The man fumbled out an excuse, “Makes takeouts more convenient.”Tanya mused between reciting each of Arianne’s numbers, “Don’t you guys always ring up the shop directly? Ari may be one of the two bosses, but she’s always busy in the kitchen, so she rarely manages orders. I think directly calling the shop is a better idea.”The man stored the girl’s number gingerly while replying, “I see, I see. Thank you very much for your help.”Tanya thought of telling Arianne about the little exchange regarding her phone number once she returned to the shop, but the bustle of the day kept coming, and soon, she forgot about it altogether.Night fell. The café was near its closing hour when Arianne’s phone beeped: ‘A cup of warm milk. Less sugar.’It baffled her to see someone ordering through her number, but she replied patiently, ‘Please tell me the address for delivery.’The other side was quick to respond. ‘The office building opposite your shop. I’ll send you the details when it’s ready.’The pr
Tiffany was so startled that the fish fell out of her agape mouth and bounced off the table. “W-wait, this isn’t from you? Then someone… Someone delivered this to the wrong room, and I opened it and ate it clean!” she cried. “O-or worse, if this wasn’t a wrong delivery, then it’s an assassination attempt through poison — and I fell for it! I’m gonna dieeeeee!”Jackson suddenly roared into laughter. “Enjoy your meal, Dum-dum. Of course I didn’t cook it — I ordered someone else to do it instead! I’ve opened a branch around your corner and thought that you girls might be hungry after work, so I asked the cooks to prepare some dinner before the restaurant closed and had them deliver it to you. You girls must have worked really late into the night if they decided to just hang it on your door instead of waiting.”Tiffany heaved out a long sigh of relief. “Gawd, you naughty, naughty devil! You could have told me right away instead of setting me up like in a horror movie! You know what, screw
Mark Tremont never did turn toward her direction. He just melted into the gathering crowd.A morose smile shadowed her pale lips. She wanted to not be seen, did she not? It was for the best, she told herself. That embrace in the club? Forget it. It was for the best.At the highest floor of the block, flanked by his company’s higher-ups, Mark visited every department in the building in turns. Behind those glasses, dour eyes coated in a thin film of frost scaled his nervous employees while they did their best to ensure no slips came to pass.Narrowly after ordering two cups of coffee through Messenger, Nick’s periphery vision caught Mark approaching his direction. He quickly placed his phone down and went back to work. His superior had already informed him earlier that the boss was coming today. If Mark found him fiddling with his phone, Nick would lose his job right there and then.His fortune, however, took a dip. When Mark was passing by Nick’s aisle, the steely man suddenly stopped a
A senior executive rushed into the office, “Uh… Mr. Tremont, Nick’s told me about your misunderstanding. You can’t blame an ignorant man. Now that he’s aware, he’ll keep in line. Nick is a very capable member of the team. Have a look, Mr. Tremont…”Mark sat at his office desk and calmly looked through the company report. His previous cold exterior had completely disappeared. “I never said that I wanted to dismiss him. It’s just as you said, I can’t blame an ignorant man. From now on, I’d like everyone in the company to understand that Arianne is my wife. You may like her desserts, but not her. Or else…”The senior executive nodded and bowed, “Yes sir, yes sir! Everyone knows now. But… Why has Mrs.Tremont opened a dessert shop in a place like this?”His question received a glare from Mark, “Is that any of your concern? Get a box of desserts for me and a cup of americano.”The senior executive wiped the sweat off his forehead, “From Mrs. Tremont’s shop?”Mark stared at him as if he
Tiffany promptly shut her mouth while shooting Naya a look at the same time. Naya understood her subtle gesture and went back to work.When they arrived home that night, Arianne stared at the piece of paper for hours on end. Tiffany munched on the food that Jackson had delivered and grumbled, “Come on. Use it if you want, throw it away if you don't. I'll support your decision either way. Stop staring at it already. It’s going to possess you.”Arianne put the piece of paper away, “Eat your food. I think Jackson must be raising a pig, and by that, I mean you. You fat pig. If you keep eating supper every day like this, you’re going to gain weight. You’ll blow up like a balloon!”Tiffany, on the other hand, was very optimistic, “Why should I be scared? I’ll never find a good man to marry anyway. I’m much more comfortably living life on my own. I can do whatever I want. Life is short, carpe diem. You shouldn’t mistreat your appetite and stomach. Besides, you can’t have anything to eat wh
Arianne soon realized this, “Forget it. Let’s stop. We’ll call a door repairman and change the door.”Tiffany’s heart ached, “This door is expensive. I’m going to catch that horrible jerk and teach them a lesson!”It was still early, so the door couldn’t be changed immediately. A lot of businesses hadn’t opened yet, so Arianne and Tiffany found some tools and tore down the door. They had to keep it, as it would serve as evidence in their police report. This would be considered illegal property damage. The value of their door was enough to file a case.The police and the door repairman arrived at the same time. When the police saw the state of the glass door, which had been taken down, they took pictures of it as evidence, then left to check the surveillance cameras. The surrounding area was under surveillance, so it wasn’t difficult to extract footage.By the time everyone else in the shop had arrived for work, the door repairman was still busying himself. They couldn’t help feelin
Arianne continued, “We paid her her wages on the day we dismissed her and did not charge her for eating the desserts or drinking our beverages every day. We simply cut a small part out due to her lateness every day. She was extremely unhappy and had an argument with us before leaving. From that day onwards, she’s been asking her friends to make takeaway orders for our desserts, every day. Then, after receiving the order, they’d leave a bad review. No one has ever had any problems with our products, and we certainly don’t have hygiene issues. She’s slandering us. “Finally, I personally went to deliver their order. However, I did not threaten her. I simply blacklisted her and her friends’ accounts, to stop them from leaving any more bad reviews. I’ve even told them that I’d recorded the whole thing when, in fact, I didn’t. I thought that doing this could make her drop the matter, but it escalated — she spray painted our door. We spent $1,500 dollars on that door during renovations. I’d
Arianne turned her back to her, “I don’t want to think about him ever again.”They were completely knocked out until past seven at night. Tiffany yawned and got up to cook a pot of instant ramen. Her ramen-making skills were not as good as Arianne’s, and the noodles ended up getting stuck together. Arianne did not complain though. She finished the entire bowl.After dinner, they sat together to binge on their favorite drama series. Suddenly, Arianne made a decision, “I think I’ll use that secret recipe from he-who-must-not-be-named. He must have gotten it from that top class pastry chef. I’ve never liked disappointing other people’s good will.”Tiffany laughed until she snorted, “When did you learn how to wiggle out of an embarrassing situation? You were stubbornly refusing to use it at first. Are you finally enlightened? If you ask me, there’s no such thing as ‘who owes whom’ after spending so many years with Mark. It’ll never end. In fact, you’ll end up complicating things even mo