“Jackson, do you have the agency packet ready for my presentation with 3M?” Seulgi asked.

It should have been on her desk hours ago.

“I thought your appointment with 3M was next week,” her assistant said. He looked a lot like Bambi in headlights, but she didn’t care.

“They moved it up earlier today. I put it on my Outlook calendar. Didn’t you see it?” Seulgi dropped the 3M file on his desk with a thud. “I need you to keep up.”

He reached for the file. “I can have it ready for you in 30 minutes.”

“Don’t let this happen again. I don’t have time for your mistakes.” With that, she made her way back into her office and closed the door, hard.

She felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at Jackson.

She had high standards for her employees, yes, but it wasn’t her nature to level them so overtly.

She brushed off her behavior as a symptom of the stress she was under and turned back to her monitor to strategize for her impending presentation.

Son Wendy entered her office at a quarter after 12 and perched on the side of her desk. “Hey, there. How’s that presentation coming?”

“It’ll get there.”

“Em. Seul? Hello, I’m over here. Can we talk for a second?”

Seulgi paused, hating to kill the flow of her creative energy, but turned to face her friend and vice president of her company. “What can I do for you, Wen?

“You can tell me how you’re doing, to start.”

Seulgi shrugged nonchalantly and smiled. “I’m fine. If I could just close this deal, I’d be better.”

Wendy narrowed her eyes and stood, folding her arms and coming around the desk. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about. Seulgi, you just lost your mother. Are you sure you should be back at work so soon, guns blazing? This has been a difficult 2 weeks for you, and I know no one would think less of you for stepping away for a while. I can handle the 3M deal and we can filter down some of your smaller clients to the senior account execs.”

“Thank you, but really, I’m good. Getting back into the regular swing of things is what I need. I know you’re more than capable, but this one’s mine.” Seulgi relaxed into her chair then, a thought occurring to her.

“There is one thing. Can you recommend a company to help with the house? You know, go through everything, box it up, and ship it out, that kind of thing? It’s going to be kind of a big undertaking, and I’m not up for it.”

“No problem. Let’s see…” Wendy thought for a minute, biting her bottom lip in a way Seulgi used to find very attractive when they were together. “My mother uses a company to clean her house twice a week, and I know they offer a lot of different around the house services. She thinks they’re amazing. I’ll give Jackson their number and he can set something up.”

“You’re a life saver, Wen,” Seulgi mumbled absently.

She’d already swiveled back to her computer monitor, wasting no time refocusing on her project.

Wendy sighed in defeat. “Don’t I know it.”

***

It was 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and Irene managed to push open the glass door of the office with her foot, frustrated to hear the phone ringing and see the reception area empty once again. “Yeri, the phone is ringing!”

In one hand, Irene balanced a box of cleaning supplies and in the other a newly repaired vacuum cleaner to return to the supply closet.

“Yeri! My hands are full. Can you answer the phone, please?”

Realizing that Yeri was nowhere to be found, Irene set the vacuum down, leapt across the counter, and answered the phone breathlessly.

“Immaculate Home. How may I help you?” Dial tone.

She sighed deeply at the thought of the lost opportunity.

It was then that Yeri puttered in from the small kitchen adjacent to the reception desk, carrying a pint of ice cream, and the spoon.

“Good morning, Unnie, how are you today?”

“I’m great, Yeri, but I’d be doing better if we hadn’t missed a call.

Try not to wander too far, okay?” She smiled at the younger receptionist, who didn’t seem too concerned.

“Hyunnie, is that you?”

Irene smiled at her mother’s voice as she made her way down the short hallway to her office.

“Hi, Mama.” She kissed her cheek before settling into the empty chair across the desk. “I picked up the extra supplies and had the sputtering vacuum repaired. How are things today?”

“Swamped.” Bae Shin-Young gestured at the appointment book in front of her and sighed. “We’re completely booked, but I can’t stand the thought of turning away business. I think I might go out to Mrs. Park’s myself and do her Thursday cleaning.”

Irene nodded, not at all surprised by her mother’s dedication.

It’s what had made the business what it was today, successful.

This was her mother’s company and she was in charge, but that didn’t preclude her from rolling up her sleeves and going to work in the field whenever necessary.

Irene had worked for Immaculate Home since she was 16 years old and took pride in the company and her mother’s leadership of it. “What can I do?”

“Let’s see.” She scanned the spreadsheet on her computer. “We did get a request for a home organization and clean out. You could take this one, Hyun. You’re incredibly good at organizing. It may take several days, though.”

“That’s okay. Yuri has summer camp all week. My schedule’s free.”

“I guess with you gone, Yeri will have to cover the office alone. Lord help us. Here is the address.” She scribbled onto a Post-it. “The house is on Banning Street in La Jolla. The appointment is set for 4 this afternoon.”

Irene raised her eyebrows and whistled low as she studied the address. “Nice neighborhood.”

***

Seulgi pulled into her mother’s driveway at 4:17 p.m. and stared up at the sprawling home before her.

She hadn’t been back to the house since the day of the funeral, and then it had been full of people.

It felt strange knowing that when she entered the home this time, there would be no Kang Hye Jung to greet her with an air kiss to either cheek or chat with her about the latest charity auction or eventful women’s brunch.

The realization left her flat.

She’d never been close with her mother, that much was true, but she never imagined a world without her either.

Further up the driveway, Seulgi spotted a red VW Beetle and assumed it must belong to the worker the service had sent over to assess the job.

As she approached, a Korean girl exited the car and waited expectantly for her at the top of the drive.

She had her hair pulled into a ponytail and wore skinny jeans and a light blue cotton T-shirt. “Miss Kang?”

“Seulgi, please. And you are?”

The girl extended her hand and smiled. “Bae Irene. I’m very sorry to hear about your mother. I hope we’ll be able to help.”

“Thank you. I hope so too.”

As they walked the long sidewalk leading up to the front door, Seulgi tried to get a feel for the kind of service the company could provide, and more importantly, their competence level.

She had high standards. “So do you take on this sort of thing often?”

“On occasion,” Irene answered. “It’s certainly something we’re capable of handling, but I have to be honest with you, Ms. Kang, this looks to be a rather large house. I hadn’t anticipated—”

“Where are you from?” Seulgi interrupted her.

“Um, Logan Heights.”

“No, I mean you have a very slight accent. Where are you from originally?”

“Oh. My family immigrated from Daegu when I was 9. English is my 2nd language.”

“Well, you speak it marvelously. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. Let’s go inside.”

When they entered the home, Irene’s eyes widened in surprise.

The ho