Page 88 of Worth Fighting For

Brooke Tanaka arrives, looking as frazzled as she’d sounded on the phone. She hugs and kisses everyone. “You all look incredible,” she says. “How are the drinks?”

“Perfect,” I say.

Brooke beams. “Susie’s a genius. No, table twelve can’t have peonies, because Gilly Anders is allergic.”

I’m confused for a moment, then I realize that Brooke is speaking to her earpiece. Brooke sighs and turns back to us. “I don’t know why I thought being an event manager was a good idea.”

I nudge Mushu, and she stumbles forward a little. “Uh, Brooke, I was wondering if I could pick your brain about event planning one of these days?”

Brooke’s mouth drops open. “Mushu! Are you thinking of doing it?”

“Maybe?”

“Oh my gosh! You are going to be brilliant at it. This is totally your calling.”

Mushu smiles bashfully. “Really?”

“Yes. You’d be perfect at this. No better job in the world—wait, why are they removing the lilies? Gotta run.” With that, Brooke rushes off.

Mushu turns to us, her eyes shining. “Phew, the adrenaline.”

I grin at my cousin. I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen her this excited about something.

“Mulan,” someone calls out.

We all turn to find Auntie Jiayi.

“Dang,” Mushu says.

I agree with her. Auntie Jiayi has opted for a shiny black gown worthy of the Met Gala. It has a stiff collar that plunges into a deep neckline, revealing very ample cleavage. Gone is the timid, quiet, unassuming auntie I knew. In her place is an empress.

“Auntie Jiayi,” I say, “you look—Wow.”

“Thank you, dear, you look very nice, too. And you, Mushu, very sexy.”

I introduce Auntie Jiayi to Alicia, who thanks her profusely for the whiskey donation. Susie presents Auntie Jiayi with the cocktails, and Auntie Jiayi downs the Wellness Drink in one long gulp. When she sees us staring, she shrugs and says, “Oh, I don’t want to be sober when my brothers come here, they will give me headache.”

“They agreed to come?” I say nervously.

“Yes, of course. I tell them it’s big event with many businesspeople for them to make new contacts with.”

“Did you tell them the businesspeople are all going to be women?” I say.

Auntie Jiayi gives me a look and starts in on the punch. Her heavily lashed eyes widen. “Oh my, this one is very nice, like drinking a dessert.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Susie says.

“Hang on,” Alicia says, “so your brothers, who make up the rest of the board of directors, don’t know that this is the Women Entrepreneurs Awards ceremony?”

“No,” Auntie Jiayi says blithely, drinking more of the punch.

Worried that this might annoy Alicia, I say, “Um, I think—”

But a devilish grin has appeared on Alicia’s face and she says, “Excellent. I love shenanigans. I love them even more when they involve showing men that women should be taken seriously.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Right, Mushu and I are going to, uh, make ourselves scarce for a while. There’s a real danger that the Li family might leave once they see me, and I want to make sure they have some time to take all this in and see the reactions of the guests to these cocktails.”

Auntie Jiayi reaches out and squeezes my hand before giving me a nod that says:You’ve got this. Mushu and I walk out of the ballroom and locate the powder room. Fortunately, the Regency Court is so fancy that the bathroom has chaise longues in it. We settle down and exhale slowly.

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