My Cruel Boss Wants Me

Chapter 4: The Mall Visit

When Elisse woke up, she felt better than she’s had for the past month. Somehow, a weight seems to have been lifted from her body, and she doesn’t feel like staying in bed the whole day anymore. Looking at the clock, it’s 10am. She decided to start her day with a long shower.

She stepped into the bathroom, stripped and turned on the shower. She started washing her hair, and massaging her scalp. Afterward, she squirted body wash on a loofa and scrubbed her skin. Afterwards, she rinsed the shampoo off her hair and put on a conditioner. After 10 minutes, she stepped back into the water and washed herself off from head to toe, making sure all suds have been rinsed off, before turning the shower off.

Her shower took 30 minutes. She hasn’t bathed this long in a while. She hasn’t even bathed regularly in the past month. She giggled at the thought of letting herself go for  weeks without even washing her hair.

When she stepped back into her bedroom, she thought of what she wanted to do for the day. Hannah brought her groceries yesterday, but it’s only good for a few days, and she still needs a few more essentials.  She decided to go out and shop for supplies that will last for at least two weeks.

Looking at her closet for something to wear, she wanted to wear something colorful. This might help sustain the mood she’s in right now, which isn’t as gloomy as it had been. She decided to go casual and wear a white Nirvana shirt. It has short sleeves which she folded. She paired it with high-waisted jean shorts. She tucked her shirt into her shorts. She decided to wear red FitFlops since she’s planning to visit the salon to get a pedicure as well, so she needed open toed footwear.

She finished off her look by trying her long black hair in a high ponytail, and wearing stud earrings, as well as a charm bracelet and a wristwatch.

After applying moisturizer on her face, she put on a light layer of powder foundation and finished off her make-up with a light pink lip tint. She checked out her final look in her full-length mirror, and was satisfied with what she saw. 

Elisse has always been beautiful. She’s taller than the average height at 5’7, and has always taken care of her body, so she’s never been overweight. She has curves in the right places, and men have always gawked at her D-cup bust and ample butt.

Since she hasn’t been feeding herself properly for the past month, she noticed that she lost a bit of weight. She doesn’t like to be too skinny, since it makes her look like Betty Boop, so she vowed to gain back the weight that she lost. Nonetheless, she’s still very attractive and can turn heads despite her simple outfit and makeup.

She has been approached multiple times to shoot commercials or even audition for TV and film roles, but it has never held an appeal for her. She’s also been offered to join beauty pageants but the thought of parading herself in skimpy outfits makes her cringe.

Before leaving, she looked at her pantry and checked which items she needed to buy, and took note of it in her phone. While heading to the front door, she noticed how messy her house has become, and vowed to clean up when she gets home. She took note of the cleaning supplies she will need as well.

Elisse locked the front door, and opened the gate wide. She’s taking the car so she won’t have to worry about catching a ride while carrying stuff. She’s also not sure what time she’ll get home, so it’s safer and more convenient for her to just drive herself.

On the way to the mall, she felt excited about being out of the house. She felt nostalgic about the things she’s missed being stuck in the house. She smiled to herself when she remembered how happy she was when she took her parents out to treat them to a meal when she got her first pay on her first job. It has become a tradition for them to eat out every other weekend.

While stopped at a red light, she saw a billboard of Park Seo Joon, a Korean actor, and it made her think of Matthew Kim. She can’t help but be annoyed with how arrogant and unprofessional he was. She was dumbfounded with how quickly their conversation turned from being pleasant to being infuriating. It was like Matt had a total personality shift.

One thing he can’t deny, though. That asshole is a gorgeous specimen of a man.

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Elisse went straight to park the car at the covered parking building so she won’t have to worry about getting wet in case it rained later. She didn’t like carrying umbrellas around. The car park is connected to the Department Store so it works perfectly for her. She can do a bit of window shopping before getting her nails done.

She decided to get some essential oils in lavender and vanilla scent, as well as some scented candles and tea candles. She’ll light them up in the bathroom after cleaning. 

Afterwards, she headed to her favorite nail salon and got a manicure and paraffin wax for her hands, and a foot spa with pedicure for her feet. The foot spa included a foot massage which she loved. She decided to give the nail technician and masseuse a hefty tip later. She decided to get a gel polish so that it will last longer and will dry up faster.

After an hour, she was done at the salon and headed out to the mall area to browse around before getting groceries. She went to the bookstore to look for Michael Connelly’s latest book and get some pens.

When she got to the grocery, she got a big cart and went straight to the right-most part of the store. Whenever she’s getting groceries, she likes to browse through all the aisles to make sure she doesn’t miss anything. She doesn’t like just haphazardly going from one aisle to the other since it’s counterproductive and very tiring.

She got the basics, including eggs, bread, sugar, flour, cheese and rice. She also got some toiletries and snacks. After getting a few more items, she headed to the frozen foods section last, and got her meats.

Once she’s satisfied with everything she needs, she heads to the check-out counter to pay. There are long lines in all the counters, and Elisse realized that it’s probably because it’s a Saturday.

While lined up, she decided to look at her phone and check her socials. She didn’t find anything interesting so she looked around at the other counters hoping to see a shorter line elsewhere.

Two counters to her right, she noticed a man putting his items on the conveyor. He’s wearing a white fitted shirt and black joggers. He’s very tall and very noticeable. He’s probably six feet tall, with wide shoulders and muscular arms. He has tattoos on his left sleeves which look really good and suit his physique. She noticed the other women in the lines who were seemingly gawking at this hot guy. She blushed and chuckled a little thinking that she’s one of the gawkers.

She’s waiting for him to look up so she can see his face. She gasped when he looked up, and looked straight at her. He gave her a full smile with his straight white teeth showing. He’s very cute and baby-faced. The face didn’t seem to suit his buff body. They held each other’s eyes for a while until Elisse was asked by the lady next to her in line to move forward.

She moved forward in line and kept herself busy sorting out which items to check out first. After a while, she decided to look if the hot guy was still at the counter, but he seems to have finished checking out. She’s a little disappointed because she wanted to look at him some more.

Once she’s done paying for her groceries, she rolled her cart out to head to the carpark. She used the credit card her eldest sister Melissa gave her to pay. Thank God for that, because not having a job for a while now has been draining her savings.

The elevator heading to the level where she’s parked is about to close, when she shouted “Wait!” She was surprised when she saw the person who held the elevator open.

It was the hot guy.