Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 70

Hiding was the easy part.

Being curious is undeniably the hard part.

Standing on her tiptoes, Laia tried to sneak a peek at whatever situation was currently unfolding outside her hiding spot.

Unfortunately, her height failed her and she wasn’t able to sneak a single peek so the girl opted to just sit down rather than continuing her hopeless efforts.

“Ah, when will he leave,” Laia mumbles to herself as she distracted herself by preparing the ingredients for a new batch of cookies which may or may not end up as an epic fail. “Okay, here’s to hoping this actually ends up good,”

Laia nervously started to create the mixture for the batter and combined the necessary ingredients before placing the mixture on the tray. She was about to bake the cookies in the oven when she heard knocks on the door.

Grumbling at the distraction, she briskly walks towards the door and opened it. “What?”

The opened door revealed Niel who raises an eyebrow at his friend. “What’s with the attitude?”

Laia rolls her eyes and gestured at the tray of unbaked cookies on one of the counters. “I was baking cookies,”

“That’s certainly a spontaneous idea,” Niel dubiously looked at the cookies. “Is this your new way of distracting and stopping yourself from thinking of your loverboy who is still currently outside of this room?”

The girl puts the tray of cookies inside the oven with more force than she intended which made Niel frown at the mess that Laia caused inside the oven. “You’re cleaning that,”

“Of course, I would,” Laia leans against the counter, frustration evident in her figure. “Did he leave already?”

Niel doesn’t miss a beat. “Nah, he’s still drinking his coffee,”

At least he’s contributing to the flourishing of the business, Laia thinks before she takes one of the cloths used for cleaning inside the nearby cabinets. “Tell me if he’s gone, thanks,”

“You do realize you can’t avoid him forever right?”

“I can and I will if I have to,” Laia watches the timer of the oven for a moment and turns to her friend. “I can do everything if I put my mind on it,”

This is definitely more of an exaggeration as Laia has this habit of giving up easily on things she is passionate about.

Not that she was passionate about anything related to the asshole’s existence.

“By the way,” Niel grabs a broom and started sweeping. “Your loverboy who are you so keen on avoiding actually told me to tell you to stop avoiding him and be brave for once–”

“He told you what?” Laia lost her grip on the cloth that she was holding due to her surprise and growing anger.

What the hell?

The audacity of that asshole!

Without thinking twice, Laia pushes the doors of her hiding spot (kitchen) wide open, walks (stomps angrily) towards the asshole (who she immediately spotted) holding the wet (and dirty) cloth, and hurled it directly on the boy’s aggravating (attractive) face.

Said boy immediately looked up from the book that he was reading with a surprised expression on his face which quickly turned into an amused one upon realizing that it was Laia in front of him. “And here I thought that you would stay in your hiding spot until I finish Wuthering Heights,”

He likes Wuthering Heights?

Not the time to be happy when someone likes the same author as you do, Laia chastises herself.

She continued glaring at the boy who still had the gall to remain amused at the whole situation (even if his hair was already messed up by the cloth that Laia threw at him).

“Laia!” Niel was breathing heavily when he arrived beside her coworker who still looked like a She-Hulk. “I was joking, god, he didn’t say any of those– Laia! What did you do?!”

Niel frantically uses his own handkerchief in attempting to wipe the asshat’s wet, messy hair. However, Samuel was quick to make him stop.

“It’s alright,”

“But your hair gel–”

“I didn’t use any hair gel today,” He grins wolfishly at Laia who rolled her eyes. “I guess that was the right decision,”

“It absolutely was not!” Niel pushes his handkerchief towards Samuel’s hands before pulling Laia with him to the staff room.

The moment Niel closed the door behind him he was quick to smack Laia in the head. “Are you crazy?!”

Laia casted him a withering look as she rubbed her forehead. “You were the one who lied!”

“You didn’t have to go ahead and throw a fucking wet cloth at his face!”

“It was his hair,” Laia reasons. “And I know I overreacted, okay–”

“You didn’t just overreact idiot! You overdramatically overreact which you never do!” Niel pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious frustration. “Do you think our manager would let this pass when one of our customers decide to tattle on him? You could lose your job, idiot!”

“Ah,” Everything seemed to move in slow motion when Niel talked about the girl’s chances of getting fired. “What should I do then?”

“Apologize to him?”

Laia cringes but was unable to think of another way to alleviate the problem.

Even if she would rather choke herself with a cookie than apologize to the same asshole who made her feel like shit in the first place, she would do anything at this point to keep her job.

Her job that honestly was the only thing that’s keeping her sane.

Okay maybe the company as well.

Niel thinks for a while and then shook his head. “Change of plans, don’t,”

“But you just said someone might tattle to our manager and get me fired!”

“Shush child,” Niel covered Laia’s mouth with another handkerchief. How many handkerchiefs does he even have inside his pocket? “I don’t think your loverboy is angry anyway so he probably won’t complain,”

“But the other customers?”

“Ah,” Niel massaged his temples before letting out an exhausted sigh. “I almost forgot about those annoying details,”

“They won’t like it if you refer to them that way,”

“See me give a shit,”

Laia couldn’t restrain a chuckle. “Sorry for reminding you of them, then,”

“No matter, let’s just think of another alternative to this annoying problem–”

“Hey guys?” Keith pokes his head into the space between the staff room door and the wall. “Someone’s looking for you,”

“Who?”

“Looking?”

Niel and Laia looked at each other simultaneously and then a teasing grin appeared on Niel’s lips as he pointed at Laia. “Is it her loverboy?”

Keith glances at an annoyed Laia and nodded.

The grin on Niel’s lips widened. “Then we wouldn’t want him to wait, do we?” Niel pushes Laia towards the door which Keith opened wide regardless of her complaints.

“Let go of me, idiot!”

“Nuh-uh,”

“Ah! I’ll choke you with your handkerchief,” Laia continuously tried to reach for her friend’s hair but to no avail.

“I can take it from here,” Someone’s hand suddenly pulled Laia by the collar of her uniform. “Hmm, Lopez?”

Laia looked up and wasn’t surprised to see that it was the asshat who pulled her by the collar of her uniform instead of just calling her over like a normal person.

“You won’t listen to me if I call you over,” He suddenly says as if stating a fact. Just like Laia said, this asshat was definitely a mind reader. “I am still not a mind reader,”

Pushing the boy away, Laia dusts herself off. “Ugh, leave me alone,”

“The apologizing!” Niel mouths after settling behind Samuel so he couldn’t see. “Apologize to him while they are people,”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Samuel turned to Niel who accidentally said his last statement out loud. Niel sheepishly looks away and pretended to be in a conversation with Keith who was nearby.

“Let’s talk?” Samuel finally says to Laia after a few minutes of silence. “Alone?”

“Uh, we’ll be leaving,” Niel awkwardly pushes Keith back to the staff room and even closed the door behind them.

Laia could almost hear and see them trying their best to not be caught eavesdropping behind the door.

“Should we talk here?” The girl deadpans, gesturing at the cafe and all the customers.

“Outside,”

“In the middle of the street?”

“Typical Lopez,” He even had the audacity to shook his head in amusement. “In my car, if that’s okay,”

Laia shrugged. It’s better than talking outside in the open and risk somebody overhearing private details. “Whatever,”

The walk to the asshat’s car wasn’t far. He parked his car underneath a large tree that provided shade from both the heat and the possibility of a spontaneous rain shower.

Samuel beckoned for Laia to step inside his car after opening the door for her. Albeit mildly annoyed at the asshole’s sudden act of virtuesness, she complies.

It was apparently a different kind of SUV. Laia didn’t really notice it quickly since it had the same color and almost the same look as the SUV that the asshat brought before to her house but it was different.

This SUV was smaller inside which provided less space between her and the asshat who immediately popped a gum inside of his mouth the moment he sat down.

“Want one?” He showed her a piece of gum.

Laia shakes her head. “Enough of the small talk and let’s get over whatever conversation you want,”

“Huh,” The boy pocketed the gum he offered Laia. “I thought you like small talks,”

“Only with those I tolerate,”

He laughs. “I thought we were past that stage?”

“Apparently not when you decided to insult and humiliate me yesterday,”

“Understandable,”

“Good,” Laia tried to distract herself with the leaves that fell from the tree.

Just a few months and it’s finally Summer.

“You excited for graduation, valedictorian?”

She turns to him with a frown. “You don’t even know that yet,”

He smiles mysteriously. “Is that so?”