Bearing The Burden

"YOU!" The man's face contorted with anger as he pointed an accusing finger at her. "Are you suggesting that I am lying? That I placed the insect in there myself. Do you have any idea who I am? I could ruin this entire place with a single phone call," he retorted, threatening.

The stunning woman sitting opposite him nodded vigorously, her expression equally furious as she focused on Sofia, "Exactly. How dare you say he's lying? Don't they also teach you how to respectfully address your guest at this restaurant?" she said, her voice rising with each word.

After her previous response, she decided to correct herself and stand behind her date so he wouldn't lose interest in her after this dinner.

Sofia took a moment to steady herself, her voice calm but firm, "I'm not accusing you of lying, sir. I'm simply stating that this is not up to our usual standards. We will rectify this immediately, so you do not need to worry."

"The dinner is ruined, and I refuse to pay for this garbage!" the man scoffed, his voice filled with contempt. His gaze shifted to his date. "Let's go!" he ordered.

The stunning woman quickly took her purse from the table, holding the man's hand as she stood up.

Elias reacted quickly, attempting to block them from leaving the restaurant. He stepped forward; however, Sofia gently placed her hand on his arm before he could, stopping him.

Elias halted his steps and furrowed his brows in confusion as he looked at her.

According to Sofia's explanation, it is evident that she did not place the cockroach in their meal. Additionally, knowing that she prides herself on her cooking, it is clear that she cannot be responsible for the cockroach.

Also, he was the one who delivered the dish, so since it was neither of them, he suspected the couple must have created such a ruckus to avoid paying for their meal. So, if they allowed them to leave, who would be the one to pay for the dish?

Witnessing Elias's questioning gaze, Sofia shook her head, sighing tiredly, "From the looks of it, they had no intentions of paying for their dinner. So rather than searching who was responsible for this, further aggravating the issue, and disturbing the other dinners, we should let them go," Sofia responded, observing as the man and his date exited the restaurant.

After they were both gone, Sofia turned to look at the other diners. She bowed respectively, "We are deeply sorry for disturbing the atmosphere, Sirs and Ma'ams. The issue has been settled, so please, you can return to your dinner," she said, her tone serious.

Sofia then turned to Elias. "You can return to your task while I return to the kitchen," she said.

"Wait a minute! Who would pay for their meal then?" Elias asked, frowning.

"I'll have no choice but to cover the cost of their meal," Sofia responded, exhaling deeply.

Elias furrowed his brows in response, "Are you sure? Since neither you nor I placed that cockroach in there, I suspect that they are the ones responsible for creating such an issue, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to let go just like that," he responded, his tone serious.

Sofia folded her arms together, shook her head at Elias's words, and then explained, "Considering their attires, I think they can cover the meal payment. The man wore a Bryoni suit, which cost at least $6000, and a Palet Philip watch was worth about $40,000. And if I'm not mistaken, his shoes are Clitin Lobbs, which cost around $1,500 a pair. As for the woman, she was carrying a Hormes Berkin bag, which retails upwards of $10,000."

"Her Luiboutin shoes aren't cheap either - those must be at least $1,200. The price of all of these items put together is something they can afford cheaply, which we'll never be able to afford, so I think that they obviously have the capabilities of covering the cost of a $500 meal but simply choose not to because of the incident," she lightly glanced at the dish, "So rather than aggravating this issue, which would end in the two of us getting into big trouble, it's best we settled the issue at that."

"But you certainly can't afford to pay—" Elias began; however, Sofia had already interrupted him before he could continue.

"I'm doing this for our sake, Elias." Sofia's voice was firm. "it would be bad if both of us stir up trouble together, so please get back to work and ensure the rest of the guests have a wonderful evening. I have to head back to the kitchen and continue cooking." She lightly tapped Elias on the side of his arm, then turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

"Something we'll never be able to afford, huh!" Elias muttered, his heart heavy with conflicting emotions. He watched as Sofia stepped into the kitchen; his fists clenched in frustration.

He felt a strong urge to go after her, to insist on paying the bill. He knew Sofia was taking the blame for something she didn't do, all to protect his job. As the Sous chef, it wasn't that easy to fire her.

However, the same couldn't be said about him. After all, he was just a regular waiter with $390 in his bank account.

The thought of Sofia sacrificing for him was unbearable.

"Status," Elias muttered as he approached the table to arrange it and remove the leftover dishes.

Almost instantly, a holographic blue interface appeared before his eyes.

┏━━━━━━༻✾༺━━━━━━┓

Name: [ Elias Benjamin ]

Age: [ 24 years old ]

Current Relationship Status: [ Casually Dating ]

Relationships:

[ Emily Hawthorne [ Developing Affection - [ Medium ] ]

Current Bank Account Status: [$390]

┗━━━━━━༻✾༺━━━━━━┛

After confirming that Sofia's name was not on the list of his relationship status, Elias understood that Sofia considered him a true friend, not a romantic interest.

His expression eased as he sighed, closing the system status. Before arriving here, he had wondered if he could gain her affection, given the depth of their relationship.