The Daily Life Of A Foodie In The Office - Volume 1 Chapter 72 Ch72

“For some reason, food tastes better

when it’s somebody’s treat.’”

– Anonymous

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It has been a while since Delilah had met or talked with Ai Meili, an ex colleague who has the same age as hers. It was after lunch time when Delilah was chatting with one of her colleagues from the other departments, outside the office corridor when she received a text message from her.

At first, she did not know it was from her and decided to read the text once she was back in her cubicle. She kept on chatting with her colleague for a few minutes before heading inside.

And before she went to her cubicle, she headed straight for Fawkes’ cubicle where she knocked on his cubicle wall and handed him his canned drink. Fawkes frowned at her and asked sarcastically, “How long did it take you?”

Instead of answering his question, she shoots him with a question of her own. “Isn’t it nice that someone actually did buy it for you?” she shot back.

“I could have bought it myself if I had known you were taking so long,” he grumbled under his breath as he turned back around in his seat, popping the canned drink open.

Delilah narrowed her eyes and kicked his seat, nearly making him spill his drink on his shirt. Thankfully for him, it didn’t. Or there would be a huge brown stain on his white shirt.

“Woi!” he exclaimed.

Delilah just chuckled as she turned around to return to her cubicle.

When she was finally in her cubicle, the first thing she did was to check her phone for any text messages, as usual. It was then she remembered that there was a text message from earlier. She swiped open the text message and was a bit surprised to see Ai Meili’s text message.

As mentioned earlier, it has been a while since she last talked and met with her. The last time she met her was probably three or four months ago, which was probably not quite long for some people. But for Delilah, it was long since Ai Meili used to text her whenever she was bored or stressed (and that was like, every week). And Delilah being busy for the past few days, hadn’t thought of texting her too.

Apparently, Ai Meili was texting her to ask how she has been doing and remarked that it has been a long time since they last chat. Delilah replied back that inDEEd it has been a while and told her that she has been busy with work and whatnot.

It was then Ai Meili had replied once again, asking her out for a chat and dinner. But before that, she asked whether Delilah was free or not.

Delilah stopped replying to recall whether she does have any plans. She grabbed her planner book from her handbag and checked her schedule for that day. It seems like she was free for that day and she quickly replied that she was free.

Ai Meili replied in her text message that it was great and that they will meet up later. She then gave her a name of a restaurant where she wanted to eat at. It was a name that wasn’t familiar to Delilah at all. It appears that it was a new restaurant that opened up a couple of weeks ago. To Delilah’s surprise, it was a restaurant that was actually nearby her office and it was specialized on a popular instant noodle called ‘Inomee’ [1].

After she was done texting with Ai Meili, she finally continued her work. Basically, there wasn’t much that she had to do; other than reviewing the reports and taking notes on the training schedules.

Feeling a bit restless, she ‘abandoned’ her work to go to the lobby area since she knew that she could finish them whenever she wanted to.

At the lobby area, there weren’t many people walking around, rather, it was a bit quiet. Other than the cleaners who were sweeping the floor, there was only Bella at the receptionist area. There were also a couple of people in the visitors’ area but that was it.

During that time, Bella had just finished talking on the phone and was hanging up when Delilah walked into the lobby area. She looked up with a surprised smile on her face.

“Hey Dee, what are you doing here? Are you meeting someone?” Bella asked when Delilah approached her.

At the reception table, there were a couple of empty seats, other than Bella’s, so Delilah grabbed one and sat down. With her chin on her palm and elbow on her knee, she let out a long sigh. “I’m bored,” she declared.

Bella chuckled as she turned to her computer and began typing something. “No work today?” she asked casually.

Delilah tilted her head and said, “I do. But I’m lazy too.”

Bella laughed. “Even so, you should go and do your work, no?” she asked again.

“I should. But I’m lazy and bored. Can I just watch you doing your work?” Delilah suggested, her chin on both her palms as she leaned closer.

Bella chuckled again. “Sure, sure,” she said, with her eyes still pinned on her computer.

The two of them were quiet with one of the working and the other looking around her in curiosity, as if she had never been there. Truthfully, she never been there before, at least, when it comes to a receptionist’s view. So, looking around from Bella’s point-of-view was quite interesting.

For the past few minutes, she did not realize how the atmosphere there could change. It can be eerily quiet at one point and bustling busy at another point. The first few minutes when Delilah was there, it was a bit quiet. Then when it was an hour before working hours had ended, the ambience suddenly became exhilarated, filled with voices and other noises.

And with that, Delilah was able to see Bella working in action. She was in awe at how swift and smooth Bella was. She was smiling all the time, helping out with the visitors and giving them the visitor tags to keep track on them. She continued to be more busy by replying to the messages from the employees in the company about booking a meeting room and whatnot. She does all that while answering calls and transferring them.

At some point, Delilah interrupted her by asking whether it feels numb to be smiling all the time. Bella just laughed at her question, not answering.

Not wanting to disturb her any longer, Delilah quietly told Bella that she will be going back to her cubicle. Bella just nodded as an acknowledgement since at that time, she was talking on the phone. Truth to be told, she actually just wanted to go up to her cubicle since it was nearly time for working hours to end.

When working hours finally ended, Delilah immediately packed her things and rushed out of the office. She quickly walked to her car and drove out of the parking lot. Even though the restaurant was near to her office, the traffic jam can be horrendous. Hence why she wanted to get out earlier to avoid the traffic.

Unfortunately, she was still caught in the traffic. It took her nearly forty-five minutes to finally arrive at the restaurant and get a parking spot. She managed to text Ai Meili that she would be a bit late. Apparently, Ai Meili was a bit late too since she also got stuck in the traffic.

When Delilah entered the restaurant, the restaurant was empty, other than the waiters and the waitresses who were standing around, as though they were waiting for customers. The dining hall of the restaurant was quite spacious where the setup was minimalistic, including its counter. There were bamboo mats all over the blue painted walls, giving out a relaxing and care-free atmosphere kind of feeling.

Delilah took a seat at one of the tables and gave a smile at the waiter who handed her the menu. Ai Meili had texted earlier again, saying that she was looking for a parking spot.

A few minutes later, just as Delilah was skimming through the menu, Ai Meili walked in, carrying her handbag. And seeing Delilah was the only customer in the restaurant, it wasn’t hard for Ai Meili to search for Delilah in that spacious dining area.

Delilah gave her a smile just as Ai Meili took a seat across her. After she had placed her handbag next to her on an empty seat, the waiter nearby handed her a menu.

“Have you chosen which one you want to order?” Ai Meili asked as she scanned through the menu.

Delilah shook her head. “Not yet. I’m still thinking which one I should order,” she replied, her eyes still reading off the food items in the menu.

The two of them began to talk about their preferences. Delilah liked her food to be slightly spicy while Ai Meili can’t stand spicy food.

Few minutes later, they finally decided on their meal. They both ordered instant noodles (of course!) with one piece of fried chicken and ‘sambal’ [2]. But Delilah ordered the green ‘sambal’ which the waiter had told them was slightly spicier compared to the red ‘sambal’.

While they were waiting for their food to arrive, more and more people had come until the restaurant was nearly full. Luckily for them, they do not have to wait too long for their food to arrive.

The food served to them was nicely presented with the noodles in the middle, sided by large cuts of chickens. Though, it slightly disturbed Delilah about the fact that the amount of the noodles was kind of little. It was after the meal, she just found out that they only served one packet. If she had known earlier, she probably would have ordered extra serving of the noodles.

The noodles were DEE-licious as usual. It has that slightly good blend of spiciness, sweetness and saltiness in one bite. The condiments that were added to the noodles, which was fried onions and bits of shallots added to the crunchiness and the savory. The fried chicken itself was grilled to perfection. It was juicy and tender. And when Delilah sliced open the chicken, juices oozed out from the meat, flowing onto the plate. Dipping the meat together with the ‘sambal’, it added the spicy kick to the flavour.

The two had a pleasant conversation with each other as they updated one another on how they had been doing.

Once they were done eating, they got up and headed straight to the cashier counter. Delilah was about to grab her purse from her handbag when Ai Meili stopped her by saying, “It’s alright. It’s my treat.”

“Really?” Delilah asked.

Ai Meili nodded as she turned to pay for both of their foods.

Delilah grinned. “No wonder the food tasted extra DEE-lish!” she exclaimed happily.

Ai Meili just laughed as the two of them went out of the restaurant.

—–

[1] Yes, it’s actually Indomie, haha.

[2] chili paste or chili sauce, made from varieties of chili peppers, shallots, ginger, sugar and etc. It’s one of the most popular condiments from Indonesia, used also in countries such as Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.