Distort the world into clarity

Chapter Twenty-two: Good news and bad news

Back into the kitchen. It all went pretty ok. That was good enough for the fish, so it was good enough for Beatrice as well. With a satisfied feeling she ended her first serious workday. Ria even gave her a compliment about her performance. It was great.

She didn't hesitate to confront Viv after that. She was feeling good about herself, so this was the perfect moment to just get it over with.

"Hey," she said to the clownfish sitting on the sofa.

Viv did look her in the eyes, but she didn't respond.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Beatrice said carefully, "I'd like to hear your side of the story. Will you tell me again? I'll listen this time, I promise."

Beatrice sat down next to Viv. The red sofa was quite hard, so Beatrice did immediately feel a bit sorry for Viv. She had to sit there all day after all.

Viv was thinking. She had tried to open herself up to this girl, but Beatrice had refused. That rejection did sting a bit, but maybe she should put her ego aside and give Beatrice another chance. Beatrice was willing to give her another chance too, it seemed.

"Alright, I'll tell you."

Beatrice listened closely.

"So the thing is that I don't really have anything else to do. I'm shy, so I don't often talk to others. What do I have left? Judging them instead. I know I should be really grateful to have a job. I'm just a small clownfish, I shouldn't even have a job! And I am grateful, I really am, but it just gets a bit boring sometimes, sitting here all the time. That's why I simply judge, it's easy and it keeps me entertained, but I know it's a bad habit. I'm sure Lenny and Glen are cool, it's just... I don't know. Sorry."

Strangely enough, Beatrice did kind of get that. She didn't expect to sympathize with the judgy clownfish, but she did. "It's quite easy to judge others. I get that if you have nothing else to do, you might resort to doing that. Maybe you can try to make talking to others a new habit?"

Viv bit her lip. "That's going to be hard. I'm pretty bad at talking to other people."

"You're talking to me pretty good, though," Beatrice reassured.

"Thanks, Bee."

"No problem." The two sat there for a few seconds of silence. "So like, what's your job exactly?"

"I'm supposed to be a paid customer, basically. I sit in the lobby just to make other people think it's full here. It's a reputation thing."

"This place is completely obsessed with it." Beatrice grinned. "It's weird, because the hotel is actually very nice and the food here is pretty good. No one should have to pretend. The hotel is good enough on its own, without all the faking."

"I know, right? I think they did a very good job with this hotel. I mean, in just a few hours the boss transformed this building into a restaurant and hotel. It's magnificent. I still don't fully comprehend how in the world that happened, but oh well. It's impressive to say the least."

And so Beatrice was able have a pleasant conversation with a fish she didn't like just a few minutes ago.

***

Three more weeks flew by. Beatrice gave more cooking classes, she greeted Viv daily and still had her interviews with Henry, her dinners with Glen and her lunches with Thomas. Every second of the day she was spending time with someone and sometimes that was a little overwhelming. Luckily, Lenny and Thomas helped her out on that department. She'd just tell them that she needed a little break and Thomas would bring food to her room and Lenny would let her have a day off from work. Having a few days all alone in her room was nice too. Beatrice really needed a balance between social interaction and alone-time. She couldn't stand too much of one or the other. In total, she'd taken three days off now. On those days she mostly drew in her notebook. She tried sketching the view, but sadly her drawing skills weren't good enough yet. That didn't mean she'd stop drawing though. It didn't have to be good, because she didn't show many people her drawings. Up until now she'd only shown Thomas, who said that he wasn't much of an art connoisseur, but that he did like the drawing. She'd shown him a sketch of three singing whales, so maybe that's why. Drawing without any kind of pressure was very relaxing. She wasn't drawing to impress anyone, not even herself. It was just a nice outlet.