Reboot Pt. 02

In order to make sure things went flawlessly for the actual event, they planned a trial run that week. Rose started work on Wednesday afternoon, and Jenna joined her after her delivery run. Dinner that night was pizza at home, something Rose tried hard to avoid, but sometimes you just have to.

Thursday was easier, since most of the hard work was already done. After she finished her deliveries, Jenna stopped at their favorite fish market for a salmon filet, and Rose picked up the fresh produce. Another hour in the kitchen and they were ready to go. Jenna loaded the equipment into the van while Rose packed up the food. A few things, like the poached salmon, had to be done in the client's kitchen. For the trial run, the clients/guinea pigs would be Sarah and Meaghan.

Jenna pulled into the garage, parked in one of the guest spaces, and opened the rear hatch to unload the van. Rose appeared beside her, wearing a faint smirk, and grabbed the big freezer bag that held the food.

"What?" Jenna asked.

"What what?" Rose replied, her face suddenly the picture of innocence.

"You had a look," Jenna said. "Don't pretend you didn't."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rose said. "And I wouldn't tell you even if I did."

Jenna rolled her eyes. She knew Rose would never give up her secret, and there was no point pushing it any further. They made their way to the elevator and from there into Meaghan and Sarah's place. Outside the living room window, the sun was low in the sky over the Olympic mountains across the Sound. In an hour or so, it would burn like molten gold on the horizon and paint the clouds in brilliant oranges and pinks.

"Thank you so much for doing this," Rose said to Meaghan as soon as they were through the door. "We really appreciate it."

"Thank you?" Meaghan asked. "You're coming to my house and feeding me a gourmet dinner. I should be thanking you, sweetie."

"Fair enough," Rose replied. "Just promise you'll be honest about everything. This job is really important, and we want to make sure everything's perfect."

"I promise," Meaghan replied. Jenna knew from experience that Meaghan's critiques could cut to the bone when they needed to.

Jenna and Rose went into the kitchen to set up while Meaghan changed the baby and put her into a clean onesie. About ten minutes before everything was ready, the front door opened, and Jenna walked over to the kitchen door to see who it was. Sarah appeared, laptop bag over her shoulder, along with an unexpected guest. Jenna's jaw dropped open when she saw the person who accompanied Sarah - it was Sumita.

"Hey, Jenna," Sarah said, not noticing Jenna's expression. "I wanted to be home a little earlier, but traffic..."

Sarah's head tilted to the side, her eyes narrowed, and her brow knit itself into a confused frown. "Wait," she said. "Rose didn't tell you, did she? I called her this morning and asked if I could bring Sumita along. I thought you might appreciate another taster, and everything's supposed to be vegetarian except the fish. I hope that's okay."

"Um, yeah," Jenna managed to stammer. "It's great."

And why the fuck didn't I think of that myself? she wanted to add, but kept it to herself.

"Cool," Sarah said. "I'll just drop my stuff and check on Jennifer. I'm on mommy duty for a while after I get home since Meaghan's been at it all day."

Sarah disappeared into the living room, but Sumita stayed. She set her purse down on the table next to the kitchen door, walked slowly into the kitchen, wrapped her arms around Jenna's shoulders, and kissed her on the mouth. Jenna kissed her back, forgetting everything for a moment except Sumita's lips.

"I'm glad you came," Jenna said, her mouth spreading into a broad grin.

"Me too," Sumita replied. Turning to Rose, she added, "thanks for letting me tag along at the last minute."

"When Sarah called, I was thrilled," Rose replied. "The client's husband is Indian and vegetarian, so I thought your perspective would be helpful."

Rose blushed suddenly, realizing her mistake. "Sorry," she said. "I don't mean that all Indians are the same. I mean, I didn't ask you here just because you're Indian. I'm going to stop talking now."

"It's fine," Sumita replied, smiling reassuringly at Rose. "It's totally fine. I'm happy to be here."

"You two go out into the living room," Rose told Jenna and Sumita, trying to recover her composure. "The rest of the work is a one-person job. I'll be ready in like five minutes."

Sarah and Meaghan were sitting on the couch when Jenna and Sumita emerged, and Jennifer was rocking back and forth on the coffee table in her car seat, which was her favorite place, even when she wasn't in the car. Her little arms were flailing about, not quite able to reach the bright plastic animals hanging above her.

"This is usually her favorite time of day," Meaghan said. "She'll be nice and mellow through dinner if we're lucky."

Sumita leaned down and made funny faces and baby talk to Jennifer, who giggled and cooed in response. Jenna stayed away, sitting at the far end of the couch.

"You know," Jenna said to Meaghan, "we actually got this job because of you. The client's sister-in-law was at your baby shower. She must have been impressed."

After thinking a second, she added, "Lisa, I think her name was."

"Is this Lisa pregnant, by any chance, and about ready to pop?" Sumita asked. Her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Yeah, I think so," Jenna replied. "Why?"

"We sat at the same table at the shower," Sumita replied. "Along with Kate. I thought poor Lisa was going to run away when Kate got going."

Jenna's eyes went wide. Kate was one of her oldest friends, but she was an acquired taste. She would flirt compulsively with any pretty woman she ran across, even obviously straight, married, pregnant women. All four women dissolved into giggles.

They only recovered when Rose appeared a few minutes later carrying two plates of hors d'oeuvres. Jenna wiped her eyes and went into the kitchen to fetch the other two. Sumita, Meaghan, and Sarah sampled one each of the six varieties of little bites they had prepared. They planned to cut the final list down to five, so they needed input on what worked well and what didn't.

"This is the best, definitely," Sarah said of the mini pitas spread with hummus and olive tapenade. "I really like that the bread is still kinda soft."

"Thanks," Jenna replied. Getting the texture right, so they didn't collapse in people's fingers, was tricky.

"You should cross off the bruschetta," Meaghan said. "The tomatoes are too ... I don't know. Acidic?"

Sumita nodded her agreement. "Yup," she said. "Plus, they can fall off and make a mess."

Next up was the soup, a chilled cucumber and honeydew gazpacho. They moved to the dining room table, and all three tasters agreed that it was a hit. The salad followed, a fairly boring plate of mixed greens, summer vegetables, and blue cheese crumbles dressed in a simple vinaigrette.

"It's missing ... something," Sarah said. "I don't know."

"I know it's not very exciting, but that's what she said she wanted," Rose replied. "It needs some crunch, I think, but I don't know what. Normally I'd add walnuts or pecans, but one of the guests is allergic. Croutons are just blah."

"What about pumpkin seeds?" Sumita suggested. "They should be safe for any nut allergy."

"Oh, yeah," Jenna said. "I think we can work with that. Just need to tweak the dressing. Maybe use pumpkin seed oil to complement the ..."

"Focus, Jenna," Rose said, cutting her sister off. "We can figure it out later."

Jenna shook her head. "Okay, sorry," she said. "Sometimes when I get an idea into my head ..."

Rose disappeared into the kitchen to finish the entrees, and Jenna followed her. They were ready three minutes later, within ten seconds of each other. Jenna and Rose high-fived. Rose emerged from the kitchen carrying a poached salmon filet topped with a bright green stripe of herb butter, and Jenna followed with a roasted vegetable napoleon, thinly shaved summer vegetables wrapped in phyllo and covered in mozzarella.

This was the moment of truth. If the clients liked these two dishes, they'd recommend Ballard Bites to their friends. If not, then nothing else would matter. Sarah and Meaghan each took a bite of the salmon. Sumita did not.

"Mmmmmm," Meaghan said. "The salmon is perfect."

It was good to know, but not the main point. Anybody could poach a salmon filet. Sarah took another bite, making sure to get a generous slather of the herb butter.

"Oh, wow. This is just right," she said, pointing her fork at the wide stripe across the middle of the filet. "It's really bright and green. Not, like, overpowering or anything, but it tastes just like summer, and it complements the fish really well."

Jenna let out a breath, but held the next one back. Sumita cut off a corner of the napoleon and raised the fork to her mouth. Her eyes closed, her nostrils flared, and she closed her lips around the fork. Her teeth moved inside her cheeks, and she let out a happy little sigh. Jenna had to sit on her hands to keep from doing anything inappropriate. Even in the simple act of eating, Sumita was the most sensuous creature she had ever seen.

"It tastes amazing," Sumita said. Jenna basked in the positive verdict, and at that moment it wasn't because she was particularly interested in making Lisa's sister-in-law happy. Sumita really liked what she had cooked, and that was the most important thing.

"However," Sumita continued, and the word hit Jenna like a splash of cold water, "you really should consider cutting down on the cheese. You're going for elegant, and a string of mozzarella dangling from somebody's mouth kind of ruins the mood."

Rose nudged Jenna in the ribs to bring her back to Earth. "Yeah," she said. "I think you're right. I don't want lose too much, but you do have a point. We can reduce the overall amount a little, and spread it out over more layers."

Sarah and Meaghan took their turn, and the verdict was the same. The clients were going to be very happy. Dessert was a mini lemon ginger cheesecake, one of Rose's standards. She didn't need to bake it at all - Sarah and Meaghan had both had it before and loved it, and Sumita loved it too - but the trial run felt incomplete without it.

Sumita followed Rose and Jenna into the kitchen to help wash up.

"You really don't have to," Rose said.

"It's fine," Sumita replied. "Sarah is fussing over the baby, and Meaghan is kind of zoned out, so I'd rather be in here. Plus, it reminds me of the second time we met."

Jenna blushed. Sumita had helped wash up after Meaghan's baby shower, and Jenna had walked Sumita to her car, where Sumita had asked Jenna to dinner. Their date did not go especially well - it was the day Jenna got laid off from her job - but they did agree to see each other again, and that turned into the weekend cooking lesson.

"I'll wash, you dry," Jenna said. "Just like last time."

When everything was clean and dry, Jenna and Sumita went out into the living room to find Rose rocking a smiling, giggling Jennifer in her arms. Rose passed the baby off to Sumita after a while, who rocked her and sang to her until she drifted off to sleep. Sumita motioned to Jenna to take the baby, but Jenna shook her head no.

"Jenna hates babies," Rose said, gently mocking, and Sumita handed Jennifer to Sarah instead.

"I do not," Jenna replied, indignant. "I just don't know what to do with them."

Sumita leaned over to kiss Jenna's rather warm cheek.

Soon after, it was time to go home. The Friday schedule was the busiest of the week, as usual, which meant getting up twenty minutes earlier. Jenna was not looking forward to that. She and Rose gathered up the equipment and left after saying goodbye to Sarah and Meaghan.

Sumita rode the elevator down to the garage with Rose and Jenna, and she laced her fingers into Jenna's free hand. Rose smiled but did not say anything. Down at the van, Rose and Jenna loaded their stuff into the back, and then Rose climbed into the passenger seat to give Jenna a moment alone with Sumita.

"So, tomorrow night?" Sumita asked.

"Yeah," Jenna replied. "Where should I meet you? I don't even know what we're doing."

"We have a dinner reservation for seven thirty," Sumita replied. "I'll pick you up at your house at seven. Rose gave me directions. Does that work for you?"

"Um, yeah, I guess," Jenna said, trying to sound enthusiastic and not confused. "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out tomorrow," Sumita replied with a wicked smile. She leaned in to kiss Jenna on the forehead, and then walked off and got into her car. Jenna stood there a while, and then climbed into the van.

~~~

Jenna got home Friday afternoon with barely enough time to shower and change. She rushed like a madwoman to be ready by seven and almost made it. At three minutes after, she poked her head out the front door, hair still damp, to see if Sumita was waiting outside. When she wasn't, she sat on the couch in the living room to wait.

Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen, and Jenna's stomach twisted itself into a pretzel. Had she got the time wrong? Had something happened to Sumita? Had Sumita wised up and realized she didn't want to date Jenna after all?

The doorbell rang, shocking her out of her worries. She was up and at the door in an instant, and she opened it to find Sumita waiting. She was wearing an indigo sweater and matching knit skirt, the same outfit she wore when they first met. She looked exhausted.

"Traffic," Sumita said, sounding both apologetic and frustrated. "The five twenty is awful."

"You okay?" Jenna asked.

"I am now that I'm with you," Sumita replied, making an effort to smile. "If we leave right away, we can still make our dinner reservation. It's not far."

"I'm ready whenever," Jenna said, and then stepped out the front door and closed it behind her. "You sure you still want to go out?"

"The worst part's behind me," Sumita said. "Come on - I've been looking forward to this all week."

Sumita spun around and walked back to her car, and Jenna followed. Sumita opened the passenger door for Jenna, waited until she got in, and closed it for her, which left Jenna speechless, and then she walked around the car and climbed into the driver's seat.

A short drive later, they were pulling into the parking lot at Ray's Boathouse. Jenna knew the place - anyone who lived in Seattle had heard of it - but she'd never been there. The upstairs café was not really in her price range, and the downstairs dining room was the kind of restaurant she couldn't even think about.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked Sumita.

"Don't worry about it," Sumita replied. "It's my treat. The view is amazing, and I know you like seafood."

"But you're a vegetarian," Jenna said.

"Yes," Sumita agreed, "and I'll be fine. They have a salad and a pasta that sound good."

Jenna took a breath and decided to stop talking. Sumita was being sweet to her, very sweet, and she decided to simply accept it and enjoy it. Sumita was taking her on a genuine, old-fashioned date, which was not a typical move in Jenna's relationship playbook.

Jenna followed Sumita up the stairs to the host stand, and a chirpy blonde girl led them both through the restaurant and out to the deck, where they had a table in the corner. The boathouse was on the shore of Shilshole Bay in Ballard, right on the water, at the mouth of the ship canal that connects Lake Washington to Puget Sound. The sun was descending in the September sky toward the Olympic Mountains across the Sound, and the cool breeze coming off the water was delightful in the warm evening air.

Jenna's nerves melted away in the beautiful setting, and she listened to Sumita tell her stories from work. There was one about how tiny Sarah cut a burly Indian guy down to size in a design review meeting. Another was about the absolutely ridiculous three-day process of moving a simple bug fix from one place in the build system to another. A third was about how Sumita turned the power of Dave the Evil Software Development Lead around to her own use, by convincing him to direct his yelling at another team. "As soon as they saw him coming down the hall, they agreed to make the change I had been bugging them about all week," she said, laughing to herself.

Jenna ordered crab cakes and clam chowder for dinner. She felt vaguely guilty about it, but Sumita insisted. Sumita ordered the vegetable pasta and a salad without even opening the menu. "I have to plan in advance, since my options are limited," she explained.

The wine and the food loosened Jenna up a little further, and she told Sumita about her latest painting project after the appetizers and into the entrees. She described the sketches she'd done, and the feeling she was trying to create with each of the four figures.

"Do you, um, want to come to the house after dinner and see it?" she asked, and her nerves flooded back. What was it about Sumita that could drive her so crazy for no reason?

"I'd love to," Sumita replied. "I think you're amazing, and I'd love to see what one of your paintings looks like while you're still working on it."

Jenna felt her face getting hot. She had friends and colleagues in the art world who admired her work, people like Meaghan whose opinions she really trusted, and people bought her work, at prices that surprised her, so she knew she was a pretty good painter. Sumita's opinion, though, was something else entirely. She wasn't part of the insular, ironic art crowd; she was just a woman who saw a painting and got it, instantly and completely. It was as if Sumita had torn through her canvases and found a window into her soul.

Sumita took Jenna's hand in hers and smiled a big, radiant smile. Jenna didn't know how to respond. Her head was awash in a flood of intense emotions, mostly very good ones. Fortunately, the waiter showed up and broke the spell before Jenna felt like a complete idiot. Sumita ordered a rich, dense chocolate cake for dessert, and they ate it together as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

Jenna felt another little twinge of guilt when Sumita paid the bill, but she tried to put it out of her mind. Sumita just smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek, and then they left. Sumita drove back to the house and pulled into the driveway behind the Ballard Bites van, and Jenna led Sumita into the house through the garage.

Rose and Brendan were both in the living room reading when Jenna and Sumita arrived, and Jenna introduced Brendan to Sumita. Brendan's eyes got very big when Sumita shook his hand. Rose gave him a stern maternal it's-not-polite-to-stare look and an 'ahem'.

"What?" he asked, blushing, and Rose raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," he said to Sumita, his blush deepening. "Jenna doesn't usually date people like ... I mean ... it's just ... you're very pretty."

Jenna let out a hearty laugh, and then she tousled Brendan's hair. "My nephew," she said in a deeply serious voice, "does not usually approve of the women I date. 'Pretty' isn't the typical style." Brendan's face went from red to crimson.

"Well, thank you, Brendan," Sumita said. "That was nice of you to say."

Brendan rolled his eyes and flounced back down on the couch, burying his nose in his book.

"We're going downstairs," Jenna said to Rose, and then took Sumita by the hand and led her to the door to the basement. When Jenna flicked the light switch on, Sumita's breath caught. The studio wasn't large - just enough space for a couple of easels and a stool, carved out from the accumulated boxes and bins - but it was sufficient for Jenna's needs. The canvas of Jenna's current project - a full six feet wide, perched on both easels and covered for protection from dust and drips - took up most of one wall, and sketches hung from every available space.