Alpha's Moon

Chapter 5

The red soup bubbled, the scent of beetroot, ginger and liquorice riding on the steam that rose up to her nose. Alex ladled the soup into a bowl, then added herbs from a jar labelled 'T'.

"You aren't mad at me anymore, are you?" Yu Yan asked from the other side of the kitchen, craning her neck to see what Alex was putting in the pot.

"I am," Alex grumbled.

"No you're not," Yu Yan dismissed, then she put her hands under her chin and batted her lashes coyly. "I'm too cute, you can't stay mad at me for long."

Alex gave a short laugh. No, she wasn't mad at Yu Yan. Last night's debacle was hardly her fault after all. Remembering the overcrowded night club brought on yet another wave of frustration. Even after spending hours in that horrid place, she had not managed to find him.

"Fine, I'm not mad at you." Alex narrowed her eyes on the petite waitress. "Still. You can't get sick again. Ever."

"Yes, boss!" Yu Yan gave her a mock salute, then moved back to make space for Alex as she came forward to put the soup on the tray. "But, Alex are you sure everything is alright? Bohai said you were doing Kung Fu training an hour earlier than usual this morning..."

Bohai and his big mouth. A black belt in Shuai Jiao, Yu Yan's brother was the restaurant's unofficial security guard. He often came by during the early hours of the morning to check their security cameras and the surrounding area before going to his day job in the village just down the hill. "Has Bohai been watching too many spy movies lately? His nosiness is getting out of control."

Yu Yan didn't laugh. "You are fine, right?"

"I exercised a little earlier than usual, it's not a big deal!" Alex turned back to the stove to check the oven. The fruit tartlets were rising nicely.

"That's true for other people, but you run your life like clockwork. Any deviation is a sign of something wrong..." Yu Yan drew in the sweet scent of the pastries with appreciation. "Fine. If you save me a bit of that, I'll stop nagging you."

"Resorting to blackmail as if she doesn't get to eat everything I make anyway," Alex mumbled, sniffing the ginseng chicken in the clay pot. The morning dew she had collected off of the red maple leaves had mixed perfectly with the reishi mushrooms. "You're letting the soup go cold," she said over her shoulder.

"I forgot the soup!" Yu Yan scrambled, grabbing the tray and disappearing through the kitchen door. The sound of diners filtered into the kitchen for a moment, then there was peace once more.

Despite all her nagging, Alex knew that she was lucky to have found someone like Yu Yan. She might have a curious nature, but she knew how to keep secrets and when to stop asking questions. In the three years they had been working together, Yu Yan had not once asked Alex to explain why she wore a veil when the restaurant was open, why she never spoke about her past or why she refused to be touched.

In truth, even if Yu Yan had asked, Alex would not have been able to explain. How could she explain something she barely understood herself?

After the accident 10 years ago, Alex had fallen into a coma for nine months. When she finally did wake, everything had changed. Despite doctors assurances that there was nothing physically wrong with her, Alex spent her first waking hours alone and impaired by constant nausea and pain. It wasn't until the second day, after a second set of Hong Kong policemen took down her account of the crash, that Lauren turned up.

Alex still remembered the expression on her face, somewhere between pity and disgust, as she approached the hospital bed. Lauren told her that James had spent two months at Alex's bedside before the Blake Corp board of directors would no longer put off the emergency meetings. He had been forced to return to Boston to stop distant relatives from wresting power and ripping apart their parents company and had been travelling to Hong Kong every chance he got.