Chapter Six

Two days after Anna got the news that she is officially hired to be the personal secretary of the CEO of The Scent Republic, she began her preparations for her first day at work. She will start on working on Monday, and the very first thing that Anna has set in her mind is that she needs to be in her modest form– which technically means she’ll have to be presentable inside and out. 

She is rummaging through her now-empty cabinet when Emily suddenly knocks on the door. She opens it instantly, but the door gets stuck halfway because of the clothing scattered on the ground. “What is this mess all about?” Emily asks, wondering why Anna’s clothes are literally all over her room. 

Anna grunts. “Argh! I can’t find the new dress you gave me when I first arrived here. I was planning to wear it on my first day of work.” 

Emily massages her temples after knowing the reason behind the chaotic room of Anna. “God, Anna. You know you don’t have to go through this just for a dress, right? I got lots of them. You only have to ask me and I’m letting you borrow mine.” 

“But you’re leaving in four days, right? What are you going to wear if I borrow your clothes?” Anna asks as she stops making the mess. 

“Hello?” Emily raises an eyebrow to her best friend. In case you forgot, I am your fashionista kind of friend. I don’t run out of clothes. As a matter of fact, I could leave you a dozen and I will still have enough for myself.” 

Anna jumps on her bed, surrendering to the fact that she will never find that dress Emily gave her again. “I just want to look nice on my first day.” 

Emily sits right next to her. “You know what, we can shop for new ones now if that’s what you want.” 

Anna sighs. “Using your own money again? No, thank you. I’ve been enough burden for you—” 

Emily disrupts in the middle of Anna’s speech. “Have we not talked about that already? No one’s a burden here, okay? I’m letting you stay here because we’re sisters, and I’m buying you clothes because we’re sisters.” Emily stands up and holds Anna on both hands. “Plus, now that you have a job, this could mean it’s going to be the last time I spend money on you because you’ll have enough soon.” She smiles. “Being an employee of the country’s leading perfume company is a luxury, after all.” 

“Oh, no, Emily, I’m surely going to miss you when you’re gone.” Anna Jones’ hugs her best friend in the most unexpected manner. 

“Stop making it sound like I’d be gone for good. I’m only going to be away for like a couple of weeks or so,” Emily says, hugging Anna even tighter. 

After the three seconds of hug that felt like an hour, Emily and Anna let go of each other. 

“So, should we go on a shopping spree now?” Emily questions, this time even more confident and excited. 

Anna Jones stifles a smile. “Sure, if that’s fine for you.” 

*****

After spending an hour and a half in search for the best corporate wardrobe for Anna, the two best friends crash in a Thai Cuisine restaurant to get themselves some food. The restaurant is big and looks extra, but only half of the number of tables are occupied by customers. Anna and Emily sit on the one nearest to the entrance door. 

It’s quarter to one in the afternoon and both of the girls are hungry. However, before they order, Emily tells Anna that they have to wait for Noah Scott before ordering anything. 

Anna Jones is skimming through the menu book while Emily is calling her boyfriend— now fiance when Anna suddenly notices that the food is quite expensive for them. “Are you sure we’re going to eat here? Everything in the menu costs an arm and a leg. God, a serving of mango sticky rice for a hundred dollars? This is already capitalism,” Anna whispers, making sure that only her friend can hear what she says. 

Emily laughs as she ends the call. “Actually, I consulted Noah about it. He said if we find somewhere else to eat, he’s paying for the bill.” 

“Cool!” Anna swiftly stands up from her chair. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of this expensive restaurant now.” she furthers. 

Emily is about to get off her seat as well when all of a sudden, one of the serving crews walks towards their table with a tray full of food. 

Both confused and completely clueless, Anna and Emily look at each other with imaginary question marks carved on their faces. After a couple of blinks, they divert their gaze to the serving crew who is carefully placing the food on their table.  

Anna intervenes. “Excuse me, but I think you got it on the wrong table. We haven’t ordered anything yet.” 

The serving crew looks at the receipt from the tray and checks the label on it. “Your name is Miss Anna Jones, right?” 

“Yes, that’s right,” Anna answers right away. 

“Then this is really for you. We are tasked to serve you everything on the menu as per requested by a VIP customer who doesn’t want to be named.” The serving crew goes back to what he is doing. “Don’t worry, Miss Jones. The bill is already paid.” 

“Paid by who?” Emily asks, still questioning everything. 

By this time, the serving crew is already done transferring everything from the tray to the table. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I can’t really disclose the name.” 

Anna sighs. “It’s okay. Whoever gave all of these to us, just tell them we appreciate the gesture.” 

“I will let him know for sure, ma’am.” The serving crew leaves. 

Emily and Anna sit back in their respective chairs as soon as the serving crew is gone. Drooling over the food on their table, Anna no longer asks for the mystery of the free buffet served but rather digs into the variety of Thai cuisine in front of them. 

“Don’t you think eating these from someone we don’t know is a sin?” Emily asks. 

“Just don’t think about it,” Anna replies. But just when she is about to dig in, she happens to spot Noah Scott from across the table— the one nearest to the counter— together with his chauffeur and a personal bodyguard. They are about to leave the restaurant. 

Anna Jones withdraws the spoon from feeding it into her mouth. Her forehead crinkles, summoning yet another invisible question mark on her face. “Are you f*cking kidding me?” 

“What’s wrong?” Emily asks. 

“I think I might just know who paid for all of these foods,” Anna whispers, her light mood slowly shifting into something worse. 

“Who?” Emily asks again, but this time, she is already taking a spoonful of Pad Thai. 

“Look over there, on the table before the counter.” Anna points using her curled lips. 

“OMG? It was Noah who paid the bill? Is that what you are trying to say?”

Anna Scott jerks her eyebrows,  feeling the heat that slowly builds up in her head. 

“Is he leaving now? Goodness, Anna Jones, we should thank him.” Emily prompts to stand, rushing to leave her seat as if trying to chase Noah Scott and his men and show courtesy to them before they fully get out of the restaurant. 

However, Anna pulls her best friend back just as quickly as she would hate the man who brought them the food. “What do you think are you doing?” 

“Chill, I’m just gonna thank him for giving us free meals,” Emily answers as she sways her best friend’s arm that prevented her from chasing Noah.

When Emily is free from her best friend’s grip, she chases Noah Scott, who, by the time, is already outside of the restaurant, granting some bypassers the chance to take a picture with him. As she watched Emily do the only thing she begged her not to do, Anna could not help but just look away and face the opposite direction as if she did not see anything outside. 

Emily, on the other hand, gazes at Anna from time to time. As soon as she notices that Anna is not looking back, she wraps up the conversation with Noah and goes back inside the restaurant. 

“Why did you refuse to say thanks to him? You did not even bother to look at us and smile,” Emily says as soon as she returns to her seat. 

“First of all, we did not ask him to buy lunch for us,” Anna counters, “And second, he still has not apologized to me after what he did before.” 

“You still haven’t moved on from that? Anna, that was already a week ago,” Emily replies, going back to eating her Pad Thai. “And besides, wasn’t it you who rejected his gesture of reconciliation during your yacht dinner?” 

“Reconciliation? How could I accept it when he did not even apologize in the first place? That is not how reconciliation works, if I remember it correctly, Emily.” 

“Okay, listen to me, best friend. I know you are just trying to be mean to Noah because you obviously did not like him on your first meeting, but hey, try to touch some grass, girl,” Emily says in between her spoonfuls of Pad Thai. “You need to change your behavior towards him because you are in the same workplace. It’s not unlikely that you encounter him every day when you start working.” 

“Honestly, that doesn’t sound like much of an issue to me,” Anna replies in the most unbothered way possible. “You know how professional I am when it comes to work, right?” 

“Actually, you suck at that department, Anna. That is the very reason why you were fired from your previous job, remember?” Emily sips from her pineapple smoothie. 

“Whatever, Emily. I am just positive that this time, I’m going to be better. He is not my boss anyway, so he is not in the position to fire me just because I don’t want to make peace with him.” Anna states. 

The conversation ends when Emily’s boyfriend enters the restaurant after being stuck in traffic for more than fifteen minutes. He fetches both of the girls and together, they hurry back home after a long, tiring day of shopping for Anna.