Page 30 of Rules of Association

As interesting as it had been to learn about wine all day, (not actually that interesting), and inspiring as being around Paulo’s passion for his craft was (actually a little inspiring), I was ready to leave this place and never come back. I’m pretty sure I hated this Paulo guy and while we were at it, I hated the hospitality business, too. I didn’t know how Mattí did it.

That’s what I was thinking up until I noticed my brother on the side of the road in a throng of workers helping to unload something from a large truck outside the wine shop.

He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a little clipboard in his hand. He looked so focused as he crossed things off a list and spoke to both the men handing down large crates and Paulo who was now joined by a bigger man with a balding head and happy eyes. Not for the first time I noticed something in my brother that I hadn’t before. A focus, a diligence, and a passion that I’d never seen in him.

He didn’t talk about his ventures much at home. He told Apá and Ox about his investments because the boys always loved to talk business. He always let us girls know when he was working with a cute restaurant or bar he thought we would like in town, since we liked to go out. But he never talked about how happy this all made him. How truly invested into each venture he was. It wasn’t just a check to a random business owner he saw potential in. It was a true commitment. A relationship with each business, whether it was his own or simply one he funded. It was a passion,hispassion.

I don’t think I would have ever understood this until I saw it for myself. And it was then that I realized I had nothing in my life that even came close to what Mattí had here. Nothing that could become anything anyway.

Rainbow walls and the smiling faces of two girls filled my brain, but I pushed the thoughts away.

Three things happened as I realized there may not be any hope for me after all. Disaster always seeming like it happened in slow motion.

One: I saw my brother, his commanding presence distracting me.

Two: I squeezed the moped breaks too late.

Three: I ended up in the bush beside the shop.

Andthatwas the first time Paulo laughed that day.

Chapter Seven

CECI

The next few days after the wine shop didn't go any better. I tried to stick with Mattí for a week and,Jesus. If you would have told me that it got worse than Paulo, I wouldn't have believed you. But one boat restaurant, one dive bar renovation, and a terrible place where you “catch your crab and cook it too” later, and I was more than convinced that Mateo only did business with horrible personalities. He probably did it to keep himself entertained. Whatever the hell the reason, I couldn't take it anymore. Not after the crab guy tried to convince me a pinch from a crab (in which I got multiple) was good luck.

Nope. I drew the line there and had instead tried my hand with my other siblings. First paying a visit to my sister-in-law at the rented studio kitchen she frequented downtown to help her with her latest and apparently hardest recipe sequence yet.

She was tea obsessed. You could always find her with a cup of the stuff. So after two successful dessert books she was challenging herself to move onto uncharted territory. Tea blends. She apparently has never attempted making her own tea blends before this project and has had to do a lot of research as well as learning a lot by trial and error.

Baking with Fergy before had always been fun because she was already keen on the process. She had a good enough knowledge about desserts that whenever she baked with me she was either able to teach me along with doing the actual cooking or was able to hold other conversations while working.

With this new project there wasn't a whole lot of teaching or talking. Really, most of what we did was read from the enormous stack of books on herbology as we scooped teaspoon mixtures of various leaves into their respective bowls.

Needless to say, even in the company of my second favorite Ferguson, it was so boring.

What was interesting though, was that same tingle of inspiration I'd felt niggling in the pit of my stomach watching Mattí and his clients as they worked toward their passions surfaced again while helping Fergy in the kitchen organizing leaves. I think it was safe to say I had zero interest in what the properties of dried dandelion root did when mixed with Rosemary, but the look in Ferg’s eye as she sampled completed batches of her own concoctions was something I wanted even while not truly understanding why.

Working with Melissa had to be the worst. Not because as soon as she heard I was going around asking people for “jobs,” she promptly inserted herself into the mix. Not because her position of CFO at the company was the professional equivalent of watching paint dry. Not even because she worked the closest with Ox who was the sibling I was trying to avoid with this at all costs (because he was too perfect at everything, and for some reason I wasn't ready to meet that perfection with my rough opposite just yet).

No, working with Melissa was the worst because of one reason and one reason alone.

The mailroom.

I don't know what 90s tough love movie she watched before she planned our day together, but for some reason she got it in her head to start me in the mail room. Bitch had never stepped foot in the goddamn room herself but there she went giving lectures on“strong foundations”and“building character”. The number of envelopes I licked that day was one hundred too many, firmly solidifying my suspicion that I never wanted to step foot in my older sister's office again.

This just left Alta.

My phone had broken during my flight through the air the other day. My big ass landed on it when it broke my fall along with the bush. So instead of calling ahead, here I was unannounced at Al’s doorstep hoping she would break the spell of failed attempts at “trying”.

Al worked mostly in admin for the family business but also did some client work for marketing on the side.

Doing the same song and dance I’d done to get Mattí to let me work with him, it took significantly less convincing to get Al to say yes.

“Oh my gosh! We’re going to have such a fun day together! Let me just tell Ox I’ll be in the office late today!” she said, excited as she bounced around her apartment.

Al was the softest of us all, the nicest of us all, and the most surprising of us all.

---