She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Say What She Called Me

Anson came to the commissary on Monday morning with two dozen red roses and a speech he had clearly written in the car.

My cooks stopped chopping.

I was weighing flour at the scale, and I did not put down the scoop.

"Joelle," he said from the door. "Can we talk? Alone?"

"No," I said.

"Babe."

"I have six people in this kitchen and none of them are going anywhere. Talk."

He glanced around at the three women in aprons and the knives, and his tan went a little pale.

Then he cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry about Saturday," he said. "I've been thinking about it all week. Mama went too far. She's from another generation. She grew up with, you know, a different way of talking."

"A different way of talking."

"I mean she's not a bad person, Joelle. She's just old-fashioned about staff."

"Staff," I said.

His mouth stopped moving.

"I mean," he said, "about, um. Families who help out. Like your grandmother."

"My grandmother cooked for your family for forty years."

"Exactly. And Mama respects that."

Behind me, my oldest cook put her knife down on the board with a very small click.

I picked up the scoop and weighed out another pound.

"Anson, I'd like you to tell me what your mother called me. In your own words. At the cake table."

"Joelle."

"Say it," I said.

"She said," Anson began, and glanced at the cooks again. "She was talking to a guest, and she said you were, you know, that you do the catering."

"Those weren't her words," I said.

"It was a figure of speech."

"Say what she called me."

He opened his mouth, and shut it. His eyes went to the floor.

"She said you were the help," he whispered.

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