When Ceo Black Wants Romance - Chapter 3 Who cares forA dog's life?
Chapter 1: A dog’s life.
“Order 319. Two cappuccinos and a choco lava cake, Ready!”
“Coming!” Celine called out, wiping a small trickle of sweat on her forehead with her apron. She finished serving an old man his coffee quickly and rushed back to the busy counter of Midnight Cafe.
“The cafe is busier than usual today, isn’t it Mark?” She smiled at the golden haired boy on the other side of the counter, while lifting the tray in her hands.
“Save that pretty smile sweety, because it’s going to fade soon.” Mark replied, using his hands to lean against the wooden counter, “That’s for table number seven.”
“Again?” She huffed, glancing at the wicked table and earning a loud hoot from it. It attracted the attention of every one in the cafe, most of them ignored the ugly behavior of those teenagers while some looked in both the directions with curiosity. “Those punks!”
“Whoa!” A familiar voice from behind made Celine turn back and roll her eyes at it’s owner.
“Look who’s shown up today!” She smiled, keeping her tray back on the counter, and throwing a clean apron at the boy to wear. His long black hair was tied up in a bun, and he had a slight stubble which made him look attractive.
“So what’s making my cute girl go all violent?” He winked at Celine.
“It’s them.” Mark discreetly signalled towards the seventh table. “They keep on asking for Celine to serve them.”
“Don’t worry dear,” He put one of his arm around Celine, and kissed her cheek meanwhile pulling the tray from her with his other hand, “Your Chad is here. I’ll handle them.”
She wiped her cheek putting on a disgusted look, “Are you ever gonna change Chad? You are going to become a father next month.”
“I will stay just the same for you babe.”
She scoffed upon listening to his reply. All of them say the same, she thought.
The bell on the entrance rang to announce the arrival of new customers. A man along with a woman entered the Cafe, taking a seat adjacent to the dreaded table seven. The man was wearing a hoodie and had his face hidden from view, while the woman on contrast, was dressed in clothes too revealing for the place. It was like she wore them not to have a cup of coffee in a small cafe but to impress the man sitting in front of him.
Celine gave them a few minutes to decide before standing in front of them with a pen and a notepad, “Good evening sir and ma’am. Would you like to order something?”
“Ah, yes.” The woman spoke, pretending to adjust her dress, “I’ll like to order some Cafe mocha and caramel cake for myself and a latte for my dear.”
“Anything else, ma’am?” Celine enquired, looking up from her note pad and smiling at the lady. She noticed how she gazed at the man in front of her with love. And the man, even though his face was hardly visible to her, seemed nothing but cold towards the lady.
This was a regular scene at this cafe. A woman who is in love with a man, and the man thinking of her nothing better than a shirt in his closet. If one gets old, another easily takes its place. Love is nothing but stupid, she thought.
“We have a problem.” Mark said, as soon as she walked back to the counter.
“What happened?” She casually tore the order off the notepad and handed it to Mark.
“Those punks are not ready to pay. They say they would give the money only to you.” He clenched his fist, “I think we’ll have to call our chef to teach them a lesson.”
“No need to disturb him. I can handle these kids on my own. Let me collect the money from them if it is what they want.” She took the bill from his hand and marched to the table seven.
“Whoa! Look who’s finally got time to visit us!” The three boys giggled as one of them with pierced ears exclaimed.
“We need you guys to pay your bill, sir. It’s 9 dollars 65 cents.” She slammed the paper in the centre of the table, and then stood there with folded hands.
“We can pay your 9 dollars and 65 cents, but we require some extra service.” He winked at her,, “Would you like to give us what we want?” They went into another fit of laughter.
Celine tried to control her anger as best as she could but she seemed to be failing at it. They were passing more obnoxious comments with every passing second, so with no options left, she fished out her phone from her pocket.
“Who are you trying to call babe? Your boyfriend?” One of them asked, slipping back in his chair to make himself more comfortable, “Call anyone you want but this is going to go all night long if you refuse to listen to us.”
“I’m calling the police to tell them how you guys are bullying me. Since you are so obstinate as to listen to me, I’m sure you won’t mind them carrying you away.”
The colours on their faces drained, and any speck of laughter that was present earlier vanished from their face. It was bound to happen after hearing the word ‘Police’. They were but a bunch of spoiled teenagers after all.
“Alright, alright. We’ll pay. Just give us a few minutes.”
She nodded at them, and walked back to the counter.
“Bravo! That’s my girl.” Chad cried, wiping the imaginary tears off his cheek, “Seems like my little girl doesn’t need my help anymore.”
“That’s right.” She patted his back softly, continuing to take the tray from the hands of Mark.
“Table nine.” The golden haired boy called out to her as she started walking.
She looked at the couple who came earlier, again. While the woman was the only one who talked at the table, the man looked nothing but impassive to her chatter. Celine was so engrossed in them that she never notice a leg which stuck out of table seven, just long enough to make her stumble and then was quickly pulled back.
There was nothing going to happen which could be worse than this, now that the blunder had been committed.
All the drinks and along with the cake had been artfully poured over the black hoodie of the gentleman. The shriek which followed all these events came from the respectful lady sitting in front of him and not the gentleman himself.
Now, all that Celine could think of was “Crap! Here we go…”
“Are you insane? What have you done? Is this how you people treat your customers?” The thunderstorm of questions posed to strike Celine dead. All the eyes from all the corners of the Cafe we’re now on her.
“I, I’m really sorry ma’am.”
“You think your sorry is gonna make his clothes stainless? Is your sorry going to change anything?”
“I apologise for the inconvenience caused by me, ma’am. Please forgive me.” Her eyes turned from the lady standing in front of her to the man, who was still seated in his seat. He wiped the food off his black hoodie calmly. There was something about his silence which made chills travel up her spine.
“Why are you even apologizing? isn’t what you’ve done, enough?” The woman spat back at her.
“But there is nothing else I can offer to you other than my apology, even though my words can’t change what’s done.” Her answer seemed to flare up the lady more.
“You!” She slapped Celine, probably unable to tolerate her talking back, “How dare you?”
Celine’s cheek burned. This was not the first time something like this had happened to her. Her dignity had been constantly treaded upon over the years, almost to an extent that she forgot what revolting was.
Even though everyone was stunned as to what just happened, Chad and Mark rushed to Celine, the former standing in front of her, between the woman and her, and the latter pulled her away from the scene.
“What’s wrong with you woman? Who gave you the right to touch any of us, let alone slap her in the face?” Chad demanded. The one who was always so chilled out, now flamed with fury.
But it was a mistake for him to think that the lady would back down. “And who gave you the right to treat us like this? First you offend us and then you people demand answers from us for your stupid questions? Do you even know who he is? He is Dam—”
She was not able to complete herwords though, because the calm and collected gentleman now decided to get up from his seat.
“Enough.” He announced, “Let’s go.” He walked away not waiting for the lady to follow. But she felt inclined to walk after him murmuring, “You are right honey. Shouldn’t have come to this damned place, at the first place.”
“What a rude woman!” Chad muttered before raising his voice for everyone to hear, “I’m sorry guys. Let’s just continue like nothing happened.”
While inside the kitchen, people were trying hard to console Celine. They asked her to push back her tears, which ironically weren’t even flowing. She had long learned that this is how the world works. A fly is eaten by a spider which in turn is eaten by a lizard. Being weak here is like a curse which couldn’t be lifted, no matter how hard you try. Fate always finds a stone to strike you down with.
“What’s happening in my kitchen? Why is every one gathered here?” They rushed off to work as soon as they heard the Chef’s voice. Celine looked up and smiled at him. He was very tall and well built middle aged man, mostly why people were so afraid of him. But he was the most kind hearted person Celine had ever met.
“Here,” he extended his hands towards her which held a box, “These are doughnuts I prepared this evening. Give these to Daniel for me. You can have one too, if you want. Today you can go home earlier, and it’s an order.”
Celine hugged him because she fell short of words to express herself. On the other hand the chef remained stunned on her sudden expression of affection. He cleared his throat after a while, “Don’t think I’m favoring you kid. I’m going to take double the usual work from you tomorrow, understood?”
She nodded, breaking the hug. He pushed the box of doughnuts into her hands and signalled her to leave the place. She walked into the washroom to change her uniform before leaving.
“What are you guys staring at? Are you going to feed the customers with your stares?” The chef chided them away to work.
As Celine walked down the streets of New York City to get to her apartment, she saw an LED digital hoarding advertising a dog shelter. A line which flashed on the screen every now and then was “Who cares for a dog’s life?”
She smiled at the phrase. It wasn’t something you can debate upon, and for Celine, her whole existence seemed to be revolving around this question.
It was not long before she was standing before her apartment building. She rang the bell of her humble abode, the only thing left by her parents for her to inherit.
“Daniel!” She exclaimed as soon as the door opened, picking up the ten year old in her arms and he giggled, hugging her. Her heart urged to break down so badly as she hugged the little boy. All the scenes from the cafe flashed in front of her eyes, and she fought hard to close her eyes towards them. It was nothing new, yet it felt like wasn’t ever going to get used to being humiliated like this.
“Celine you are back! I was feeling so hungry today.” He laughed. Daniel shared the same looks with Celine— green eyes accompanied with black hairs. Their father had died before he was even born and their mother following his footsteps, passed away a few years later. Since then Celine strived to support both of their lives. She worked at four jobs almost everyday for four years, trying hard to pay back the debt of loan sharks, her mother had taken. She even wanted to provide Daniel with good education. And in the midst of all this mess, she had succeeded to earn a college degree. She knew she could never give up living this harsh life because of Daniel. His laughing face would come in front of her eyes whenever she was low, and made her satisfied.
“Really? Are you that hungry? Let’s see what I brought for you today.”
Daniel climbed off her arms, eagerly opening up the box she gave him. “Doughnuts! And so many of them.” He giggled.
“I never saw a child who is as happy as you before. Do you ever get sad?” She gives him a kiss on his forehead, and then getting up to lock the door.
“Sometimes I want to cry when you’re away, but I cannot help laughing.” He chuckled.
“Oh really?” She said, picking up crayons which were scattered on the ground, where Daniel coloured.
She saw the picture he had drawn today. There was a building at the top of which two stick figures were shown holding hands. The taller one had a crown on their head and a blue sun shone brighly in the right corner of the sheet. She mentally reminded herself to buy some crayons for him the next day because he had started painting things differently from there usual colour. The blue sun however, looked good.
Later at night, while Daniel slept next to her, she busily typed her resume for the position of secretary in the Crescent Group. Her friend working for the group had broken this news to her. The Crescent Group had reached new heights since it was overtaken by it’s current CEO, Damien Black. Taking after his father, he was rumoured to be ruthless. The position offered a large amount of salary which was exactly what kind of job she needed right now to pay off the debts, and she would even get more time to spend with Daniel which was a plus. There was no way she would let go the opportunity.
Meanwhile, in the Crescent group, The silence of the night was disturbed by the soft clatter of someone’s shoes.
“May I come in sir?” He asked, walking inside as the CEO gave him a slight nod.
Keeping a file in front of the CEO he said, “I’ve gathered all the information about the girl, sir. Seems like she is really the person you have been looking for.”
