I know my eyes got wide and I could feel a little butterflies in my stomach. "See what? I don't know what you are talking about."
"I think you do," she replied. And that's all she would say.
Cecil and some friends were still playing cards at a picnic table shaded from the hot tropical sun by ironwood trees. There were five middle aged men drinking beer and eating boiled peanuts, like they did every Sunday after mass. My husband usually lost whatever money he brought to the table, but it was only ten or fifteen dollars, nothing to worry about. Good cheap entertainment, and it kept him busy while I had time with my own new friends making the dinner.
The move to Kahului from Honolulu had been sudden. Cecil had gotten into some bad company at Matson Shipping where he worked in a warehouse. Between my job as a waitress and his job as a team leader, I thought we were doing pretty well. We put some savings aside, and we'd bought a house last year. No sickness in the family, children growing strong.
Some guy Cecil worked with knew we had that money put aside and talked to Cecil about investing in a plate lunch restaurant near the Matson building they both worked in. The friend, Brian, was so sure this idea would make them both rich.
"We can work the plate lunch from five a.m. to two p.m. then we're done for the day, man. And we can write off any food we take home for the family. Business expense, yeah? And think of all the cash that comes in. The goverment doesn't need to know about all of it."
"Cecil," I said, "I don't like this dishonest stuff. If we owe taxes, we should pay. What do you know about selling food? What does Brian know?"
No matter how many good reasons I had for staying out of this partnership, Cecil and Brian, and then Brian's wife, Angela, had winning argument.
"Ok," said Angela. "I don't like two sets of books either. Let's you and me run the books and we can keep it honest. There will be plenty of income to keep us and the tax man happy."
And worn down, I consented. I liked Angela. She was energetic, optimistic, and wanted to be my friend. Soon, we did everything together, and it felt so good to have that closeness. We called the plate lunch restaurant Pa'uli, or Blue Plate.
But just in case, I found an accountant who would oversee the set up in the office, and who would teach us organization. I'm not afraid to say when I don't know something that I need help with it. Angela said she was pleased that we were learning alongside each other. We worked hard. We made good product and we made good sales. Angela and I got tips, too, and we put them in a jar for splitting at the end of each day.
The men both quit Matson and worked in the kitchen.
One time when we were making dinner at Angela's house, I saw a bag of rice like the kind we used at the restaurant. She cheerfully admitted that she'd taken it home.
"It's a business expense. You should take some home yourself." I wondered where the pork came from, and the sodas she gave to our children. I asked Cecil about it when we got home.
"If Angela says it's ok, it's ok. She and Brian are very smart business people. You could learn a lot from them." I'm sure I looked shocked, but Cecil did not seem to notice. Angela this, Brian that, it's all I ever heard from Cecil. The three of them were thick, that's for sure, and I felt a little like an outsider.
"Brian says there's a store for sale on Kaneohe side. If we jump on it, we can buy it for almost nothing." I told Cecil I did not want to do that. I explained it was too far away, and we hadn't been doing what we're doing long enough to know if we could take on more.
Cecil said, "It's a goldmine. We have to do this. Don't you want to have nice things? You could visit you mother in Manila twice a year instead of just once a year. We can go on cruises and send our children to private school."
I said it was just too soon to take on more. Then Cecil lowered his eyes and said that the store was already under contract, he'd signed my name to the purchase and sale agreement. Brian had said he should do that because it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission in these cases. He thought I'd be grateful in the long run. It's good business.
Angela came over about then with a bottle of champagne.
"Isn't this wonderful?" she said, "We're going to be tycoons! I've been talking to a banker all week about how to pull this off, and he says we can borrow for the new place on the strength of our working restaurant. He's impressed with what we've done so far. We just put them both in one corporation. We'll show the store to you in the morning. I want to know what you think of the color swatches I've picked out."
"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" I asked, my heart pounding. What did I feel? Hurt? Anger? Shock? I wasn't sure. My husband loves me and these are my friends. They all believe this is a good thing.
Cecil explained since Angela has such a head for business, that they thought she should noodle the whole process out and present it. Cecil handed me a copy of the contract with my signature in his handwriting.
Three days passed, while I tried to sort out what I thought was making me feel afraid and unsure. Angela and I continued to work side by side at Pa'uli. She worked every bit as hard as ever and was every bit as cheerful as ever.
At the end of the day, I brought the tip jar to her. "There's no tip money in here," I said. "What happened?"
"Oh," she smiled, "Cecil and Brian said I can have the tip money to compensate me for all the work I did putting the Pa'uli Two deal together. I put a lot of time into that. Didn't you tell Cecil it's ok?"
I didn't answer, but turned my back and shrugged my shoulders. I had to leave quickly so she wouldn't see my face. "Bye! See you tomorrow!" she called after me.
Cecil was at the kitchen table with a beer. He smiled at me, then frowned when he saw how red and angry my face was.
I stood squarely in front of him and said, "You and Angela and Brian can have Pa'uli Two. I will go along with it. Then on the day after the closing I am going to file for divorce and I will not be nice." I left Cecil with his eyes bugging out and got in the car. I drove down to the beach and parked the car. I took my shoes off and put my bare feet in the soft sand along the shoreline. The cool water felt good and the tradewinds felt like comforting arms around me. I must have walked two miles up and down before I went back to the car and home.
I'm glad I have the CPA and a current copy of the books, I thought to myself.
I found Cecil crying in the living room. "Don't leave me," he said.
"Do you want me to unplug this deal?" And he nodded at me. "Alright then." I reached for the phone.
"Angela, this is Carmen. I will not sign anymore anything. You let us out now. Otherwise, I go to the county courthouse first thing tomorrow and file for divorce from Cecil. You will not have clear title on Pa'uli One and you'll lose your earnest money. If you want to buy us out, you'd better do it fast."
And that's when the real Angela and Brian revealed themselves. They yelled, they cursed, they screamed. Violent acts were promised. They said they would ruin us. Our friends told us they'd visited each of them and said we'd cheated them and were bad people. Of course, our friends knew better.
So, long story short, the lawyer got our money back plus some gain and we moved to Kahului. Matson agreed to hire Cecil at that warehouse complex. I still look over my shoulder because I don't know how far Brian will go with his rage.
"We made money on that," says Cecil, "It turned out well in the long run."
Yesterday Cecil brought home a motorcycle. He told me his friend, Pat, said it was a good deal and after all he works hard for his money. Pat's going to buy a motorcycle, too. They should spend sometime riding together because Pat doesn't have it too good at home. He has an unhappy wife who complains that Pat thinks he's right all the time. What's Pat supposed to do? Be wrong?
And I was thinking about this as the five men set up their card game today. Gabriel was there first. He's the guy who seems to get Cecil's money each week. I asked him how he plays cards so good.
And Gabriel said,"Well it's statistics and human nature. A study of both. Some of us are pretty good at it."
"So you're saying you can read Cecil but he can't read you?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's about it."
I think I see something now. And my heart is no longer standing in the way.
