The Billionaires Too (#2)

The Partner

The café was almost empty with the exception of the group of teenage girls who were finishing up their homework on one of the booths.

All the tables in the café were flipped and placed on top of one another, along with their chairs.

It was their nightly routine and it kept Antonina rooted. She liked having a customer or two while she prepared to close up for the day. La Café closed at 8p.m. every day, but she stayed up until 10p.m. because she had no one to go to at home.

La Café had become her shelter, and it took the loneliness away for a few hours of the day. Like a woman with issues, she went home late and left early in the morning. Her small business was her solitude, and it provided her with the family and friends she never had.

Over the years, she had found daughters and sons among her regular customers, and brothers and sisters from some of the elderly customers and suppliers.

She had had to start over when she arrived in South Africa after she left Mexico over twenty years ago, but she still had not found what she was looking for. She wanted a family, but life spited her and took her family away. She lost her children and then lost her husband to more than twenty years in prison. She had no one, she was alone.

Yes, Reina and Jameson were there, but they had their own home and their own lives, and all she had was an empty house.

Her business and customers kept her alive, and as for her business partner, he was there as a reminder that not all people were sugar and honey. For some unknown reason, Logan Parker hated her; he was as bitter as a lemon seed, and Antonina did not understand why.

He had forced his way into her café and tried to run her out of business because despite his many restaurants around the area, people could never get enough of her café. She served simple, universal meals, and her meals were affordable. He had almost succeeded destroying her business, but something changed his mind and he suggested a partnership.

Antonina thought this was a sign for a new beginning, but he proved her wrong later after their partnering that if she messed up, he was going to sell and franchise the café. She tried to get closer to him, but he always pushed her away and was always formal around her. Instead of the rising competition, he became her biggest fear in her own business.

Antonina sighed in contempt and shook her head as she wiped the counter with a napkin. "Kids, are you almost finished?" She called to the group of students.

"Yes, Ants!" They chorused, and she nodded with a warm smile.

She threw the napkin away and proceeded to her office to gather her things. She entered the small office and smiled with pride. The size of her office was a firm reminder that this café was still hers. She sighed heavily and sat down behind the small desk, running her fingers across the hardwood.

She laid her head on the desk and stared at the pictures at the corner. It was pictures of her family; on one of them was she and her husband on their wedding day at the chapel, on another it was a picture they had taken many years back in Mexico after church at the same chapel.

Next to them were three other frames, one in which she was heavily pregnant. She was wearing a long, black and orange, flowery dress that reached her toes and tightened around her protruding belly. She had a toffee-looking skin, and her face looked young and radiant with twinkling eyes and her smile that reached her eyes.

On the next frame was a picture of her carrying two babies at the hospital after giving birth. She had taken a lot of pictures on that day, but she lost most of them when they emigrated from Mexico.