down my cheek anyway. Sniffling, I lift the hem of my shirt and wipe it dry. That’s it. All those months of thinking up new recipes, all the backbreaking days of cooking and prepping, all those hours on my feet, carving out a social media presence . . . it was all for nothing. Everything Mom and I earned eighteen hours ago is gone.
Down the hall her voice echoes. “Anak, are you hungry?”
She walks to the kitchen sink to fill a pot of water. “We should start planning how we’re going to use the prize money. The truck definitely needs some work, but I also want to get a new fryer. And can you believe we’re going to be in a commercial? I already called your aunties and uncles and told them. They’re so excited!” She spins around to me, grinning. “What do you think?”
Her smile drops as soon as she registers my tear-soaked face. She darts over to me, but I stand up before she can pull me into a hug. I don’t deserve any affection for what I’m about to tell her.
“I’m sorry, Mom. But we . . . The festival changed their mind. We didn’t win. They took back the prize money.”
Her perfectly arched eyebrows wrinkle together. “What are you talking about?”
We stand facing each other, the stool between us. “It’s just . . . I did something . . . I messed up. Really bad. It’s all my fault.”
Her frown turns serious. “That’s ridiculous. You didn’t mess up anything. You and I did a great job yesterday at the festival. Everyone loved us.”
I pause to wipe my face with my hands before dropping them at my sides in defeat. She reaches over, taking my hand in hers. In her eyes, there’s a calm I didn’t expect to see. A reassurance, understanding.
“It’s okay. You can tell me.”
Her sweet support in this moment is more than I can take—it’s more than I deserve after what I’ve done to ruin our big break. “I know, Mom, but—”
The shrill ring of my phone cuts me off. I huff out a few steadying breaths as the ringing dies out, thankful for the pause to collect myself. A second later, it drones on once again.
I swipe my phone from the counter. “Let me get rid of this. Then I’ll explain.”
Penelope’s name flashes across the screen before I answer. “Hey, Penelope.” My throat strains to keep my voice at a pleasant tone. Penelope doesn’t need to endure an in-person breakdown and an over-the-phone breakdown from me two days in a row.
“I just wanted to say, don’t worry about a thing,” she says. “I’m on it.”
“On what?”
“I know your phone has probably been blowing up with notifications after that statement the Flavor Network just sent out concerning your win at the Maui Food Festival.”
I let loose a heavy sigh. “I actually haven’t seen their statement yet. I got an email from them, though, which I’m sure says much of the same, so I think I’ll skip the post.” Closing my eyes, I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“I’ve got it all under control,” she says.
Penelope’s voice still boasts its bubbly inflection, but there’s something firm behind it now. Whatever she’s talking about, it’s clear she’s a thousand percent sure she’s got it handled.
“What do you mean?”
“You know how I said before that I did social media for a living?”
“Yeah.” I glance at Mom, who now boasts a confused frown as she listens to my side of this conversation.
“A lot of my clients are TV networks. One of them is Chic TV.” There’s a smile in her voice when she speaks. “You’ve heard of it, right?”
“Um, of course.” Chic TV is the most popular lifestyle channel on cable television.
“Chic has been interested in dipping their toe into something cooking related for a while now. They were going to team up with the Flavor Network to do a cooking show last year, but Flavor tried to screw them over during the contract phase of things, so Chic pulled out. They’ve held a grudge ever since. And this is the perfect opportunity to get them back.”
My head spins trying to keep up with everything Penelope says. “Oh . . . what does that mean?”
Penelope chuckles. “Sorry, sometimes I get so excited about something that I don’t explain it fully. Check your Instagram.”
I pull up Instagram on my laptop and see that Tiva’s has been tagged in a post from the Flavor Network’s account. It’s a photo of