Perfect For You

Talk

The day after Maine had found out that Alden was going to be her loftmate for the next, few weeks, she instantly felt awkward and self-conscious. This was the first time that she was going to live with a guy she barely even knew, and the whole set up just made her uncomfortable.

"Jake doesn't need to know about this." Maine said to herself as she wore her crisp, white uniform. She knew that if her boyfriend of five years would find out about all this, he wouldn't hesitate to fly all the way to the States just to tell Alden to find somewhere else to stay, and she didn't need that kind of drama right now. She just wanted to focus on her internship.

Staring at her reflection one last time before leaving her room, Maine let out a small, but gentle smile.

"Ito na. Ito na talaga, Nicomaine." She said. "Ito na ang simula ng pagtupad ng mga pangarap mo. Umayos ka ha. Wala ka na sa Pilipinas ngayon." She added.

When she was finally convinced that she could face her first day as an intern chef with a big smile on her face, Maine grabbed her favorite brown, shoulder bag and carefully left her room. She was unaware if Alden was still in their loft, so she had to tiptoe towards the refrigerator just to get the energy bars she had left overnight.

Before opening the refrigerator though, a yellow post-it had caught her attention. She couldn't help but read it.

"Energy bars won't get you through the day. Believe me :) Bring the brown paper bag on top of the counter instead. - A"

After reading the post-it, Maine walked towards the counter that had a brown paper bag on top of it. Out of curiosity, she opened the paper bag and saw different containers that had food in all of them. Filipino food, to be specific.

"Huwag kang mag-alala. Hindi ako magiging masamang roommate :) Good luck on your first day! - A"

Maine couldn't help but smile after reading the last post-it that Alden had stuck on one of the containers. Maybe living with him wasn't going to be so bad, after all.

&&&

The hotel was jampacked today. There was a big convention that was happening in the grand ballroom that started at around 10 in the morning, and was expected to finish past 7 in the evening.

The convention was attended by some of the biggest names in politics and the entire crew at the Ritz Carlton had to put their best foot forward. They could not afford to disappoint such high-ranking guests, after all.

Maine was assigned to work with Chef Andrew Mckinley, the resident head chef at the Ritz Carlton. He was known to be a perfectionist in the kitchen, which made Maine worry about working with him, knowing how clumsy she can be, but Chef Andrew decided not to be so hard on her today. It was her first day as an intern chef and he didn't want to leave her traumatized.

"Maine," Chef Andrew called out to her. "We're serving steak and mashed potatoes for lunch. Now I'm pretty sure that you can handle the mashed potatoes, so I'm going to leave it to you, okay?"

"Yes, chef." Maine nodded in reply. She then ran towards the pantry to get the ingredients she was going to need. There wasn't much time left before lunch would be served and she had to move fast.

"Potatoes, milk, butter, salt." Maine said as she put all the ingredients inside the steel basket she was holding. When she had everything she needed, she ran towards her station to get things done, only to find the ingredients already prepared beforehand.