Dough, Diamonds and a Dash of Hate

III

III

HARRIET

Three days had passed and I still hadn't received any job offers, so I was on edge. At least Milena was perfectly well and happy, so the rest was just details. I explained to her very briefly why her father wasn't coming home and she was sad but seemed to understand, I have to make a mental note to talk to her about it again, maybe even take her to a children's therapist, it might help, I don't know.

While I distracted myself from this fact, I continued to work in the bakery. As long as I could, I would help my parents too, they are literally the sweetest people in the world and have supported me tremendously in every decision I've made, it's the least I could do for them.

One of these days when I was at work there was more or less a long queue, which wasn't surprising because in the morning a lot of people wanted a coffee with some fresh pastries. The only thing that was different this morning was that a woman appeared in one of those fancy coats and apparently in heels that were higher than manners because she was at the front of the queue.

"Uhm, sorry, you have to go back to the back of the queue." I say a little confused.

"I don't have time for this. My boss has a meeting at 8:23. Not 8:20, not 8:25, 8:23, and if I don't give him his coffee on time I'll be fired, do you understand'? so I suggest you hurry up. I get that you don't have an important enough job to relate to how I feel but if I don't get out of here by 8:20 with the coffee I'll get you fired." She says unbothered and I raise my eyebrows at her.

"You won't be able to, we don't do that here, you'll have to wait like everyone else." I say attending to the client who was before her without giving her time to reply while I listen to her talking to herself about how she was going to sue me and blah blah blah. After about 10 minutes I finally answered the woman who was red with anger.

"What's it going to be?" I ask as if I've never seen her before.

"Double espresso, no cream, no sugar, nothing, just coffee." She says and I start taking her order. "And you should know that I'm going to tell my boss that this was all your fault and you'll be fired."

"Oh yeah, what's his name so you can make an 8:23 appointment with him?" I say sarcastically because as I wasn't even officially working there I couldn't be fired.

"Adrian Moreau, the millionaire that owns the luxury brand Leur de Soirée, so yeah, consider this job gone, he could ruin your life if he wanted you know?!" She says as I make her coffee.

"Is that so?" I say sarcastically, wondering how I was going to screw Adrian over because the opportunity came up and I couldn't pass it up. If the assistant was still nice I'd let it go, but she was a bitch so I put a few drops of vinegar in the coffee.

She rolls her eyes, looks at her watch, leaves a few coins on the counter and leaves with her coffee, I don't give myself much time to think about it because I have work.

ADRIAN

I was halfway through the meeting when the incompetent assistant brought me the coffee. If only it was just the coffee, I don't like her attitude, I'm waiting to find a replacement before I kick her out the door.

When I put the coffee in my mouth my first thought was that the woman was trying to poison me, it was without a doubt the worst thing I've ever drunk, it tasted like something decomposing. After that I didn't pay any attention to the meeting because without caffeine in my body, it just didn't happen.

I open her Facebook and stare for a minute at her post asking for a job. I immediately think I've clicked on the wrong person's profile because my Harriet would rather hang herself than be this desperate for a job. She literally has perfect grades, she's beautiful, she's sociable. They must have been begging her to work for them, so to me it doesn't make any sense.