22 Cerin cooks.
Once again Cerin rolled out of bed as the chime of her alarm clock and sludged into the shower then headed out with headphones in her ears and a flask in her arms. A decisive grimace appeared on her face as she chugged the rancid mixture that somehow always tasted worse than memory revealed.
Upon her return from the morning jog, she stopped by the store and picked up a few groceries then made herself a breakfast and lunch which she packed and then headed towards the gym as she had for the past week.
She swiped her card by the front desk and purposefully ignored the condescending look of the man that worked the desk then headed over to the 'female' area of the gym.
At first she was confused as to why it was built because she was the only female that attended the gym but did not give it much thought and began her workout.
Unawares to the younger girl a new routine had been established around her within the week she had attended.
When she checked in at 7:30 in the morning the men who were doing harsh training and practice rounds in the ring would stop and greet her hello before continuing with whatever they did.
When she began to stretch, it would be the men's first break time and occasionally a few of the more flexible ones would come to join her. During her breaks the men would line up, both to seek instruction from her regarding whatever physical problems they had as well as in the hopes that she might share a parcel of food she had brought from home.
While she didn't mind sharing her lunches she was a tad concerned as the ingredients she used had positive effects to women but not so much for men such as the Angelvine and Silkweed.
To avoid any negative side effects she had began to put in a few other dishes specifically to share with them.
Finally after the fifth day of sharing her lunch she decided to take things into her own hands and talk to the manager.
The thin and shrewd man looked over the official looking business proposal with a smile that sent shivers down bystanders backs and quickly drew up a contract to provide her with the funds for the ingredients as well as 45% of the sales to pay for her labor.
On the eighth day a new routine had been established in the gym. Instead of the men crowding around Cerin in her workout space they now crowded around her in the kitchen.
The kitchen, which had been a small space mainly meant for heating up packed
lunches from home had been taken over by Cerin and a few volunteers and they started to sell lunches for a relatively low price with differing discounts for members of different tiers.
The men, especially the single ones watched in amazement as the girl whirled around the kitchen like a dance and whipped up dishes large enough to feed a large family in the same span of time it would take them to heat up a bowl from the convenience store. a few of the young ones even began to harbor thoughts towards her, although those were quickly crushed by her purely professional attitude towards them.
Well, look at you go! if you would only smile I bet you could get one of them to give up their first-
Cerin stopped materializing Four's voice there, knowing where she was going but not wanting to put it into words,
Yeah, lets stay away from the witchcraft and stick to the folk remedies.
As Cerin cooked she put the food into large vats and had her volunteers push them to the front.
Rather than wasting time individually serving them, she'd had the idea of selling the bowls rather than the food themselves and letting them serve themselves. While she was briefly worried about the men simply using their own plates but after witnessing the first one that tried get beat up by the others she relaxed and focused on cooking.
Cerin was rather pleased with this arrangement because not only did she get to practice her cooking skills she also found a good source of income.
The young men that lined up all went with the hopes of greeting the quiet and hardworking girl and perhaps making an impression but left with nothing but disappointment and a large bowl of rice gruel. However this disappointment soon faded as they realized that such a simple dish managed to taste so delicious when it was made by a pretty girl.
As it was the first day and she was unsure of their tastes she had decided on something simple but filling. She had also taken the liberty of adding a few special ingredients in order to increase the tastiness and health benefits.
'A little Gruin and Volcano Pokeweed never hurt anyone.'
She giggled a bit to herself,
'Although they have such fun names, they're rather easy to find and make.'
As soon as lunch was over she began to clear up but was stopped by the volunteers and left the gym with a tired body and a hand full of cash as a first day bonus.
Cerin smiled at the ambition of the manager but reminded herself to not get involved with him as much as possible. if she continued to interact with him who knows how else he would decide he could make a profit off her.
