Behind his dimpled smile and sugary eyes lies a past of hardships. Zee lives aimlessly, hopping from job to job, unable to keep stable employment. But when he is invited to take a position at the prestigious Haven Hotel, Zee's life changes from a le...
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They were seated like it was a blind double date, but Zee could feel from the freezing atmosphere that they would all leave here with less than agreeable attitudes. They all sat at a booth in the corner: Nat sat in the utmost corner seat with a frowning Chawarin beside him. Then Max was seated in front of Nat, sandwiched between the wall and Zee.
The silence was deafening.
Zee's cheeky toothless smile was trying to save this awkward moment. His stupid grin was then directed towards Mark, his friend and owner of Done My Dues. But Mark simply smiled at the arrangement. There was an itching feeling as Zee noticed the empty bar was now filled with nothing but a ticking clock and low music over the ceiling speakers. Zee normally liked the stillness of the quiet, but it was now suffocating him.
"So," Zee tried to bring some life to a table with three people, all frowning, "Hello. Thank you all for coming."
Shit, that's what you decide to say?
Zee cleared his throat. He put a hand on the table, making Mark jump with the loud and sticky slap. The other three turned their eyes to him, but their faces refused to look his way.
"I brought us here today to get to know each other better," Zee said, "I would like us to go around and introduce ourselves."
Chawarin scoffed at this idea, quietly but it was so quiet in the bar, everyone heard it.
Zee brought his lips to a pout and smushed his pout up to his nose, "I'll go first!"
Nat finally glanced towards him as Zee raised a hand.
"I'm Zee. I'm currently a custodian at Haven Hotel and I'm 31 years old, but I always feel like I'm 3!"
He brought up three fingers up to his cheek and posed with them. This made Nat giggle and finally turn his head.
Zee continued, "I don't have many friends. Many of them tell me I'm too annoying and they don't like the way I tease them. But this one-" he put his arm around Max's shoulder and pulled him closer, their cheeks pressing together, before Max forcefully pulled away, "-even though he acts this way, he's stuck with me all this time."
Nat chuckled, his eyes sparkling. He pulled an arm up to the table and rested his chin on it, his body facing diagonally. Towards Zee. Chawarin quickly turned towards Nat and glared at him, but said nothing as his face returned looking away. Zee smiled awkwardly as he turned to his friend, extending a hand out to gesture it was Max's turn next. But his brows furrowed when he looked at his friend's eyes.
Max's thick eyebrows were majorly creased. His jaw was tight and his lips were turned downward at the corners. His bottom lip jutted out, ever so slightly. And even more telling were his eyes. They burned intensely as he looked across the table, burning a hole into Nat who paid little to no attention to him. At first glance, those hot eyes could be mistaken as hatred or even resentment. But Zee had seen those eyes before, and that expression was even more chaotic than this one. The eyes, no- this current face of Max's, Zee concluded, was something different from resentment. Instead, it was subtle, like a simmering flame under the surface.
