Page 36 of Hooked
All the best,
Kabisa Nandi
SOKA, Inc.
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Eight
Lunch at Café Mayameant Daisy was always working, which meant once a month, Tayla insisted they have lunch someplace other than downtown. She’d driven them to a sushi place in the strip mall off the highway, hoping it lived up to its online reviews.
“Have you been here before?” Daisy asked. “I’m so excited. We never go for sushi. Spider isn’t a fan.”
“I’ve been here a couple of times,” Emmie said. “It’s really good. As good as anything you can get in San Francisco. People just don’t come because of the location.”
“You’re just saying that because SOKA wants me to come in for an interview.” Tayla put her bag on the extra chair of the table the waitress waved them toward. “And you know I miss sushi.”
“I’m telling you that because it’s really good. It’s the only sushi place Cary’s mom will go to in Metlin.”
Cary’s mom had grown up in Japan, so Tayla gave the strip mall sushi place the benefit of the doubt. The exterior didn’t look like much, but the interior was cute with adorable pictures of cats eating sushi on the walls and a truly impressive display of origami in a corner of the bar.
“I’m telling you it’s good.” Emmie sat across from Tayla. “It has nothing to do with you wanting to move back to the hellhole of urban congestion and tech bros.”
Tayla just rolled her eyes. Emmie had mostly come around about her moving away, but she still liked to get snarky. Then again, if she didn’t get snarky, would she be Tayla’s best friend?
“What should we order?” Daisy opened the menu. “What’s good?”
“Everything I’ve ordered has been good, so what do you like?”
The waitress walked up. She was a short Asian woman with a curvy figure and her hair twisted up in a knot. The edges of her bangs were spiked and tipped with gold dye. “Hey.” She pointed at Emmie. “You’ve been here before. You can’t handle your sake.”
“You are correct.” Emmie raised her hand. “And I promise not to order any today. Also, I’m working, so I definitely shouldn’t order it.”
Tayla said, “That makes me think you should.” She opened the menu. “Why else do we work for ourselves? I’ll have a bottle of nigori and a water please.”
“I like it.” The waitress looked at Daisy. “How about you? Want a glass to share?”
“Sure. Emmie, you’re driving.”
“I guess I am,” Emmie said. “And I’ll just have a green tea. Thanks.”
The waitress wrote on her order pad. “The chef got some fatty tuna in this morning that’s pretty amazing. So that’s the special. And spicy cucumber salad with octopus. You guys have any questions?”
They conferred a few minutes before they ordered a mixed nigiri platter with the fatty tuna and a large salad to share.
Tayla watched the server walk away. She was probably nineteen or twenty with a really cool and funky style. Student at the local college? Aspiring sushi chef? Something about her style reminded Tayla of the restaurant. Fun. Cool. Unexpected. Especially for Metlin.
When the server came back with their drinks, Tayla asked her, “Did you help design the restaurant’s interior?”
A smile lit her face. “Yeah, I did! It’s my brother and sister-in-law’s place, but I’m going to school for art, so they asked me to help.” She pointed to the cat paintings. “Those are mine.”
Emmie said, “You painted them? That’s so cool. They’re really funny.”
The server shrugged. “This place is kind of quirky, you know? So I wanted to do something fun that would make my sister-in-law laugh. My brother is super serious and traditional, but she’s not.”
“I love it.” Tayla got out her phone. “Are you on Insta? What’s your name?”
“I’m Mika. Yeah, I’m on Insta, but I actually set up a website after a bunch of customers asked about my work.” She glanced at the counter. “I’ll bring you my card because I really need to get my other table.”
