FALLING FOR THE MARRIED BILLIONAIRE.

FIRST DAY AND APPROACH.

First day experience at Heart culinary, sent her an unsteady feeling mixed with anxiety and unpreparedness. Regardless of her in-room practices and forging fake scenarios, she appeared headless.

Thanks to her dear friend, Johnny, who placed her in the right other at the start of the morning. Fully clothed with the adequate wears, Lori was covered by a red apron and wore a red cap to trap her hair.

She was stationed inside the kitchen with the other chefs who were on duty. Lori took her time to carefully measure their appearance, state of mind and evidently determine their stance. She ended up almost giving herself a heart attack.

Fabian was the first person to exchange greeting with her, she was relieved. Lori had made a failed attempt to reach out to Aguero, the team's top chef. But he waved past her after releasing an intimidating glance and didn't say a word. Lori learnt a lesson and kept her greeting to herself. So much for congratulating her for winning the cook-off, the air was definitely different and heavier now.

She heaved a sigh of relief as Fabian sent her a warming smile as he walked into the kitchen. He was tall, maybe 6ft, 8inches tall. He was slim and had warming dimples as he smiled. Fabian possessed wine colored hair, she was sure he dyed it.

*******

"hey, " Fabian said as he stood towards her at the end of the room, where she had the intention of hiding herself.

Lori first shifted and gave him a short glance, "hey," her voice was low and sounded huff.

"relax," Fabian now looked down on her briefly, "erase fear, it'll make it easier."

Lori was thrown off balance, "I'm trying. "

He arched a brow, "I felt your tension from the entrance."

She gestured over to Aguero who appeared to be heavily on his phone. Aguero had black and curly hair, typical Mexican. He was average height and had a very pronounced Adam's apple. He had a neat pyramidal mustache, but wore a very stiff and stoic look.

"your buddy wasn't really nice to me. "

Fabian tittered, "Aguero is not nice to anyone. "

Just then George winked at Lori. Immediately, she classified him as the womanizer in the midst, there's always one of the everywhere. Lori merely smiled at him.

"thanks, I feel much better knowing that. "

Fabian playfully thumped me by the shoulder, "do the breathing technique, you can't cook with shaky hands Lori. "

"f**k," She thought she'd successfully hidden her palms behind her, she exposed them and cleaned them with a white rag on the table by her side. Her palms had become sweaty.

She glanced over at where Beth stood, adjusting her hair net. Beth had made no eye contact with her, that wasn't a surprise. Lori was okay with the fact that they were keeping safe distance, it would reduce the chances of future drama.

******

Just then, Johnny walked in, it was 7:30am. His eyes rolled past Beth and then at Lori. He wanted to make sure there was peace and also to send them a warning to be professional, he made sure they saw his strong eye impact and hoped that they understood it.

"the morning rush will begin in five minutes, get your s**t together and get hydrated. "

Johnny embodied the bag of the superior and heavily showed the 'i'm in charge here,' look as he stride inside the space, past every chef. He made sure to stop at Beth and sent off a gesture and repeated the same action as he approached Lori.

"Hugo is probably upstairs giving team B the same speech, " he rotated his head and covered the room, "do the same s**t I always tell you, be fast, be efficient, and most importantly cook deliciously."

Johnny walked back to the entrance, "now, let's get cooking. "

*****

Not long after Johnny's speech, the door far from the overall kitchen window opened. The window was the tool demarcating the door which lead to the main restaurant, where the customers sat. The window was long and transparent, so we could see the door where the waiters came in from.

Two waiters dressed differently from us, a male and a female, walked in through the front. They wore black trousers and white shirts. Lori had already located her cooking spot. She did the usual cleaning and had began slicing her onions and peppers. She also did her spice mixing, that was her best suit, in order to place a divergence and uniqueness in her meals. She began setting some stocks on the fire, to reduce her cooking time and be faster. She made sure to be private in her mixing, in the aim of keeping her creation to herself.

The waiters dropped pieces of papers on the slab and the chefs walked towards it.

"fast people, we have celebrities and rich f***s to feed. "

"I got two plates of beans porridge and toasted bread," Beth rang.

"who eats beans porridge in the morning?" Lori asked as she stared at her paper.

"probably our Nigerian customers, " she got a reply from Fabian instead, "what do you got?"

"chicken soup, very spicy. " Lori began to arrange her food.

"f**k, " George hissed, "rainbow ruby is here again. "

The room erupted in a low dose of laughter, all except Aguero who was in full action.

"unlucky you," Fabian retorted.

"so many, and filled with colors, " George murmured

"you're the flash," Fabian laughed.

Lori maintained her activity, but she yearned to understand what rainbow ruby meant. She just got there, in time she would be in tune with the general flow and get the jokes.

More papers appeared on the slab as more waiters made their way to retrieve the already prepared food. Lori now understood the effect of time and also got to know why George was nicknamed the flash.

"order up!" Lori yelled as she slid her third food for the day and picked another paper.

******

It was almost 11'o' clock, Lori would be leaving from work soon, she sat on a chair planted at her corner as she slurped down her dinner, Spaghetti jollof. She was experiencing the highest level of fatigue, the pains arched from her wrists and made way to her shoulders. Added by the discomfort coming from the back of her neck. She expected that much, she'd been cooking all day.

Nevertheless, she was excited, she was finally there, she was a chef at Heart culinary.

*******

Beth pressed her a dense look and walked out of the kitchen. Johnny had left earlier, just Fabian and Aguero were left.

"where'r your headed? it's getting late. " Fabian asked Lori.

Lori sighed as she remembered that she had to get a cab, "Willam street,"

"f**k, that's far." Fabian retorted, aligning a scarf around his neck.

"have to start booking a ride, "

"I'm headed somewhere else, would have given you a ride, maybe tomorrow?" He walked over to the door and waited for her response.

"yeah sure, "

"goodnight, don't stay too long." Fabian turned to Aguero, "night Ag,"

Aguero nodded.

*****

As Lori concluded with washing the dishes, she turned on her phone and went straight to Uber.

"leave that, I'll give you a ride. " speaking to her for the first time, she heard Aguero's raspy voice echo at the end of the room.

******

Without uttering a word throughout the ride, Aguero's Camry brushed in front of Lori's house. With that same efficiency and pattern, it zoomed away before she got the audience to thank him for the ride.

The brutal sendoff Aguero gave her at work only tripled, regardless of the fact that he offered her a ride. His whole constrain reeked of mystery and difficulty. So much so that Lori was restricted to kickstart a conversation with him.

Just like there was always a womanizer in the midst, there would be the stiff headed one, and it was Aguero. Lori had seen enough of his pattern to know that she had to follow him that way.

As she entered her room with the aim of having a shower and going to bed, she received a text message from a new number.

"hey sweetie, "