章 34: THIRTY THREE(Not in the mood for jokes)
The following morning came quite earlier than they had anticipated; Ethan's thought had drifted him to sleep. He was five am when he woke up, and surprisingly Mia was all finished and dressed. Without a word, she gave him a look that said, "I'm ready to go now."
Ethan managed to clean up quickly, and by 5:30, they were all ready. Ethan knew the wanted to be out of there before sunrise to avoid any more gossip. With the help of one of Chief Jim's men, they drove to Henada airport where Ethan's private jet was already being prepped so they had to wait.
Once they were finished, the pilot announced the departure time and soon they were in the air. They took off at exactly fifteen minutes to eight, but the entire plane ride was awkwardly quiet, and this time, Mia didn't make any attempts to lighten the mood. Noel noticed the whole mood and decided to keep to himself, while Mia kept staring outside the window and sleeping and waking up.
They finally arrived B-City on Sunday morning by six am, Ethan politely offered her a chauffeur driven car, but she declined saying she'd opt for a cab.
The weather was very chilly, and there were obvious signs that it had snowed lightly the previous night.
It was just six in the morning, but B-City was already full of life. The cold but stuffy air, the Christmas spirit in the air, the snow, the blaring of horns and sirens in the distant, people hurrying back and forth through the busy streets, Mia was just grateful to be back home.
She got up to her apartment and the door was locked, a sign that meant her aunt wasn't at home. Mia let out a small sigh as she reached for the keys from underneath the foot rug. Hiding the keys there was the only thing Aunt Megan usually did right.
She walked in and turned on the light of the small apartment, as to her greatest surprise, the entire was squeaky cleaned. The tiny living room didn't like a dumping ground anymore, the clothes on the couches were gone, the beer bottles and ash tray on the coffee table had been replaced by a small dainty but pretty flower pot.
"…Okay??" Mia thought, "Did I walk into the wrong apartment?" She murmured as she marched to the refrigerator. On it was her sticky note that read, "I'm off to a culinary training in Japan , I'll be gone for a week."
Beneath that note was her aunt's reply, it read, "I care about you a lot, I'm off to rehab. I wanna be better for you. Love, Aunt M—"
"So that's what this is all about." She smirked, "See you in a week." She scoffed then opened the fridge, hoping to scavenge something out of the all the beer, because she was sure they were all hidden in there. To her greatest surprise, there were no beers. Instead, it looked like a regular person's fridge.
"This is a first, good luck to you Megan." Mia smiled as she grabbed a box of cereal and went back to the couch. Usually, she would go to her room since it was the only inhabitable place in the apartment.
Slowly, she took her souvenir and gift bag and went through all the things she had gotten, a sigh escaped her lips as she reached for the photo album Ethan had gotten her. She went through the photos and suddenly threw it across the room.
"He should have at least told me first!" She snapped as she let out an exasperated sigh and ran her fingers through her hair.
She picked up her phone as if to call him, but instead, she found herself in the photo gallery clicking on one the videos she had taken at Minoo.
***
"....And here's Ethan, the slowest of the entire trail—"
"Face forward, you're going to miss a step." Ethan said as he tried to block Mia's camera, she could hear herself laughing in the background,
"Oh don't worry the steps aren't that steep, there's no way—" she paused as she missed a step and started falling backwards, her phone was already recording the clouds, but then, Ethan quickly caught her by her scarf. The video recorded Ethan's face the brief seconds he held on to her scarf, it was this poker face that made Mia annoyed.
Suddenly there was a small thud as the fell on her legs.
"Who drops a lady like that, rude!" She heard herself saying in the background.
Mia let out and exasperated sigh as she quickly ended the video recording ad slammed her phone against the couch.
"Two faced jerk!"
----
Monday morning was a grumpy one for Mia, she just wanted to do her job and be left alone, but off course going to Japan for a week wasn't something to slide pass her friends; Ashley and Betty.
They couldn't stop blabbing about their week either, but somehow, Mia managed to slip past them right to her duty post.
Christian Oh wasn't on seat which made Mia quite relieved, she had totally forgotten him the entire week, and she felt bad and wasn't exactly in the right mood to face him.
Judging by the look on the faces of most of the chefs, it was obvious they weren't so pleased about her return.
"I thought they already fired you." Jan, one of the station chefs snickered,
Even the junior chef who was a only few years older than her didn't fail to hide her distaste,
"Stay away from Mr. Oh you whore!" She whispered sternly as she walked pass her.
Mia simply ignored her as she walked over to Ashley who was already doing her job.
"Great, you're back…You get to do my shifts too for an entire week, see you in a week." She told her flatly as she handed her the mop.
"Have fun." She winked, "And quick advice, don't listen to these folks, if you want Mr. Oh…Go get him." She smirked then quietly walked away.
---
Hey, why do you look so glum, I was hoping you'd be happy to see me after an entire week—"
"Good morning Miss Lin." Mia replied in a bored tone.
"You know, you brought all this upon yourself—"
"You had me transferred to the kitchen, and as if that wasn't enough, you sold me out to Mr. Fisher—"
"I sold you out?!" Miss Lin scoffed,
"I would never do that to you Mia, I was surprised when Mr. Fisher told me himself." She explained,
"DO you really want me to believe that you didn't have a hand in our one week suspension break." Mia chuckled,
"I was the only one behind this, but somehow you managed to drag my friends into this—"
"It was for their own good." She grinned,
"I heard you went on a trip." Miss Lin smirked,
"Don't wanna talk about it." Mia mumbled
"What happened? You almost had your first kiss and then you didn't? Ah, don't get too sad, life can be like that sometimes, and before you know, you find yourself at 40. Working for an admirable manager at a prestigious hotel, going back to an empty home and wishing you had gotten that one special kiss." She sighed as she began to walk away,
At that moment, an infuriated Mia called out,
"Hey! Miss Lin,"
"Mhm?" Miss Lin replied vaguely as she turned,
"I'm really sorry about the way your life turned out, but unfortunately, I won't end up like you. It's not too late though, you could always tell Mr. Fisher how you feel. And as for me, I had my first kiss a long time ago and in recent times, I've had even more, and I plan to even get more in days, weeks and months to come!" She told her in a matter of factly way.
"Hey!" Miss Lin snapped back,
"Do you have to be so straight forward about it, I was only messing with you." She sighed as she walked off.
"I guess I'm not in the mood for jokes today." Mia murmured as she walked out and slammed the door.
---
After working overtime at work, out of the blue, Mia decided to cool off at a bar. She knew she couldn't handle alcohol well, but at the same time, there was just an urge to try it, you know, to see what the movie characters on TV felt when they were having a bad day.
The small bar was crowded with other drinkers who were minding their own business. Boldly, Mia marched to the bartender and grabbed and climbed the tall stool.
"Good evening Ma'am, what would you like to have today?" He smiled politely,
"A shot of tequila would do." Mia mumbled.
The barman smirked and without further questions, he gave her the first shot and with a dash of salt and lime. She had seen how it was done in the movies, so without any questioning, she licked the salt, quickly gulped down the first shot and immediately sucked on the lime to ameliorate the raw burning taste of the tequila in her mouth.
"Ahh!" She sighed as her legs suddenly felt weak.
"How do people even take this?" She sighed as she dropped her face on the table.
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