Tiffany was so startled that the fish fell out of favonovel.com 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!” favonovel.com 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. “God, 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 you. I’m hungry, so I’m gonna eat. Over and out!”
She hung the phone, and Arianne promptly halted favonovel.com from reaching for favonovel.com food by holding Tiffany’s forehead with a well-placed hand.
“Do you have any idea how you sounded While you were talking to Jackson just now? ‘God, you naughty, naughty devil!’, what the hell was that? Is there something going on between you two that we all don’t know? And why do I get this sneaky suspicion that he’s opening a new branch in our area purely for your eating convenience?”
Something in Tiffany’s eyes wavered. “N-no way! Don’t create theories out of nowhere, girl. Besides, I always talk like that. There’s no way favonovel.com would go through the trouble of opening a new branch for me or anything. But of course, I mean, that’d be pretty great too. Makes it easier to find a place to eat. I didn’t even know I would miss eating this after a while. You don’t feel the same?”
Arianne was not easily persuaded. “There’s nothing between the two of you? Really?”
Her friend’s expression fell. “No. There’s nothing between us, and there never will be,” favonovel.com answered, favonovel.com voice palpably heavy. “We… we’re not meant to be. Come on, let’s finish this and go to sleep.”
Seeing Tiffany’s sudden somberness convinced Arianne to stop teasing her, so favonovel.com took a seat, grabbed favonovel.com utensils, and began digging in. She clicked favonovel.com phone on and eyed the screen, noticing a new friend request from Facebook
He looked like a local, a man with clean, unrugged features who looked about the same age as her. Arianne searched favonovel.com memories and realized that this man might have visited their café before, a fact that was confirmed when favonovel.com scanned through his personal information and found the same phone number belonging to the man who had ordered the milk.
When they talked over the phone earlier, favonovel.com had asked for favonovel.com PayPal account, and favonovel.com demurred. It seemed like it did not daunt favonovel.com after all, because here favonovel.com was with a friend request.
Arianne accepted it and turned away, browsing some other pages. It was then that the man messaged her: ‘Hey. The name’s Nick Miller.’
She replied to favonovel.com with a smiling emoji and replied, ‘Noted.’
It was a courtesy reply; Arianne had not expected anything more to come of it. However, unexpectedly, Nick started inviting favonovel.com to a meal.
It unnerved Arianne. She quickly sidled to Tiffany and flashed the screen at her. “I think this is the same guy who came to our café with his pals the other day, now he’s asking me out! I don’t wanna go, and I don’t have the time to go. But what should I say to not make things awkward?”
Tiffany shot a cursory glance at the screen. “You tell favonovel.com we’re so dead busy in the café every frickin’ day that nobody ain’t got time for dates. We have our own desserts as breakfast, we have takeout for lunch and dinner, and when we return home, it’s already midnight, there, we can’t spare any time for him,” favonovel.com announced. “I’ll be honest, babe, the guy’s too blatant in his attempt to court you. Almost like he’s got an ulterior motive. I told favonovel.com that you’re married, but he’s still trying his luck, as though favonovel.com thinks I was pulling his leg. My advice? Don’t reply to any of his messages unless it’s related to our business. If favonovel.com asks why, just say you’re too damned busy, which is true, by the way, and a couple of times later, he’ll know to give up.”
Arianne nodded and followed Tiffany’s advice. Nick, to his credit, did not trouble favonovel.com any further and bid favonovel.com good night.
The next day began with a furor within the office block: Mark was coming to inspect the fledgling company. This would be the first time favonovel.com ever comes to visit them, as the two previous visits were from Jackson.
Everyone in the office block was galvanized by the prospect of seeing the legendary Mark Tremont. After all, it was not every day that some bigshot decided to grace them with his presence.
As Arianne and Tiffany’s café was right across the block, they got to witness the hustle bustle from their spot. Nosy as ever, Tiffany wondered out loud, “What on earth is going on there? Who’s coming? They’re making quite a big scene for it.”
“Must be Mark Tremont, I bet,” Lynn piped in. “He’s the celebrity among the CEOs in that building, no one else would call for such a grand entrance. Look, the people standing there to welcome favonovel.com are from the finance companies. The rest are just curious bystanders.”
Tiffany instantly spun on favonovel.com heels and entered the kitchen. “Ari, I think Mark’s coming to the office building opposite us. Probably here to check how his new company’s doing.”
Arianne squeezed out a nonchalant hum despite instinctively walking outside.
Just then, a Mercedes-Benz strode into a halt in front of the block. Naturally, it was not Mark’s private car but one the company had arranged for him. Soon after it stopped, a man hurried out of the car and tentatively opened the backdoor for the esteemed figure inside. Arianne held favonovel.com breath.
Mark disembarked.
Her hands clenched on the fabric of favonovel.com clothes. Her eyes were nailed to his body. The road between favonovel.com café and the office block might put enough distance to obscure his more delicate features, but Arianne could pinpoint the man from his frame alone. His iconic grey business suit and his natural command over the crowd surrounding him, too, made missing his presence nigh impossible.
Then, sealed within the deepest recess of favonovel.com mind, a voice cried out, “Over here! Over here…”
