Chapter 16: Chapter 11
After a few more minutes of preparing the food, Hector took out a large, flat stone. He told me that it was made out of ceramic so that it could circulate heat evenly to the dish that they were about to cook. Alicia was stretching the dough and made us a spectacle to look at. She tossed the dough into the air and twirled it. Every time she threw it, the dough became flattered and rounder. In the end, she stopped when the dough was circularly stretched until it was about twenty inches. She placed the dough on the ceramic plate and spread a red paste upon it. She sprinkled a white substance that looked like cheese. I swung over and put some in my mouth. It was cheese! Hector lifted the plate and placed it in the oven. He then sparked on the fire and let it heat up before closing the door on it.
Alicia already moved on to the second dish. She folded rice over itself by using a wooden spoon. The once white rice was now slowly turning into a dull orange color with other ingredients getting mixed into it. Hector came over and add some green leaves and the finish of the rice dish. It had firey colors that contrasted the garnish on top. He then walked over to the oven and opened it. The aroma burst out. It smelled like toasted bread that had sweet but rich tomato paste infused with it.
Alicia went over to the small living room and placed the rice dish on the ground. I helped to bring out the utensils. Hector placed the ceramic plate that contained the dish that he had prepared on a large cloth which was set on the ground, as well. All of us rushed to the scene. We sat in a circle.
Marco reached out to grab a piece of Hector's dish. I slapped his hand away from it. "Marco, we have to wait for everyone," I said. I put extra emphasis on the 'everyone' since we were waiting on Hector and Alicia to sit down. When they did, they nodded their head at me.
Hector spoke first, "Thank you all for having us here today. It's been a long time since my wife and I had some company to dine with."
I was surprised that he would say that, so I replied, "No, no! We should be thanking you. If not for this feast tonight, we have had to settle for my mediocre cooking."
Hector chuckled. He then continued by pointing at his dish, "My dish is called 'pizza'." We all looked at it in fascination. "It's actually a very common dish in the middle sector of any city in Bissier. I can't say that for all the other countries." Bissier was the country that I lived in. That about all I knew since most of this stuff is taught in schools. I never got a chance to attend.
Alicia chimed in, "The dish that I made is called 'paella'. It's one of the well-known dishes in ancient Spanish cuisine. Not a lot of people know how to make it now, but my grandmother taught me her families recipe."
We all had our eyes glued on the food. We looked like hungry wolves ready to devour our prey. Suddenly, I felt a nudge on my back. It was Shawn. he gave me a look and then turned his gaze at the couple. I think Eric told him about what happened at the bakery today. I sighed, and apologized, "I am very sorry for misjudging your kindness today at the bakery."
Both Hector and Alicia gave a knowing smile. Alicia spoke, "Do not be sorry for being wary of strangers. In our world, kindness has become such a rare accessory; it is natural for it to be associated with sinuosity."
After everyone seemed satisfied with the conclusion, we all began to dig in. Both the dishes exploded with flavor in my mouth. It was so good that I couldn't keep a straight face. I kept radiating a drunken smile every time I shoved a piece of pizza or a spoon of paella in my mouth. I was getting food drunk. And it felt great. I could see Eric and Shawn shoveling the seemingly infinite amounts of paella into their black holes that they called mouths. Marco, surprisingly, was acting a little conservative.
I asked him, "Marco, what's wrong?"
He looked up at me with glossy eyes, "Vince, if I eat this, do you think you could make it again?"
I retorted, "You shouldn't be asking me; I didn't make it."
Marco slowly faced Hector and Alicia, and said, "W-would you make this...again?" His voice was very low. Almost a whisper by the time he reached the end of his sentence.
Alicia gave a warm smile, and excitedly said, "Yeah! Of course! We'll stop by every week and make something even better! So, it up, okay?"
Marco's eyes glistened, and he started to shovel food into his mouth too. Well, that was a real one-eighty. I eyed Hector to try and tell him that they didn't have to come over every week, but he caught my look and shook his head as if he was adamant about pursuing what his wife had previously stated.
We started to talk and laugh about the great number of stories that we had lived through. It was especially interesting to hear Hector's stories because he had traveled to many places before settling down. Alicia had her own fair share too.
Throughout the whole event, I was thinking about what I saw on that billboard. Twenty-thousand credits for simply participating. I couldn't get it out of my mind. When I saw Hector and Alicia's genuine personalities, I couldn't help but as the question, "Mister and missus Hernández, would it be possible for Marco to accompany Eric at your bakery?" I continued, "You wouldn't have to feed him out of pocket, I can compensate for that much. But, It would be wonderful if you could just keep an eye on him."
Hector and Alicia were shocked. I could tell that they knew that I was opening up to them, but I am sure they never expected me to ask a favor like this. Hector replied first after looking at his wife, "Of course we can watch over him. I mean, we'll do much more than that."
His wife came in, "Yes! And you don't have to feel indebted to us! Haven't we told you to drop all of that?" She paused for a minute and continued, "I've always wanted a kid to look after, anyway. If you'd like, we'd be glad to take all of you in. We don't have much, but we can make sure that you don't go hungry."
How generous were these people? I thought about it for a few seconds before answering, "That question should be directed at them, not me."
Both of them looked at Eric, Marco, and Shawn. They all nodded their heads in a sign of acceptance. Then, Hector asked me a question. "If it's alright, I would like to ask you a question." I nodded my head for him to continue. "What are planning to do?"
I took in everyone's eyes and said, "I'll be participating in the Evolution Games this year."
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Micheal Grey POV:
When I sent Angela to the advertising team...I didn't think that it would take this DAMN long to get me my answer. How long does it take to say a yes or a no? Scratch that. Her idea was perfect. How long does it take for them to say yes?
I couldn't deal with the wait anymore. Instead of calling her, I slid off my chair like a snake and made my way towards the elevator. I picked number nine and then added two zeros beside. Making nine-hundred. Quick maths. Sorry, that was cringy.
The elevator dinged when it reached the nine-hundredth floor, and it opened its doors. I walked out to find myself in a luxurious area filled with satin carpets and silk curtains. Who gave them the budget to do this? I kept walking forward and found many of the employees, that I HIRED, lazily lying on the carpets and rugs. They were dressed in weird costumes. Some of them barely had any clothes on, and others were just wrapped up in curtains. What the hell is going on here?
I kept walking until I reached a giant hall that contained many doors. Each door led into a conference room that I could see from the outside windows. Most of the conferences were intimate. By that, I mean that I saw people copulating. A lot of them. What the hell is wrong with my company?
After searching for maybe a minute, I saw the one conference room that didn't have nudity. I walked closer and saw Angela in there. She was cute, as always. Her face was red from arguing with the men in front of her. As I made my way inside, I counted hundreds of hand-carved statues. A couple of indoor gardens. Six chandeliers. Three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. I'm kidding on the last sentence there, but the point had been made (A/N just in case you didn't get it, the last sentence was from the song "The Twelve nights of Christmas" or something. Sorry for explaining this.)
I barged into the room. My eyes almost popped out of my skull. There was expensive shit in here. The walls were plated in silver, gold, and platinum to create this eye-catching...dog. A dog with its dick wagging. That picture burned into my retinas. Fuck!
"Angela! What in the world is taking so long?!" I confronted her.
She stared at me and then looked at the people in front of her. I also followed her gaze. A shirt-less dud with his pants half down said, "Dude, you gotta just chillax. You know?" He pointed at a bowl of pills. They were all mixed up and different. I looked at him again expecting to get an explanation. He sighed as he was annoyed and said, "That bowl right is named the 'mystery pill bowl'. Just take one out and swallow it. I promise you that you'll find yourself in the promised land." He tried to say the last few words, but he slurred them to an extent where I could make out slight grunts and noise. I looked at everyone in the room. They all looked like him. Were they fucking high?
Angela tried to explain something to me, but I waved my hand for her to be quiet. I walked closer to the dude that first talked to me. "Do you know who I am?" I asked.
He opened his fluttering eyes and sized me up and down. Then he said in a drunk tone, "Are..are you that hooker I hired? Sorry man, but I'm ain't homo." With that, his head slouched. Did he sleep on me? I lightly slapped his cheek to wake him up. He woke up, but this time he was angry. "Ahhh! What the hell man!"
I couldn't take this anymore. I kicked him in the chest, and he flew back in his chair. *Crash* The breath got knocked out of him, so his eyes flew open, and his mouth was gasping for air. The sound resounded threw out the room startling all the people in it. "What the hell are you doing dude?" one person shouted at me.
I turned to him and roared, "I AM YOUR FUCKING BOSS. I OWN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU. GET THE HELL UP!!!"
Everyone came back to their senses and started to panic. They lined up in their chairs. Most of them were still naked. Naked and scared. I said, "Now, that everyone is back in their right minds, let's talk some business. Angela here has proposed to you an excellent idea. Would anyone like to tell me why it took so long to accept it?"
There was a guy on the opposite end from me. He said, "We-we do-don't have the b-b-budget for it-t." I watched him speak. The drugs must have gotten to him; he had this weird tick where he would twist his mouth in like six ways before he said anything.
I laughed. "You didn't have the budget," I smiled.
Another voice chimed in, the woman said, "Yeah! We just didn't have the budget to execute her plan!"
I smiled at her. She smiled back although her being nude made it seem deceptive. Then, I slowly started to frown. She lost her smile and glanced at her colleague to back her up. I screamed, "THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT GETS TWO HUNDRED MILLION CREDITS EVERY FUCKING YEAR! HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE ENOUGH!"
Another man from next to the women answered, "W-we had o-other expend-d..."
I mocked him, "D-d-d-d-WHAT? Half the money went to the chandeliers, and the other half went to the condoms! What kind of fucking animals are you?!" As I said that, there was loud moaning coming from the other conference rooms followed by flesh slapping flesh. I slapped my forehead. "From this moment on, everyone in this FUCKING ROOM IS FIRED!"
The woman argued, "You can't do that! We have families to feed."
I stared at the women. I yelled, "You should have thought of that before you fucked Fred! Now, GET THE FUCK OUT!!!" Everyone stared at me blankly. After I looked at their miserable expressions, I added in something else, "Since everyone here loves to...get in tune with nature, all of you here will leave with exactly what you have right now." Several gasps rang out. "So, tell all of your buddies out there," I pointed my finger where all the other junkies were, "and move your asses."
Some of them opened their mouths to retaliate, but I shut them up by saying, "Everything that you have been doing on this floor has been recorded. If I wanted to make your pathetic lives even more miserable, then I can do just that. Now, go."
With that, everyone silently filed out of the room. They opened doors and called out to their buddies. Most of them were outraged and came really close to me, but they stopped when their counterparts told them the story.
After everyone left, I turned back to Angela. "I am very sorry for whatever the fuck happened here. I won't let this happen again, and you won't ever see it again."
She replied, "Please! Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault at all!"
I gave her a toothy grin. "You may be right, but these are, well, were my employees. Meaning that I have to take responsibility for them. Anyway, from now on you'll be promoted to head of advertisement. So, hire whoever you want, just don't let it end like that."
She jerked her face up to meet mine. I never noticed how tall I was. Six-three. I think Angela was around five-eleven, so a good few inches shorter than me. She was shocked. "But-"
"Also, you'll be experiencing a raise. Forty-five mil per year. So, enjoy!" I turned my back towards her and slowly started to leave.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone