Goddess of Spring Read Online Free PDF Page A

“It sounds so, I don’t know, banal. ”
    â€œAs banal as bankruptcy?” Lina asked.
    â€œNo!” The word burst from his mouth.
    â€œMy thoughts exactly,” Lina said.
    â€œSo what are we going to serve?” Dolores asked.
    Lina ran her fingers through her neatly cropped hair. She had absolutely no idea.
    â€œWe’re going to serve selections from our expanded menu. That way we’ll get practice as well as publicity.”
    â€œAnd that expanded menu would be what exactly?” Dolores prompted.
    â€œI have absolutely no idea,” Lina admitted.
    â€œAnd to think I didn’t bring even one tiny Xanax with me to work today.” Anton was gnawing at his thumb again.
    â€œQuit biting your finger,” Dolores told him. “We’ll figure this out.” She shifted her gaze to Lina. “Right?”
    Lina’s heart squeezed. They looked like baby birds gaping up at her expectantly.
    â€œRight,” she said, painting her voice with confidence. “All I need to do is to . . .” she faltered. Her nestlings blinked big, round eyes, waiting for her next words. “Is to . . . um . . . brainstorm.” She finally finished.
    â€œBrainstorm? As in the step before writing a paper?” Anton, who was perpetually a sporadic night school student at Tulsa Community College, clutched onto a familiar idea.
    â€œOf course,” Dolores added brightly. “Lina probably has about a zillion and a half cookbooks at home. All she needs to do is to go through them and pick out a few great recipes for wonderful meals.”
    â€œThen she’ll share them with us, and we’ll begin our new creations!” Anton gushed. “How ab fab! I can hardly wait!” Then he reached over and squeezed Dolores’s hand. “I feel just awful that I was so negative in the beginning. I almost forgot our Baker’s Motto.”
    Dolores and Anton grinned at each other, and then as if they were getting ready to say the Pledge of Allegiance, they covered their hearts with their hands and spoke solemnly in unison:
    â€œIn baking we must always rise to the occasion.”
    Lina thought that she very well might have been in baker’s hell, but she kept nodding and smiling. Dolores was partially correct, she did have a wonderful collection of cookbooks at home—all filled with fabulous recipes for breads and pastries. She had very few cookbooks that contained recipes for meals. Actually, she didn’t even cook many full meals herself. A little pasta here, a little salad there, and a nice glass of Chianti was her idea of cooking a full meal. Baking was her specialty and her love. Meals were, well, banal.
    Out of her element, she admitted to herself. This whole thing was totally out of her element. So, feeling a little like a sparrow struggling to feed the cuckoos in her nest, Lina kept smiling and nodding at her chicks.
    â€œWell, I think we’ve been absent from the front long enough. Now that we’ve got a plan, why don’t you two handle it for the next hour and close up for me? I’ll go home and begin brainstorming.”
    â€œTess said she’d call you on Monday about the menu for the dinner, didn’t she?” Dolores asked.
    â€œThat’s what she said, all right.” Lina focused on keeping the panic out of her voice.
    â€œOooh, this really is exciting. You know, I’ll bet there will be lots of local celebs at that dinner.” Anton waggled his well-maintained eyebrows. “Not to mention media coverage.”
    â€œI imagine there will be.” Lina walked briskly from her office.
    As she called quick good-byes to her customers and hastily retreated out the door, she could hear Anton telling Dolores that he would certainly need several new, exciting outfits to go with their new, exciting menu.
    Her grandmother had told her many times that swearing was common, unladylike behavior reserved only for peasants