her laugh, his abdomen squeezed and his knee jerked up and down. Eventually he couldn’t take it any more. Muttering an excuse, he rose to his feet and wandered towards the main bar without any real purpose except to get away from Gary and Toni.

  Someone from behind tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, Big D. Long time no see.”

  Turning, he found a thin, scruffy guy with sunken eyes standing right next to him. “Zed. Hi,” Dion greeted him without much enthusiasm. “Didn’t know you were back in Piper Bay.”

  Zed shrugged. “Sydney didn’t exactly work out.”

  The guy was scrawnier than ever, and his face had the poxy, washed out complexion of a zombie. Dion had a fair idea what the cause of that was. Zed belonged to an episode in his past he’d rather forget. He took a step back, preparing to end the brief conversation, but Zed foiled him by inching forward.

  “Hey, you looking to score some dope?” Zed muttered out the side of his crusted lips.

  Dion stiffened. “Shit, no.”

  “Dude, only asking.” Zed lifted weedy shoulders weighed down by a smelly leather jacket. “You used to ring me up all the time.”

  “That was ages ago.” Dion could feel himself quivering with anger. Jutting out his jaw, he glared at Zed. “I don’t do that stuff any more, got it?”

  The guy held up his hands. “I get it, you’re clean. Good for you, man. What about those friends of yours? They still around here?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Dion retorted. “I don’t hang out with them any more. Excuse me, I have to go somewhere.” Anywhere, as long as it was away from Zed.

  He shouldered his way past the guy and strode out to the beer garden. The cooler air wafted across the back of his damp neck. Expelling a long breath, he rubbed his fingers through his hair, trying to regain his self-control. He didn’t know why bumping into Zed had rattled him so much. Maybe it was the timing. Tonight he’d scored a significant triumph with the restaurant, but seeing his old dope dealer had brought back memories he’d rather forget.

  The beer garden was half-empty, the dim corner he stood in deserted, so he easily heard the footsteps behind him. A faint scent of perfume alerted him who it was even before he turned. Toni walked up to him uncertainly, her dark eyes fixed on him.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  No, he wasn’t okay. He couldn’t put a finger on why he felt so frustrated, only knew his body was clenched and his throat tight, almost as if he was preparing for a fight.

  “Who was that guy you were talking to?” Toni continued.

  So she hadn’t been completely immersed in Gary’s company. Good, except he wished she hadn’t seen him with Zed. He shrugged. “Just some guy I used to know.”

  “Ronan says he’s a dope dealer.”

  His head jerked up. “Oh, so now you think I’m smoking dope.”

  “I didn’t say that.” A faint crease appeared between her eyes. “Don’t be so defensive.”

  “I haven’t bought any, if that’s what you’re worried about.” At his terse reply she pressed her lips together but didn’t respond. He knew what she was thinking, though. At high school there’d been the usual amount of drug-taking amongst their peers, but they’d never been tempted. Until one day he’d brought back a tiny amount of dope and convinced her they ought to try it at least once. Just a few puffs had made his head spin and Toni had been violently sick. After that they’d steered clear of any form of drug. She’d assumed he’d stay clean like her, but now she knew he hadn’t.

  “But you used to,” she said, her voice soft, without accusation, but still it stung him.

  Unable to witness her disappointment in him, he sank onto a bench beneath the trees. “A while back,” he said. “After high school when I was bumming around with no real plans. I fell in with some people in the same boat as me. They were heavy dope users, and the stuff was always lying around. They never pressured me, but I started sharing the odd cone with them at parties, a
nd pretty soon I was smoking one almost every day.”

  “Oh, Dion.” She plunked herself down next to him. “I heard a rumour you’d been hanging out with a bad crowd.”

  He flexed his fists. “Becky, I suppose.”

  “I only found out today.” Her eyes started to shimmer. “I never knew.”

  “Why would you? You were in Sydney, studying and …” Falling in love, forging a new life, growing away from him in every way. “I had a job as a kitchen hand over at the bowling club. I was sharing a house with these guys and the whole dope thing just became part of the scenery.”

  “So you did it just because everyone else around you was doing it?” Her voice shook. “Really, Dion?”

  No, he wanted to yell. He didn’t do it to be accepted. There were other reasons, reasons he’d kept buried, reasons he’d barely acknowledged to himself. But now there was no hiding from them, not when the chief of them was sitting next to him, her baffled dismay skewering him. Without Toni he had drifted into murky waters. She was his anchor, his lode star. No way in hell could he tell her, though. He’d been dumb, but he’d be a complete moron to confess this.

  He lifted his shoulders, hating how weak he sounded as he replied, “It was just a phase.”

  “And your parents? They never knew what you were doing?”

  “Dad found out. Dropped in one day and caught me in the act.” His dad had walked in without knocking to find Dion sprawled out on the couch, glassy-eyed and vacant, the squalid living room reeking of cannabis, his paraphernalia scattered on the coffee table in plain sight.

  Toni’s hand flew to her mouth. “God! What happened? He must have been furious.”

  “Furious doesn’t come close. We had a raging argument. I’ve never seen him come so close to striking me. He told me I was a waste of space and stormed out vowing never to talk to me again unless I cleaned up my act.”

  She shook her head. “And your mother?”

  “He’s never told her.”

  “Oh. So what did you do after the argument?”

  “I knew he was right. A week later I apologised to him and said I was going to change. I moved out of the share house, stopped seeing that crowd, even dropped surfing so I wouldn’t run into them. I started work at the Happy Palace, and never smoked dope again.”