61 Vernon 0.5

"The cream is so soft and even! The fruits match the texture of the cake so well. I'm so impressed that you did everything so perfectly. Thank you so much. This really made my day," she hugged me with one hand holding the plate.

"Let's take a picture! Zack, can you take the picture for us?" Taylor handed him her phone and we huddled up in front of the shaped balloons on our sofa.

"Okay, let's have an actual dinner now. I didn't haul these foods for nothing," Cathy unpacked the bags of bento from a thermal bag.

"Where's your bento? You can't just eat a small slice of cake and call it a day," Vernon asked quietly as the rest chattered amongst themselves.

"I'm fine, I had a huge lunch," I put my cake plate in the sink.

"C'mon, share this with me then," he opened his bento.

"No, you eat. I'll just hang around until the party's over," I sat on a kitchen stool.

"I hate tomatoes and carrots. Please, help me eat everything that the carrot touched," he put on a pleading face.

"What? Who hates carrots? You're weird," I pushed the bento away from my side.

"Well, I hate carrots. I guess they'll just end up in the trash," he pulled the box.

"Don't waste food!" I pulled the dish away.

"Hahaha….. Now you gotta eat everything that the carrot touches too. I don't want its essence on my food," he smeared the carrot on a third of the rice.

"Hey! That's not fair," I couldn't help but laugh at his ingenuity.

"Never said it was," he handed me an extra chopstick and took a bite of his pork katsu.

"Fine, you win," I took the chopstick and took a bite of the braised vegetable.

"This is actually good! I've never had it from here before," he mulled over the crispy breaded meat.

"Yeah, we eat it every Friday night during everyone's day offs."

We continued to chat about various topics like music, countries, political views, favorite movies, and even books. He became genuinely more attractive as he discussed his interest in building his own consulting company. I told him I wanted to have my own production house or at least produce a horror movie of my own. I didn't realize how much time had passed until Cathy walked up to us.

"Heya lovebirds. Enjoyed the food?" she winked.

"How come you never tell me about this restaurant before? I've been struggling to find a nice bento place," he ignored his sister's teasing.

"Well, Zee found it not long after she moved in and we've been having it at least once a week together. You barely had time to talk about anything nowadays," she looked disappointed.

They started to have some family talk and I didn't want to get involved in it. I excused myself and went to my bedroom. It made me feel guilty that I left him so abruptly without exchanging contact even after having such a nice conversation. Maybe it was just called being acquainted with someone.

For all I know he wouldn't even remember my name in a week. I was too ashamed to send him home after my awkward escape. I pretended to sleep, and he slipped a piece of card under the door. I could hear his footsteps outside my door and his voice as he said bye to the rest of the house.

I picked it up the next day. It was his business card with a scribbled phone number at the blank part of the card. It looked like a legit company sponsored the production. "Ysaye & Co." The logo was an embossed lettering with gold sheen shimmering when the light hit it just right. I slipped his card in my wallet and forgot about it. I wasn't going to text a guy I just knew first.

/A week later/

"Alright class! Today we have a special guest for our monthly inspirational talk. He built his company by taking bank loans and gathered a small group of friends to help him start up. Now he is among the biggest names in the industry. Let's welcome Mr. Louise!" our student coordinator announced.

The class clapped their hands to welcome the guest speaker as the man walked up to the podium to empower us for the next hour. Our school would group classes within the same industry and conduct a seminar every month to expose us to people who had made it in life.

It was supposed to showcase examples of successful people conducting different businesses within the same industry to ensure the possibility of the various paths of life we could choose to take. Today, it was my faculty's turn to be tortured.

"Can you email me the template?" I asked my seatmate.

"Yea sure," she looked up at the speaker. "Wait, isn't that the guy you told me about?"

"What?" I looked up at him, he was focused on his slide.

"Look! I found his Instagram! It is him! Zee, look!" my seatmate squeezed my arm tightly as she showed her phone to me.

"Bea! Keep it down will you!" I scream-whispered as I hid the screen of her phone so that he wouldn't see.

"Why are you blushing? You gotta ask him questions later."

"No way. We literally met once. How did you even find him? I didn't know his last name was different from Cathy," I suddenly remembered his business card.

I tried to discreetly pull out his business card from my wallet. There it was. Vernon Louise. How did I not notice it before? Was I too embarrassed?