Not Welcome

    While they were on their way to the restaurant that Alexander owned, Jingfei was just staring at the man all throughout their ride. The young lady was still wondering and trying to remember what she had done when she was very drunk, “Did I really not do anything while I was drunk?”

    Alexander briefly glanced at Jingfei, “You simply passed out when you got very drunk!”

    “Then what did I do when I was still not too drunk, ‘cause all I remembered when we got inside the bar is that I ordered a drink from Shell and had a talk with him while you answered a phone call.” Jingfei muttered while staring intently at the young man who was looking straight on the road. 

    “You were just quiet and spacing out, lost in your deep thoughts.” Alexander uttered, telling half truth and lie. Jingfei was indeed spacing out when he got back from answering a phone call and she just burst out into tears that left the two men wondering what had happened to her. “Want to see your photo in case you don’t believe it?”

    Jingfei’s eyes widened, “Where is your phone? I swear if I look ugly in your shots, I will not talk to you for a month excpet if we are working together." Jingfei threatened the young man but Alexander knew that his photography skills were superb that he didn't even feel nervous.

    Alexander immediately handed his phone to the young lady and to Jingfei’s surprise, there were so many text messages from the young man´s women. She took a short glance at him, “What did you do this time?” Jingfei thought as she glanced at the different names of the women that left a message to the young man. 

    “Well, this is none of my business”  She mumbled as she opened Alexander’s gallery, and to Jingfei’s surprise, there were so many photos of her from last night, when they were still at the villa and at the bar. “When did you take all these photos?” She questioned while browsing to see more photos of her. 

    “When you were not looking at me?” Alexander also asked back, he was nervous because the young lady might scold him and find it disgusting that he is taking pictures of her secretly. But to his surprise, Jingfei was smiling while scrolling through his gallery, “You are not mad at me?” He asked when Jingfei didn’t utter a word. 

    “Why would I? You should have told me that you will be taking my picture, I will gladly pose for the camera. You take pictures better than my stupid elder brother. Should I take you with me whenever I go to different places?” The young lady jokingly said while scrolling at the photos.

     “Oh! Send this to me.” Jingfei took her phone and sent a couple of photos to her phone. “I will definitely post this one on my SNS. I haven’t posted for a while. Should I also post a photo of us? With a caption- My handsome butler slash photographer.”

      “If you like you can also add, my personal driver” Alexander uttered plainly. “But I would prefer if you captioned it- with my handsome boyfriend.”

      “That’s also fine with me.” Jingfei deleted some of her photos from last night before handing it back to Alexander. “You better check your messages. Oh! We’re here!” Jingfei uttered when the car pulled off in front of a three story restaurant. 

       “I will get inside first while you park the car. And don’t forget to check your messages. I don’t want to get bullied later- if ever one of them will appear.” Jingfei unfastened her seatbelt and hurriedly rushed out of the car before the young man could utter and ask what she meant.

        Alexander drove the car towards the underground parking lot of his restaurant while Jingfei went inside, she was greeted by the receptionist and some of the employees who were setting up the table and cleaning the place. It was already nine-thirty and they only had a couple of hours left for them to open at lunchtime.

       “Good Morning to all of you. I’m sorry I’m late.” Jingfei greeted them back as she went inside of the staff room. She and Alexander have separate rooms from the others. The young man personally insisted on building one for her even though she declined and wanted to just change along with the other women employees. 

         As soon as the young lady got inside of the room, she locked the door and placed her bag on the long couch that Alexander had also prepared for her so she could comfortably lay down during the break time. Jingfei took her uniform from her locker and went inside the bathroom to change. 

         While the young lady is changing her uniform, Alexander who just found a perfect spot for parking, the young man instantly took his phone from his pocket and checked his messages. “Damn! Did Feifei see this all?” He thought and scrolled through the messages of the women with whom he had just cut ties. 

         “I should have dealt with them directly!” Alexander mumbled as he read each message. Among the twenty women whom he had been in contact with, twelve of them didn’t bother him. “Uhmmm… Five of them are daughters of my business partners and three are just normal people. This will be very easy.”

         As he continued scrolling through his message box, Alexander’s gaze landed on the name which he despises the most. He clicked the sender’s name and read the message, “I’m staying at the hotel opposite to your restaurant, I’ll be having my lunch there.” 

         Alexander instantly typed a reply, “You are not welcome. You better go home and see your own family. Your brother held his engagement party last night and you weren’t even there! Don’t show your face to me today. I’m not in the mood to see yours.” After reading what he just typed, Alexander hit the send button and hid his phone back in his pocket before going out of the room. He made sure that he didn’t leave anything before locking his car and walking towards a door that leads to the kitchen. 

         Alexander was directly greeted by his staff, “Good Morning Monsieur Heroux. We have already prepared the ingredients for this afternoon’s event and over there are the ingredients that will be used for tonight's events. And here is the menu that we will serve for lunch. Every ingredient is prepared already.” 

         The young man took the menu card that his staff handed to him. He glanced at the dishes that they will be serving for today’s lunch, “You can start preparing the steak frites and chicken confit.” He uttered while handing back the menu card to his staff. Alexander then excused himself to change and went inside of the staff room where he met Jingfei who was already done changing in her uniform. 

         "Is your head still aching?” He asked while handing a hangover medicine to the young lady, “Drink this again!” 

          Jingfei gladly accepted the bottle, “I can handle the ache. The hangover soup and the medicine you gave me earlier did kind of work in relieving the pain. And thank you or this.” Jingfei then drank the medicine and threw the bottle into the trash can. 

          “If you feel nauseous, just leave the kitchen and go to your room so that you can rest. Now, you go to the kitchen and start helping them. I will change first.” Alexander uttered and Jingfei just nodded. She is now in her professional personality. They might be business partners but Jingfei still thinks of Alexander as her boss whenever they are inside their workplace. 

           The young lady then excused herself as she got out of the room and walked her way towards the kitchen where she gets to see everybody busy preparing the dishes that they will be serving for lunch.

           Jingfei went to the sink and washed her hands before taking the menu card to see what dessert she will be making. The young lady was so focused on what she was reading that she didn’t even sense the presence of the person standing beside her, “I’ll help you with the dessert today, mademoiselle.” 

            The young lady raised her head to see a young man who was two years younger than her, “Here we go again!” Jingfei thought. She just smiled at the young man whom she already rejected. 

            “I'm very sorry but Anais is in charge of helping me prepare the desserts today, Etienne!” Jingfei politely said while glancing at the young lady behind her. The young man named Etienne just politely nodded his head and left Jingfei while Anais stood beside her, “Have you rejected him, Ms. Jingfei?” The young lady whom Jingfei was so fond of, questioned her.

             “I did, but he is so persistent. He should have courted you instead of me.” What Jingfei said made the young lady’s face flushed.

             Jingfei knew that the cute young lady beside her had a crush on Etienne who was just hired a couple of months ago. She couldn’t blame Anais for falling since the young man could also be an ideal boyfriend. 

            The two young ladies dropped the topic as they started preparing the ingredients for the dessert that they will serve. And as soon as Alexander came in, he immediately washed his hand and glanced at the menu again. He then started cooking and the kitchen had become a chaotic and noisy working space, everyone was busy preparing and making the dishes.