Forgive my grammar mistakes.
Chapter 2
Pastry Chef
EPOV
When the door opened, I was faced by a crying woman, black tears all over her face.
What she was doing in the men's toilet, God knows. But being dumped doesn't justify her actions. It's disturbing the rest of the guests and the hotel will gain a bad reputation.
When she hid from her cubicle, I returned to the purpose of my visit in this toilet. I stood in front of the mirror, cleaning myself from the mess my blind date has created. Wiping my face and running my hands through my hair, I once again knocked on the crying woman's stall.
"On a day like this, if a guy left the girl, the game is over. Next time don't reason them why. Just hit and run. In life, there are all kinds of men, but men are men. The same with women."
Remembering how I got in this situation….
*****
"It's been a while since you've changed. If I called you, you hang up in seconds. You wouldn't reply to my texts and you made excuses all the time, saying that you're busy, just because you didn't want to meet me."
"Oh… she doesn't realize quickly. If he doesn't answer her calls, it's already over. Am I right?" I told the woman, sitting on the opposite side of me.
"That's that, I guess… Well, the job you're doing right now. It must be fun." My blind date said. What's her name again? I really can't bother to remember. After all, I'll make sure I won't see her again.
"Do we work for fun? We work to eat and live."
"Yeah… But when are you thinking about going back to the hotel? Your mother seems to be looking for you."
I twisted my neck slightly to my right side, more interested with the conversation of the couple – if you can still call them that – behind my back.
"Oh no… The guy says the y should break up first. Did she just realize this now?
"Do you like the other girl?" The loud woman behind my back said.
"That's nothing for her to know." I said, slightly talking to my date but really talking to myself.
"Then why? Tell me you fool! What is your reason? A long time ago, you said you like it when I say insults. Every time I said insults you said it was fun, you douche bag!"
I can't help but break into fits of laughter but I was cut immediately when I felt cold water splashed all over my face. I can't believe this woman has the guts to spill the water all over me!
"You don't know the rumors about you, do you? You are clumsy, you over do things… If you don' t want to date, then figure things out at your house with your mother and not make girls wait on you." She grabbed her bag and jacket and left me sitting there.
"Did you even love me?"
I turned to look at the now broken up couple. I couldn't see her face since she was facing her ex-boyfriend.
"The three years we've been together, you've never told me you loved me. Did you love me?"
I smirked. What kind of woman wants to embarrass herself willingly in public? Why does she have to yell that one?
**********
I left the hotel with the taxi waiting for me.
**********
I started my day with a quick lap in the pool my apartment building owns, just to keep myself in figure. I went through my morning routine, and wore a blue long sleeve with a black and white stripped coat and pants. After all, the an owner of the restaurant always have to look their best.
As usual, I arrived at 'Bon Appetit' with a taxi, and I was greeted by all my staff.
"Good morning!" I greeted Jasper and Carmen, both of them standing in front of the baking counter.
Jasper Whitlock, 35 years old , is my head chef,. He maybe in his 30s but his looks still qualifies him in his late 20s. Carmen, in her 40s, is my family's close friend, and also the manager of my restaurant.
"It's not a good morning" Jasper replied. "Charlotte left for Paris this morning.
"Her mother died of heart attack." Carmen continued.
"When did she say she can come back?" I asked, getting worried.
"That's the problem, She's not coming back. What do we do?" Jasper asked, his voice full of worry.
BPOV
Fully dressed for my interview, I approached the receptionist of the place I was called for an interview.
"Hi. I'm Bella Swan."
"Right. I have here in my list an Isabella Swan. They're waiting for you. That way please."
I entered a typical office and approach the guy who I'm having an interview with. He didn't even let me sit, and he just started talking as soon as I was near enough to hear him. He's maybe in his late 40s and he's not attractive at all.
"You're father is dead, out of three children, you're the third daughter. Do you have a parent?"
"Yes, my mother."
"You went to cooking school and you… what is this?"
"Oh, that is a school in Paris, it's been there for over 100 years and I studied there."
"Anyway, you don't have a job?"
"Oh. That is… right now I'm resting. But I usually get called to work so I'm going to be getting a job very soon."
"So… Isabella Swan." He broke into a short laugh. "You're name is a little weird. Anyway, did you fix your face?"
"100% natural"
"Look at this, you have no conscience. How can you live in this country without doing anything with your face?
"What?!" My voice became higher. "What kind of company is this?!"
"Do you think you can get married like that? Here, watch this." He slammed a DVD on the table. "In this movie, it says it is harder to meet a woman under the age of 30 than to meet a total bomb. Out of all famous sayings, you can consider this the best. Whatever you said before didn't go in my head. Anyway, why don't you go home, wash your feet and watch this movie. And don't even dream about getting married.
I took the DVD in my hand. "If they were to remake this movie, they would have to fix 30 – 40 scenes. Today's 30 and the past's 20 is the same thing.
He stood up, matching my height. "That's what women think but you have to realize men think differently. Women have to be pretty and young."
"Oh… Is that right huh? Do you men not get old too? Does your stomach not droop down? Think positive you old man. And I'm fat? Yeah, I'm fat, making cakes and chocolates is my job. Do you think I wouldn't be? And you say I'm a person with no job? Is that my fault? Is it?! People like you, tell them all to come out!!" I'm lost my temper now and I'm yelling so loudly that I'm sure all the people in that office can hear me.
"BANG"
I felt my head hit something. The wall of the waiting room to be precise. I've been dreaming again. Just in time, I saw the guy, just like in my dreams, approach me.
"Yes. I came to a conclusion that we should hold on until we find the right guy for you. "
"What does that mean?" I asked, confused.
"Until you get picked, you will need to wait."
"So this means it will be very expensive to wait?"
"Yeah."
"How much will it be?"
"It will be 100$ per month."
I woke up again, now sitting in a bus, next to the window, with a small cake box on my lap. What kind of dream was that? Suddenly, I noticed a small advertisement stuck on the back of the chair, right in front of me, with the picture of the man just like in my dream, advertising a company that looks for your compatible partner.
"What? Giving 100$ to those people and having to wait for they don't even know how long. Ha. That's nonsense."
EPOV
I entered my Elizabeth's hotel, following her and Maggie, a relative who's also an assistant at the same time.
"You're going to buy a bakery for our needs?" Elizabeth asked.
"Because of her mother's death, she said she will not come back to work again. Until we can get a new pastry chef, we will need to borrow yours."
"Our restaurant was picked in the top 5 out of Seattle, because it has good quality and it's expensive. "
"For now, we will not get any profits." I replied.
"We need to get a hotel and get a French chef for our restaurant." She quipped.
"One more thing, the owner and kitchen workers are also French."
"Anyways, they don't fit our needs so we can't use them, and you're not even making the food. So why do you need a pastry chef? That's why it's not surprising my company is laughing at you" she scolded me.
"In France, bakery is the most important thing. I don't make fake food."
Arriving at the front of the elevators, I pressed the button going up.
"Showing off, it's because you are over confident."
We entered the elevator and we three were alone.
She started talking again. "Next week, Mr. Mallory's daughter is getting married. The lady you were with last Christmas eve."
"I don't have to go, do I?"
"When are you planning to get married? Next year Nessie will start kindergarten. Don't you think she needs an aunt to take her to school?"
"I will do that, and I will go to the parent meetings. So don't worry about it."
"If you don't want to go on meetings, then get married."
"We're almost there. Please give me the pastry chef."
"I already told you this before. Chris said we can't so there's nothing we can do about it."
"Chris likes me so just give him a call."
She moved so quickly that I didn't have the chance to dodger her painful slap on my shoulder.
"When are you going to get your act together?! What do you think people will say about a 5 star hotel owner's son, leaving and opening his own restaurant?" She screamed at me. Arrgghh!! I'm gonna be deaf one of these days..
"Mom does the hotel job while son does the food jobs."
"Are you making jokes about your mom?" I received another round of hits on my shoulder and I put my arms up to cover my face. She's really pissed now.
She continued hitting me. "Do you think you can do this on your own?"
"If you keep on hitting me, I don't think I can do this any longer!" I finally retaliated.
"What?! What are you going to do huh? What are you going to do?!" She screamed so loudly. All this time, Maggie was staring ahead quietly, as if my ass is not being beaten up.
The elevator door suddenly opened. We all straightened up as if nothing happened. As soon as the door closed, she resumed her assault on me, when I finally reached my limit, I caught both her wrists, and she tried to escape to no avail.
"Ohh. Let go! You're not letting go?!"
"Ohh.. Why did you suddenly shrink?"
We finally reached our destination and walked toward the executive's office.
"If you don't have luck with your husband, I heard you don't have luck with your child." She complained.
"Instead you have luck with money."
"Oh gosh. I can't live because of you. You're so disgusting. I wonder where you came from."
"From beneath Elizabeth's legs" I replied, smirking, looking away from her.
"Get married before the end of this year." She stated.
"Hurry and give Chris a call."
"I'm going to tell on you to your older brother." She turned around and walked towards her office.
"Tell him I said hi."
I walked to Maggie's desk, outside Liz's office. "There's nothing wrong with President Cullen, right?"
Maggie answered monotonously "Not really. How much longer are you going to be riding in the taxi? If you're still afraid to drive, why don't go get a personal driver like your mother said."
"It's okay. It's better than you think. "
BPOV
"You've been working at a very good place for 2-3 years. Why did you suddenly leave?" the interviewer asked me.
"Hmmn. What should I say? I will put it like the work is different than the life I'm living in."
"What do you mean by life?"
"Um… That is… I think the person making the food is part of the food. So that means, I would have to live an excellent life. But this Christmas eve, I've experienced a lost in my life. A girl who lost her love wouldn't be able to make a sweet cake."
"So on the busiest day at the bakery you didn't stay because you wanted to go play with the one you love. So you got fired."
"No, I didn't want to play. I wanted to protect our relationship."
"So did you protect it?"
"No… We broke up."
"Wow. Impressive."
"Thank you." I reached down and got the cake box I was carrying earlier. "This is mango mousse, to show you my work."
"No, that's fine. We're looking for an assistant but you don't quite have the career history for it. I guess not this time. Sorry."
I left the room and was faced with the underground kitchen of the hotel.
"What is this… Once place says I have too much history, another place says I have too little history."
I saw a man, carrying a delicious looking round cake on each hand. I decided to look where he emerged from. Looking through the circular see through window, I can see a lot of pastry chef with their wonderful dessert creations.
I just stood there, staring, wishing that I have the opportunity to be a part of their team.
I pushed the door a bit open, to see more, and smell the delicious aroma of the pastries, bending a little bit so they won't notice me. Gosh. It smells like heaven.
"Are you going in or not?" A silky, but shocking voice broke me from my staring. Unfortunately, I was so shocked that when I moved, my hair got stuck on the button of his coat, right in front of his stomach.
"Oh my gosh. What the hell?!" I tried pulling away. Once. Twice. Three times. It didn't work and it also hurt my scalp a lot.
I heard a deep sigh above me. "Mister. My hair. My hair." I said pointing to my stuck hair."
"Hang on a second, you're hair is stuck."
"Yes. Gently please."
"Ouch!" I yelled. "Mister, why are you pulling it? It freaking hurts!"
"Hold still"
"But you're hurting my hair!" I yelled.
"Just stay still, will you?" He yelled back.
"Why do you have to scream?" I asked irritated. Trying to look at his face.
He stopped trying and said, "Just shut your mouth and stay still."
"WHAT? What did you say? Shut my mouth? You're telling me to shut my mouth?"
I suddenly felt being pulled towards the baking kitchen, where I was just staring at a few minutes earlier. He continued walking while I continued complaining.
"Give me scissors please!" He shouted.
"Are you crazy? What do you mean scissors?" I said when he finally stopped walking. "See what happens if you use scissors."
"Don't you have scissors?" he shouted again.
"What do you mean scissors?"
Someone gave him the pair of scissors he was asking for. Stupid dumb ass.
"I'll just take it out. Sorry, but I don't have time." He held the scissors over my stuck hair when I yelled "Hold on. STOP! See what happens if you cut my hair, I'll sue you."
He smirked and then cut my hair. CUT MY HAIR! My eyes widened. I screamed. I was shocked. I didn't think he would do that. Freaking asshole.
Everything in the room was quiet.
His face seems familiar.
EPOV
"You're not an employee here, right? Sue me? I'll sue you for spying on people." Who does this girl think she is? Sue me? In my own property? She must be crazy.
I headed towards Chris, head chef.
"Did you get my message Chris?"
"I got it, but I'm not available today. We can start tomorrow though."
"That won't do. C'mon Chris."
"I'm sorry it's impossible. It's not like I can give you the hotel's stock."
"C'mon Chris. Just enough to cover dinner. That's it."
"I can't."
I heard steps approaching us, so I turned a little and suddenly a cake met my face. A cake held by the crazy spy girl.
"Oh my god." Chris said shocked.
My eyes are closed. How dare she?! I' m trying to reign in my temper now.
"I'm the type of person who can't see people like you. I made this cake so it'll be expensive, but I'm not charging you for it. Eat it well!"
I heard her footsteps stalking off.
I took the piece blocking my eyes by my hand.
"Mr. Cullen, are you okay?" Chris asked.
I spread the icing on my lips, tasting it a little. Suddenly, my eyes widened. Wow. Unbelievable. This cake… It tastes so different. Different good. Could she really have baked this? I need to have some more.
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