TASTES LIKE LOVE

The Show

"The biggest and most important thing is to make sure that each and every guest of The Mirage, regardless of the type of suite they are using is comfortable and happy. I will be rewarding the employees with the best performance in the end of the month evaluation regardless whether you work for reception, laundry, kitchen, lounge, gym, even garden. Show me your best work, and I'll reward it. Have a good day," Lauren said, concluding her speech to the staff and stepping off the podium.

Leaving the employees abuzz with excitement over the announcement, she left the conference room with Preston hot on her heels. "The production crew is set up and ready to run by now, right?" she asked, traversing across the lobby to the get across to the double doors that led to the outdoor pool and garden area where the show would be taking place.

"Yes ma'am, they texted me five minutes ago, and the cameras are already rolling," he replied, opening the door for her.
"Good. Let's go," she said, stepping outside.

The set was arranged nicely with the cooking table placed between the pool and the garden, giving the viewers an excellent view of the beautiful outdoors of The Mirage. The show had began, and the host, a warm, elderly lady famous for her easy, homely recipes was already introducing and kicking the show off to a good start.

Mark stood quietly listening, looking amazing as always in his chef uniform, his hair perfectly styled despite the breeze.
Beside him though was another guest, a pretty girl in her mid 20's with a celebrity-like beauty and gorgeous smile.

Lauren walked to the director's chair to say her greetings. He was an old friend, and usually took care of their hotel's adverts and events. "I had no idea we had an extra guest?" she asked. The director, Mr. West, smiled. "Oh, that's Yuri from a popular music group in Korea. Her group is on tour in the country right now and I thought it would be great to have her on the show as she has shown interest in cooking in their variety shows," he explained. She nodded slowly, watching as the show progressed.

The girl was actually good, and her product placement skills were incredible, but the one thing Lauren found unsettling was the amount of smiling and eyelash batting she was doing at Mark.
They're chopping fucking onions, what's so happy about that?
The onion cutting brought tears to Yuri's eyes, and she seemed to have trouble finding something to wipe them with. Mark offered his shirt sleeve as the tissues were too far away. That was fine, it was just him being nice to a fellow guest. Then she forgot to peel something before dropping it in the pot, so he offered to fish it out and peel it for her. That was fine too. Chef's duty.

The last straw was that plate incident. As they were getting the plates out to start plating the food, clumsy little Yuri dropped her plate, and the ceramic pieces went flying everywhere. "Oh! I'm so sorry, " she said, bending to pick the pieces up. Mark stopped her, pulling her aside. "Stop. I'll do it. You may get hurt," he said, and quickly gathered up the bigger pieces while the staff cleared up the rest. The host smiled, reassuring Yuri with a smile. "It's okay, dear. Let's get on," she said. Yuri turned to Mark. "Thank you so much, Chef Lee," she said, and Mark simply smiled and nodded.
That was just it. Why the fuck was he smiling at her so much? Were his smiles so easy? He just smiles at and helps everybody and anybody, what is he? A philanthropist?

The shooting wrapped up, and Lauren went up to the set to say her greetings. She spoke briefly to the host, a cordial hello to Yuri then turned to Mark. "Good job on the shoot, babe. You did marvelous, and you looked so handsome on camera!" she said, stressing the babe part so hard a couple heads turned.
Mark stared at her strangely at first, but soon caught on and smiled. " Thank you. You didn't have to come all the way down here, I know you're busy." he said. She shook her head. "Never too busy for you, babe," she said.