Because I Said So

by Karin Kallmaker

  “I don’t know what that is cooking, but it smells delicious.”

  “You will come with me.” Auntie Ivy hooked her arm with Shannon’s. “I’ll explain what everything is.”

  “I like her,” Marisol whispered. “She’s very tall and handsome.”

  Kesa felt her face burn and the hot flush spread to her ears when Auntie Ivy turned back to say, “She’s very strong,” as she gave Shannon’s arm a squeeze.

  “Goodness, lola,” Cami scolded. “Are you going to check her teeth?”

  “I already did. She’s got a nice smile.”

  Kesa made a helpless gesture at Shannon.

  Shannon gave her a wicked glance and said to Auntie Ivy, “Tell me all about Kesa.”

  “She’s a good girl. A hard worker. Not very good at Mahjong, but we like her.”

  Kesa couldn’t hear any more, especially when Cami nudged her and said, “I knew you two were on a date when I saw you at Nom Nom Pocha.”

  “It really wasn’t. I mean, if it was, neither of us knows what dating is.”

  “Do you know now?” Marisol tipped the box of tiles onto the table.

  “We’re definitely getting better at it.”

  Cami rolled her eyes. “Stop talking about sex.”

  “We weren’t,” Kesa protested.

  “But we could,” Marisol teased.

  Cami would have snarked back, but the sight of Shannon emerging from the kitchen with a laden plate sent her dashing to get her own.

  “Want to share?” Shannon lifted the plate toward her with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows.

  “Absolutely not. Are you kidding? Pinakbet is one of my favorite things. What you don’t want I’ll eat.” She pulled another chair up to the card table next to her usual place. “Sit over here. We can squeeze in together.”

  “I’ll see if I can pick up how to play this game.”

  Auntie Ivy joined them and gave Shannon a speculative look. “Do you want to learn?”

  “I’d love to. If you should ever need a fourth, it could be handy.”

  “Marisol,” Auntie Ivy called. “She wants to learn.”

  Marisol emerged from the kitchen, plate in hand. “Does she now?”

  “You’re in for it, fresh meat.” Talking out of the side of her mouth like a gangster, Kesa asked, “Did you bring cash, folding green stuff, some do-re-mi?”

  Shannon looked alarmed. “Um, no.”

  “Well, these sharks don’t give credit. I’ll stake you, but you’ll have to owe me.”

  “Okay. Sure.” Slyly she added, “I’ll pay interest.”

  Kesa giggled. “We play for pennies, but I’m going to charge you a thousand percent. You’ll have to work it off.”

  “Gross.” Cami slid into her seat across from Kesa. “You are talking about sex.”

  “Okay, we were. We’ll stop.” Kesa sighed happily as she savored her first bite of lumpia slathered with Auntie Ivy’s tamarind-orange marmalade.

  Watching her, Shannon followed suit and made a fervent, appreciative noise. “That is delicious. And I’ve never had eggplant in a stew before.”

  “It’ll be too hot next week to make it. We’ll have chicken adobo.”

  Cami wiggled happily. “I like summer.”

  Marisol began flipping tiles face down and they all followed suit. In a matter of seconds the four walls were built.

  “That was impressive,” Shannon said.

  “Four women playing Mahjong can fix the world.” Auntie Ivy tipped her head toward Marisol. “Your turn to be East.”

  It took Marisol only a moment to discard an eight-bamboo.

  “Chow.” Kesa picked up the discard and laid down her run of three. She discarded a four-dot and watched Auntie Ivy draw from her wall. Cami didn’t have a play and stuck her tongue out when Marisol played a pong of nines with Cami’s discard. The pace of play picked up and Kesa quickly had to decide if her pair would be winds or dragons. She knew Cami was hoarding dragons, so she chose to discard the North Wind.

  Auntie Ivy pounced on it and called Mahjong.

  “Damn,” Kesa muttered.

  “You lost, right?” Shannon asked.

  “I usually do. They’re sharks, I tell you.”

  “I completely missed the strategy of that. It was like you were all talking to each other in silence.”

  Marisol got up to take her plate to the kitchen. “It was a good hand.”

  “I needed that eight-bamboo you snapped up.” Cami scraped the last of her pinakbet off her plate.

  “Little good it did me. I finally had to choose between winds and dragons.”

  “She chose poorly,” Auntie Ivy said cheerily. “And that’s how I got Mahjong.”

  Shannon gave Auntie Ivy a narrow gaze. “I’m starting to see the fins.”

  “Wait until the shark teeth come out.” Kesa pointed at herself. “Voice of experience. It’s not pretty.”

  Auntie Ivy pulled all the tiles toward her to begin dealing the next hand. “Let’s play a hand with our tiles showing, no scoring, and go slow so Shannon can follow.”

  Kesa enjoyed Shannon’s warmth against her as she leaned in to look at the tiles and ask about the rules. By the third hand Shannon had the basic principles. All the while she answered a barrage of not-so-subtle questions with good grace. Yes, she knew a lot of secrets she couldn’t talk about, not even to Kesa. Yes, she had grown up in LA. No, she had never arrested anyone. Yes, she was vested in the Federal Employees pension plan.

  They took a break to have generous helpings of the scrumptious mango float Marisol had made. Though it was a little sweeter than Kesa generally liked, there was nothing better than the crunch of the graham cracker and all that whipped cream and slices of mango in every bite.

  “I remember way, way back this was something my mother made for us,” Kesa said. “What do you think?”

  “It’s simple and really good.”

  Kesa glanced sidelong toward the other three women who were chatting over their plates. “And? What do you think?”

  “When you said they were like your family, I get that now. They care about you a lot.” Shannon juggled her plate as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

  “They like you. I can tell.” Kesa didn’t know what to make of the odd expression that crept over Shannon’s face. She finally asked, “What is it?”

  In answer Shannon held the phone out so Kesa could see an email. “Please see attachment?”

  Shannon tapped and the PDF opened. It was a letter from Integrity Investigations in Seattle. Her heart gave a painful thump as she took in the first sentence. “A job offer? I thought you weren’t—”

  “I’m not. I wasn’t—I mean, I got a letter last week with an opening in Seattle and I told them I wouldn’t relocate. I thought that was that. Your work is here, so I’m here too.”

  Auntie Ivy and Marisol sensed that it was a good time to take more dishes to the kitchen. Cami watched their exchange as if it were a tennis match.

  Kesa asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want you to worry.” Shannon gulped. “Which is what you’re doing now. Okay, I see the error of my ways. I’m still getting used to not being secretive.”

  Kesa made a mental note to bring that up when they didn’t have an audience. “So what is this about?”

  “Scroll down.”

  The flutter in her heart got worse. “That is a boatload of money. Two boatloads.” She felt faint.

  “Scroll down some more,” Shannon urged her.

  The tiny print wavered in her vision. “They’re opening an office in Los Angeles this fall?”

  “Yes. And it’s a boatload of money.”

  “But you love the Marshals Service.”

  “I really do.”

  Kesa’s heartbeat steadied. For a moment it had felt as if every happy dream of the last few weeks was about to be snatched away. She would do better at trusting in their future. Shannon wanted to be with her.

&
nbsp; Her voice shook slightly as she asked, “So what are you going to do?”

  “I think,” Shannon said slowly, “I think we should play another hand and talk over what we’re going to do.”

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