Chương 29: CH29: Blessed to have friends like them

"The people who gave you their food,

gave you their heart."

- Cesar Chavez

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"Beep! Beep!"

Delilah groggily woke up from her sleep, rubbing her eyes as she yawned. She peered at her phone, which was on her bedside table, blinking to keep awake. When she read '6:45AM', her eyes widened in shock. She jumped out of her bed, grabbed her bath towel, which was lying on top of her chair and ran into the bathroom.

Few minutes later, she went out of the bathroom with her bath towel wrapped around her. She quickly grabbed some clean clothes and put it on.

As always, she cursed herself every time she woke up late. She had spent the night before, reading novels and chatting in discordance. Despite the numerous times her friends in discordance keep nagging her to sleep, she only pretends to be offline. Instead, she went to read her novel (Yup, got busted here!).

One time, she had already told her friends that she was off to sleep but went to read, instead. Unfortunately, the novel that she was reading made her annoyed and want to throw a tantrum so she went back to discordance to rant. Instead of sympathizing with her, her friends scolded her for not sleeping. So, after much nagging from them, Delilah finally fell asleep at 2 AM in the morning.

Unfortunately, she went into a deep sleep, not realizing her mobile phone had been beeping non-stop. She usually used the alarm clock app from her phone.

Ignoring the rumbling noises from her stomach, she jumped into her car and drive off to the office. She was too sleepy to make breakfast, what more lunch. It was a sacrifice she has to make that day. She does not want to be late anymore.

After she parked her car, Delilah dragged herself into the office. Mumbling a greeting to Bella who was at the front desk counter, she yawned all the way to her cubicle. It took a lot of her remaining energy to even walk to her cubicle. She was already thinking to sneak some sleep during lunch hour.

Once she was in her cubicle, the people around her were already hard at work. Murmurs of discussion swept through the air, making the office a bit lively. She already noticed that Deegan's stuff was in his cubicle but the person himself was not around. Delilah assumed that he must already went up to the Safety department floor.

Looking over at the cubicle on her other side, she also noticed that Firah was not around, as well. Then she saw a note sticking on her monitor, that reads 'For Delilah'. She went over and read the note. Apparently, Firah was at the other branch, meeting with Howard. She would not be back at the office until after lunch.

Delilah sighed. Guess she will be alone this morning. She went back to her cubicle and started to do some work, continuing from yesterday's work.

She swiftly worked through lunch, not realising the time. An hour after lunch has passed, Delilah felt her stomach grumbling. It began to growled so loud that there were some people at the office looked at her direction. Delilah was so embarrassed that she ducked her head to hide, rubbing her stomach.

Glancing at the table clock on her desk, it was then she realised the time. No wonder her stomach was rumbling. She opened her drawer where her stash of snacks were and was sadly disappointed to see it was empty. She forgot to stock up her snacks, it seems.

She then checked her handbag to grab her purse. But after rummaging through for some time, even taking her things out one by one, she could not find her purse. She groaned. Where could it be? She wondered.

It was then she remembered that she was using a different handbag yesterday. She had grabbed the wrong bag after changing it. She holds her head in despair. How could she be careless?

She slumped over her table, feeling sorry for herself. 'What am I going to do?' She thought to herself.

Just then, Aubree was passing by Delilah's cubicle when she saw Delilah lying on her table, looking depressed. "What's wrong?" she asked in concern.

"I forgot my money and my lunch. I'm so hungry. How can I buy food when I have no money with me?" Delilah cried.

Aubree blinked in surprise. "How did you forget your money? Isn't that your bag?" she asked, pointing at the bag which was on Delilah's table.

"Yeah, but my purse is in another bag," Delilah wailed. "And I was late today so I didn't have the time to cook."

Aubree patted Delilah on the shoulder, trying to console her. Delilah slumped over her table, feeling too hungry to say a single word.

Aubree then went off to her table, leaving Delilah alone.

Few minutes later, Aubree returned, carrying a food container. She placed it in front of Delilah, who was still slumping over her table, her cheek resting on the table. "What's this?" Delilah asked.

"You can have this," Aubree offered her food. "I actually went out for lunch earlier with my boyfriend. And I didn't get to eat the foods I brought from home."

Delilah immediately rejected her offer as she sat up straight, facing Aubree. "No, no. I couldn't take your food, Aubree. What if you suddenly get hungry again?" she asked. Sometimes Delilah would still get hungry before going back home. So, she usually eat some leftovers from her lunch if she could not finish it or some snacks. Thus, she was worried that Aubree would be the same.

Aubree tsked. "Ugh, just take it," she pressed, shoving the food container into Delilah's hands.

Delilah opened the cover of the container and saw spaghetti carbonara inside. Her eyes widened and her mouth was already drooling.

Delilah looked up at Aubree, her lips twitching, as if she was trying to hold back her tears. "Bless you, Aubree!" she cried out. "And bless me!"

Aubree rolled her eyes at her antics and pulled Delilah off her seat. She then pushed her towards the pantry room and said, "Go and have your lunch now."

Delilah nodded and went to the pantry. Inside the pantry, there were two chairs and a small round table. Earlier before, when Delilah had brought her ash reshteh, there were actually no table and chairs. Apparently, someone had requested to the general affairs to add these furniture. Which Delilah thought was a convenient idea. At least, she does not have to eat in her cubicle or go down to the cafeteria.

Delilah walked over to the pantry country to grab some plastic cutlery and went to the microwave to reheat the food. Once done, she sat down and began to eat. The pasta was cooked to perfection; soft and smooth. The carbonara sauce tasted creamy, milky and savoury with a bit of a pinch of herbs. It was a simple dish but the flavour was thick and rich. Together with bits of beef mixed in it, it has that little taste of meat.

It was so delicious that she nearly licked the whole container. Or probably, she was just hungry. Delilah loved the smooth thickness of the rich creamy carbonara.

Once she was done eating, she went to wash the food container and threw the plastic cutlery in the recycle bin.

Delilah immediately went to Aubree's cubicle and thanked her for the food, handing her her food container.

A few minutes later, Delilah was in the middle of writing a report, which was needed to be sent to Matt when Deegan arrived at his cubicle. Delilah looked up, surprised and quickly looked over at Firah's. Apparently, she has not arrived yet.

Just then, Deegan reached over the top of Delilah's cubicle and placed a bag of potato chips on her desk. Delilah was startled at the sudden intrusion. A nice intrusion, of course. Who would want to reject free potato chips?

She held up the bag of potato chips and looked up at Deegan, who was resting both of his arms on top of the cubicle wall, with his chin on top of his arms. She looked at him with a questioning look on her face, gesturing at the bag of potato chips.

Deegan grinned. "Heard you were hungry so I bought you some potato chips."

"For me?" she asked.

Deegan nodded. "Sure, if you'd like. I already bought one for myself too," he said, stepping back.

Delilah stood up and peeked over at Deegan's table. Sure enough, there were more bags of potato chips on his table. She grinned at him and thanked him.

Deegan gave her a mock salute and said, "No problem!" He then sat down and began to work.

Delilah, too, sat back down and continue to work, her hands working to open the bag of potato chips. She felt blessed to have such caring colleagues. Now, she became more motivated to work harder.