= Chris POV =

  Hana worked at Jun’s Café, which was just a few blocks away from the florist. I was quite familiar with the pce, so it was a brisk walk to make my way over there. Around this time there were barely any customers as it was just after the lunch rush, and the café closed its doors from 3 pm to 4 pm to give some time for the afternoon kitchen staff to do a handover and to take stock of their food while the morning shift took their leave for the day.

  The café officially reopened its doors at about 5 p.m. for early dinner customers, so regurs usually started packing up at around 2:50 p.m. when they were informed that the kitchen was closed for the day and the café would soon be closed as well.

  I checked my watch and saw it was 2:45 pm, which was great because the morning kitchen staff would already be packing up and making a move, so it would be quick to catch Hana at her station and surprise her for a bit.

  However, what I saw as I pushed open the café door made all my happiness wash away immediately.

  Sarah was at the counter, innocently talking to a girl with a cute blond who I recognized as Amber, and just as I walked in, a very familiar slender arm grabbed Sarah by the forearm, and she disappeared into the corridor on the other side of the counter.

  I took a deep breath. I put down the back of flowers. I was fine. I was in control of myself.

  I strode down that café dining space as calmly as I could, and I turned down the corner to find just what I expected to see, a familiar tall, nky bck-haired foe, leaning over Sarah, blocking her ability to escape, bearing down on her.

  “I know you have been avoiding me; where have you been? I have a new cake recipe I want you to try,” Ruby said as she held Sarah’s chin in her hand while leaning in close.

  I reached out and yanked Ruby back by the colr.

  “Hey! What the- ?“ She yelped as I released her and let her go, stumbling back into the dining area.

  I pced myself firmly between Sarah and Ruby and crossed my arms.

  Ruby rubbed her neck, looked up, and froze. She immediately straightened up and tried to act all innocent, ughing sheepishly and scratching her hair as if she had just been caught stealing a cookie from a cookie jar.

  “Sorry, you caught me being inappropriate at work with the staff again,” she ughed nervously. “ Are you going to write another police report and report me to the police again?”

  “Why? So that you can use your wyers to bail you out of jail again? So much for our justice system” I snapped back.

  “Hey, you’re one to talk; I hear you are still sleeping around with anything with boobs that smiles at you,” Ruby retorted, pouting as she crossed her arms, mirroring me.

  “And I heard that you still haven’t learned that no one wants to eat your crummy alcohol-ced cakes! You always put too much alcohol and not enough thought behind the fvor combinations,” I retorted smugly.

  Ruby clutched her heart as if I had just stabbed her “You can come after my looks, you can come after my love life, but not my precious cakes, you take that back! Baking is my passion, my life’s work” Ruby excimed, with a horrified look on her face.

  I narrowed my eyes and took a step forward. “Well then, you, this makes it a lot easier to expin to you. That woman you were just manhandling, she is my passion, do not mess with her again”

  Ruby cocked her head to the side. “Oh? Are you two dating? I thought Sarah was single”

  I froze, right? We were not dating. Technically, Ruby could do whatever they wanted; why was I getting myself involved like this? I also didn’t even know why Sarah was so close to Ruby that Ruby felt emboldened to do this.

  A sly look passed across Ruby’s face, and she smirked. “Ah, so it’s ok for you to rob me of my first prize at a National Baking Competition, but it’s not ok for me to pursue a love interest of mine with which you have no ties?”

  “Hey, I won Nationals fair and square,” I said, unfolding my arms and balling up my fists.

  Ruby sauntered forward, her smile widening as she saw she had managed to get under my skin.

  “Yes, but we both made alcohol-based cakes. What was it about yours that the judges said was better than mine? Was it the chemistry between the ingredients? Well, let’s see who has better chemistry without a little cake over here, hmm? Best chef wins” Ruby grinned and patted me on the shoulder.

  I grabbed her by the wrist. “Don’t touch her. Sexually assaulting customers is bad for business,” I re-emphasized.

  Ruby ughed and snatched her hand away. “Oh, miss Sarah-is-mine. Clearly, I am in the lead as your supposed passion hasn’t even told you that she is working for me. She is an employee at my café,” Ruby said and took a step closer to me, forcing me to step back. “She works under my supervision,” she said and took another step forward. “And I get to see her every day she works here. Knowing you, I bet you haven’t even said hi to her once in the st week, You zy lout of a human friend,” Ruby purred; she loved to rub it in.

  “There, see! Ms. Jun is fighting with Ms. Fairfield again!” I heard Amber pip up.

  A pair of slender hands grabbed both Ruby and me by the colrs and pushed us apart.

  “Firstly, Sarah is employed under my department; stop lying to our shareholder Ruby” Heather said, seething; you could practically see the smoke coming out of her ears “ And Chris, the st time you stepped in here to check on your financial investment was a year ago, are you seriously telling me that you can’t come by for five minutes just to say hi and let me give you a rundown of our business portfolio? The only correct thing Ruby said was that you are a zy lout of a human friend, everything was rubbish” Heather snapped, gring at Ruby, and then staring daggers at me.

  I rubbed my throat and popped open a second button so that I could rub the area where Heather had grabbed and pushed.

  “Heather, you trying to kill us or something? That really hurt?” Ruby whined; she rubbed her throat area.

  “I will kill you. I will kill you and bury you somewhere your corpse wouldn’t be able to smell baked bread. Stop giving me so much trouble!” Heather excimed, exasperated. She then turned back to where Amber and Sarah were staring at us with wide eyes, watching us like we were two out-of-control wild cats going at it.

  “Sorry, girls, these two idiots are always at each other’s throats every time they see each other. Why don’t you pack up, and I’ll drop you off at your homes as compensation for witnessing this shit show,” Heather said apologetically.

  “I-“I started but stopped when Sarah nodded and went over to Heather.

  “That would be great. I just want to pick up something for tea” Sarah said nervously.

  “And I want to pick up something for tea AND dinner” Amber beamed, licking her lips.

  “Alright, I’ll see you girls outside,” Heather sighed, and the two women disappeared into the kitchen.

  Heather turned back to us, and I don’t know why, but now I felt kind of jealous, not of Ruby, but of Heather. What kind of retionship did Heather have with Sarah?

  “Look, Chris, as a silent partner, I need you to turn up at least quarterly so that I have one level-headed person to talk to about the running of our business. Airhead over here just wanted to flirt with everyone and bankrupt us; I’m struggling here!

  If not for Sarah helping with the data analytics and finally compiling an actual list of what this Idiot genius is and isn’t selling well from her barrage of new recipes every week, we would be in the red. Please, you are literally the only one here who can hold a candle to Ruby; just come in, occasionally, and help.” Heather blurted out, running a hand through her hair.

  Ruby looked down guiltily at her feet, and I sighed, scratching my arm. I had been neglecting my side of this business.

  “I’m sorry, I got so busy at work. This whole thing started right after college; I didn’t think we would succeed when I invested in the business…now that it has, I can see that I am half-assed about things over here I’ll. I’ll email you about my avaibility and try to come by more often” I replied.

  “Great, because Ruby has been such a handful. I don’t know what your fixation is with our new hire, but you must stop forcing yourself on her, Ruby; she can’t even safely come down to eat because you keep stalking her in the common areas; it’s downright creeping, even the rest of us out” Heather scolded Ruby.

  I stared at Ruby “Forcing? How many times has this happened?”

  “The first incident—ah. You know, I don’t think I should disclose personal information about an employee. Just know that I personally stopped it before Ruby got out of hand again. I really would love it if you would consider a full-time support position here. Then Ruby can be demoted to entirely just R&D, and I can take her flirting elsewhere,” Heather said solemnly.

  “Hey, don’t talk about me like I’m not even here!” Ruby expined, angrily stamping a foot.

  “Well, if you didn’t act like an impudent child, mommy and daddy over here wouldn’t have to send you to juvie every time you made a bad decision,” Heather said patronizingly.

  “Which one of us is daddy?” I asked, ughing a little.

  “Obviously me, please consider it; our golden child needs supervision, and I majored in Economics, not Culinary,” Heather said, csping her hands together and begging.

  “Ok, well, firstly, Sarah is my tenant. She rents a room from me, so, we are pretty close…. anyway, she is a huge concern of mine-“ I began

  “Ah Ha!” Ruby suddenly excimed, cutting me off, “ I know what this is about!”

  Heather and I exchanged confused looks.

  “Sarah must be the girl you kept on whining about during css. The straight girl who was your best friend from the art school. The one you never let any of us meet!” Ruby said triumphantly.

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. How in the world did Rub still remember a conversation that happened five years ago? It sucked that she was so observant.

  Heather scratched her chin. “Huh. Come to think of it, it is funny that you are acting so possessive over someone Chris…is this true?”

  I sheepishly nodded. At this point, the cat was out of the bag.

  “I knew it!” Ruby ughed gleefully. I can’t believe she is so cute. " I knew you had the hots for her. No wonder you never introduced her to us. I just want to gobble her up!”

  Heather raised an eyebrow and crossed her arm. “Seriously, Sarah, is the girl you have been pining over for five years? Hmm… well she is a hard worker, and sweet, I can see why you like her…but she doesn’t seem your type at all”

  “Oh, oh, now I must have her. To have Chris’ ultimate love interest, fall for me? Well, that just seals the deal; I must make her mine!” Ruby ughed and winked at me “One of us has to, and clearly, where your chemistry lies in your cooking, mine is all in my hands. She’s into me; I can tell”

  I took a step towards Ruby and Heather stepped in between us immediately.

  “Hey, no fighting in the café. And, no flirting in the café? At this rate, I’m going to have to fire the girl if you both cannot control yourselves. Do you want that? To be the reason a perfectly capable girl loses their job?” Heather asked us both.

  We hung our heads in shame.

  “No, I said and sighed, crossing my arms “Sorry, I shouldn’t behave like this; I’m getting more like Ruby every day”

  “Hey, don’t use me as an insult” Ruby said “ Well I’m not giving up, starting now, I will make Sarah mine, one way or another; just you wait Christina Fairfield, I’m going to get your girl, and then we’ll see who is really number one” Ruby said and stormed off, leaving Heather scratching her eyebrow in irritation and me crossing my arms, really vexed about the entire thing.