HER

Chapter 1

Nina worked in a restaurant as a cook, over the years, she had picked up a couple of things and she was a damned good cook if she could say so herself. The restaurant she worked at was the only good one that had hired her without a degree in anything. She had been over the moon when she got the job because she hadn't expected it, it was one of those try-your-luck type of thing. It had been a year and a half since she joined the Marco's restaurant. It wasn't a five star but everyone loved Marco's. They served the simplest meal in a fair quantity that most of the five-star restaurants don't. It was everyone's go to place to hang out and for working class citizens who didn't have a lot of time on their hands. The regulars always had their food prepared ahead of time and waiting to be picked up. The workers at Marco's had become Nina's own family. They all cared about each other and the manager wasn't one of those arrogant ass-wipes. He was a friendly, understanding man, happily married with a beautiful wife and a kid.

Nina was up front helping the girls with the customers. She was filling in for Gina who had been sick for a few days. Gina, the motherly figure in Nina's life had been the one person after Tom she'd been able to trust. Gina lived alone in an amazing house a few blocks away from the restaurant. Her husband passed away a while back and her only child had moved to LA with a dream of becoming a star one day. Gina had told her the story many times and it always made Nina wonder what having a dream and following it would be like. The only dream she had was when she was at the orphanage, her dream then, Tom had fulfilled for her and she was grateful for that. But she hadn't had a dream since then.

"Hi." Nina looked up at the smiling face.

"Hi Kaylie." Nina smiled back at one of the regulars. "Ricardo, get Kaylie's lunch."

"Right away." The teenager went back into the kitchen.

"How's work today?" Nina asked Kaylie.

"Same old." Kaylie said with a sigh.

Kaylie has been working at RevTech - a company that makes revolutionary technologies – for seven years now. She got the job right after she got out of college graduating top of her class. Her family had done everything to give her the best education and she was determined to make them proud. She had come a long way at RevTech and she was currently working for the position of the head of the IT department. The former HOD of the IT department had resigned over a month ago and she had been his right-hand person, so she was likely to get the position. At least that was what she thought a week ago but now she wasn't so sure.

The problem? Sebastian.

He joined the IT department a week ago; fresh meat. Except this fresh meat had gotten the job with the connections he had with the CEO. Something about his dad and the CEO being college buddies or something. Sebastian was one of those men who was used to getting everything they wanted without actually going the miles that most people did to get the same thing. He was an arrogant prick and she saw him as a competition. He was good at what he did but she didn't see it fair that someone who'd been at RevTech for not even close to a month would threaten a position she had been working for for the past seven years.

"You shouldn't let anything get you down." Kaylie looked up at Nina when she spoke.

Nina slid a bag across the counter as Kaylie pulled out a ten from her wallet and handed it to her with a smile.
"Thank you, Nina." She grabbed the bag. "Keep the change."

Nina watched Kaylie walk out of the busy restaurant. If she couldn't make her life right, she could at least try to make someone smile. Nina thought with a smile as she got change for the ten-dollar bill, put the tip into the tip jar and the price for Kaylie's lunch into the cash box. She'd visit Gina at the end of the day and take dinner with her along with the tip she had made on her behalf.