The Daily Life Of A Foodie In The Office - Volume 1 Chapter 87 Ch87

“The way you make your omelet

reveals your character.”

– Anthony Bourdain

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It was a Tuesday morning where the sun was shining brightly in the sky, sending a warm breeze throughout the streets, outside Delilah’s office. It was quite hot that even the wind felt hot as well. And other than thinking that she was grateful for being in an air conditioned building, she also thought how great that her laundry that was drying outside in the sun at her house would dry very nicely.

She was playing a game on her mobile phone while at the same time, chatting with her friends in discordance. In short, she was relaxing in her cubicle as if there wasn’t any stack of papers waiting to be reviewed and checked on her table.

Although it was the holiday month of December and there were many works to be done, it did not stop Delilah from relaxing. She already did lots of work and also assisted Aubree with Howard’s little sh*ts so she believed that she deserved some time at the office to slack off a bit.

She was still playing and chatting when the clock hit ten thirty o’clock in the morning. And it does not look like she was stopping at any time soon.

Aubree, who had walked past by her cubicle a couple of times, only swept a glance at her and did not reprimanded her for not doing her work.

In discordance, her friends were talking about their usual topic, food and beauty products. There was another new member named ‘kawaii’ in their discordance server whom Delilah and aistitch, another close discordance friend of Delilah’s, were close with. It was probably because the three of them were at the same age range and have similar interests which were food and beauty products. Of course.

Kawaii was good at baking where she told the two women that she usually bakes every weekend. She gave them advice on the methods, type of ingredients and pans. For Delilah, this was interesting since she had never baked bread before.

She was so absorbed into chatting that she did not realize more than an hour had passed. She quickly said her goodbyes and looked around her with a guilty look on her face.

Seeing that no one was paying her any attention, she turned to her table where a stack of papers were piled up next to her monitor. She took a paper from the stack and let out a sigh.

It was then she saw a paper sticking out from the stack. Curious, she pulled it out carefully. She began to read the content and a frown appeared on her face. ‘What the feck?’ she thought in disbelief.

It was a budget report sent by Howard, where he wanted to get an approval from the Finance department for the end of the year party at the beach with catering and games. He had proposed a budget of over one thousand dollars. The thing was that it was way over budget. It reminded Delilah of their previous office party.

She could feel her head pounding with stress, trying to think. She quickly sent a message to Aubree, asking about what to do with the proposal.

A couple of minutes later, she received a reply where the first sentence of the message reads, ‘Hahahaha!’. Then Delilah continued to read and groaned inwardly. Apparently, Aubree had already planned to reject it but she just wanted to tease Delilah by sending the report over for a laugh.

Delilah quickly stabbed a reply saying that it did not make her laugh, rather it made her stressed out, instead.

Aubree just replied with another ‘Hahaha’.

Setting the paper aside, Delilah continued to check the other papers. There were a lot of papers to be reviewed and seeing that it was the end of the month, she also had to check each employees’ performances, as to whether they were qualified to receive a bonus.

It took her a long time to cross check and look over at the perspective supervisors’ reports as well. She wasn’t even done with one department employee list when lunch time had passed.

Again, she was so absorbed in doing her work that she did not realize that lunch time was over until she could feel her stomach grumbling. She looked up at the wall clock and was surprised to see that lunch time was indeed over.

Seeing the neverending piles of papers on her table, she felt it would be a shame if she did not finish at least half of them. She did not mind not going for lunch since she still has some bread buns in her stash, inside her drawer.

Aubree had passed by her cubicle and was surprised that the other woman was still in her cubicle, though, this time, she was working, instead of slacking off. She knocked on Delilah’s cubicle wall, asking whether she wanted to go for lunch or not.

But the other woman had shook her head, saying that she has work to do and she probably would go eat after work.

Aubree then left Delilah alone to do her work as she continued on to her own cubicle.

Hours have passed and the clock finally hit the end of office hours. Everyone on the HR department floor immediately went to pack their things, getting ready to go home. Delilah rearranged the papers on her table and went to place the pile of papers in a secure folder before locking it inside a cupboard, since it was all confidential papers.

It was after five thirty o’clock in the evening when she was finally done with arranging the papers and locking them up. Just as she walked down the stairs to the lobby, there was a text message coming in her phone.

She took it out from her handbag and saw that it was a message from her sister, saying that the family was out for dinner and that she should come over, straight after work.

Unfortunately for Delilah, it was unsure whether she was careless or in a rush or just plain lazy, she did not read the full message. Her eyes only took note of the name of the restaurant and time. So, she immediately drove her way to the restaurant that was mentioned in the message.

When she arrived there and went into the restaurant, she became confused. She could not see any of her family inside. After sweeping another glance through the place, she called her sister, asking where they were.

She groaned inwardly when she realized that she went to the wrong branch. She was about to tell her sister that she would go home and just to let them takeaway her meal. But then she groaned inwardly again when her sister said that their father would be waiting for her so she better come.

So, the only thing she could do was get back to her car and drive towards the correct branch. Luckily, it took her less than half an hour to arrive at the restaurant.

The restaurant was a bit smaller, compared to the one she went to earlier. And there were less chairs and tables as if it could only accommodate a small number of patrons. Inside, at the long table, she saw her family sitting, eating, through a glass window. Clearly they have been eating for some time by the looks of their nearly empty plates. And she saw one dish still looked as if it was just served. She presumed that it must be hers.

Walking into the restaurant, there were other patrons with their family. It was normal to see a scene like this in the restaurant since it was a family restaurant.

When she came in, her brothers and sister looked up while her nephew shouted her name, sounding happy.

There was an empty seat next to her father, with the food being placed there. She sat there and began to eat. Her sister had ordered ‘Buttermilk Chicken with Rice’ for her. Basically, it’s chicken that was fried together with cream and milk sauce, served with white rice. The sauce cream of the buttermilk tasted rich and velvety with a hint of hot and curry. This was because the sauce cream was usually cooked with curry leaves and chili peppers, adding more flavour and tang to it.

She scooped the cream covered chicken bits with the rice and ate it. The burst of buttery and creamy goodness exploded in her mouth. The rice was drenched by the sauce, adding sweetness to the food. The chicken was fried flawlessly; juicy and delicious, without any hint of burn. And it was cut in perfect sizes; not too big, not too small. More bite sized, which made it easier for Delilah to eat.

She was a bit concerned that her father had been waiting for her for so long to arrive, hence why she ate a bit faster, which made her sister notice. Her sister then scolded Delilah, telling her to eat slowly.

After she had finished eating, they continued to hang around in the restaurant, talking with one another, mostly teasing Delilah’s nephew.

It was times like these that made Delilah appreciate family dinner time.