chapter 4

The next morning

Lilliane slowly opens her eyes, her head feels like it's going to split, and body feels heavy, it's her first time feeling so drained it is the hangover

'where...' Lilliane looked around it was her room

*Knock knock* 'Lilliane, are you awake? I brought you some bread and a drink' her father said

Lilliane slowly lift her body and sits on her bed 'dad?, how did..how did I get home?' Lilliane just seems to be tired

Her dad opened the door and enters 'Naya dropped you off, seems like you really had fun my little princess' Her father said smiling and places the food on her desk

Lilliane moved over and her dad sat down

'i can't believe I got a hangover, I'm never going to drink again' Lilliane said as if she's about to cry

Her dad smirked and rolls his eyes 'yeah right' he responded knowing that she will still drink eventually

'well how was last night?, I've seen picture of you and Naya that you're really having fun' her dad said

'i don't really remember much...but..oh right! Dad, you won't believe whom I saw last night!' Lilliane said with enthusiasm, her dad tilted his head as he raises his eye brow

'i saw the prince! Well..a look alike of the prince!' she said, Her dad seems to be at loss what she meant by that

'prince?' he asked

'remember the story you told me? The young boy who ran away?' she said

Her father still seems to be lost but he thinks carefully, until he remembers it 'ah you mean the character, you've seen him?' her father responded

Lilliane nodded 'well..Im actually unsure since most people use contact lenses nowadays' as she shrugged

'well there are some artists out there that can draw people who coincidentally looked like them' Her father responded

'that is true, I guess there are a lot of people who are just good at drawing' Lilliane seems to be lost in thoughts 'but..one thing that seems off is...how come he sounds the same as the president...I would want to ask him..but...what if ...ill just embarrass myself again?' ..Lilliane shook her head

Making Her dad worried about Lilliane, he pats her head and said 'perhaps you fell in love at first sight?' Lilliane was caught off guard and widened her eyes, feeling so confused and awkward she replied by saying 'No!' she yelled out

She felt shy for no reason making her dad laugh

'okay okay, that's good, because if someone tries to flirt with you, you have to tell me immediately okay?' her dad said with a joking yet serious tone

lilliane doesn't know if that was sarcasm or not so she just nodded

'well time for me to go to work, just rest up until you feel better alright?' her dad said as he stood up

'okay, take care love you dad' she said with a smile

Her dad smiled back and left the room

Lilliane sigh and ate the bread that her dad brought..she doesn't even noticed that her headache was gone

As soon as she finished eating, she called Naya

*Click*

'Lilly, good morning!' Naya said with enthusiasm

'Good morning' Lilly replied as she yawn

'Last night, what did I do? I hope I didn't embarrass you since I don't remember much' Lilly added feeling nervous

'oh no!, you didn't embarrass me at all in fact, someone seems to be interested in you that night' Naya said as she teased Lilliane

Lilliane choked on her water 'excuse me?!' Lilliane yelled out as her eyes widen with a shock look

Naya burst out laughing 'Ya! Girl, he was quite handsome too! In fact He's the most handsome guy in that club!'

Lilliane was just dumbstruck while Naya keeps on talking about what had happened last night until Naya brought up what he looked like 'he had this pale skin black hair, OMG even tho he is wearing contact lenses he looked so hot!'

'that can't be possibly right' she thought to herself

When Naya couldn't hear anything from the phone 'hey you still there?' Naya asked

Lilliane clicked her tongue and told her everything when she was waiting for her

Naya couldn't believe what she had heard 'Lilly maybe they're a different person, there's a lot of people who sound the same y'know?' Naya said

Lilly didn't thought about that and it somewhat made her feel at ease that she won't be awkward around the President if ever they met once again

'you are right Naya, I'm just..overthinking that's all' Lilliane said as she sigh

'is that why you were down yesterday?' Naya said with a concerned tone

Lilliane paused for a moment and said 'yeah'

Naya reassured Lilliane 'it's okay in making mistakes like that it just happened y'know that' Naya said with a calm tone

Lilliane just nodded even if they're not in a video call

After the conversation they hang up and Lilliane stood up and went to change her clothes realizing that her wallet is gone

She panicked and she messaged Naya if she saw her wallet, but to no prevail she didn't see it

Lilliane thought for a moment and tried to find her wallet all over the place, she thinks 'where did I put it..I thought it was on my pocket'...suddenly she realizes that she might've dropped it near the club because that was the last place she went before her wallet got missing

When Lilliane arrived at the club, i was closed, she couldn't believe it she looked around to see what time it opens '9:00pm'. Lilliane places her hand to her forehead, she looked at the time 'its only 12:30pm'....she doesn't wanna go back home since it's going to take her a while to go back so she decided to stay and look around the city

She walked around and did window shopping since she can't really buy anything, her card, her money are all in the wallet that she had lost.

Few hours has passed it's been 3 and a half hours '4pm,..only few more hours to go' She feels tired, she feels thirsty and decided to sit down, waiting for the time to pass, she used her phone as a distraction but her phone might die soon. She tried calling to Naya but Naya seemed to be meeting with someone, she did say that's also the reason why she went there in her hometown

Lilliane hugged her knees when someone 'miss Wistaria?' A familiar voice called on her the nice gentle deep voice

Lilliane looked up and saw The president it was Calyx and next to him is Akira. 'oh yo Miss Lilliane!' Akira said with a wave and smile

Lilliane blinked and just didn't respond feeling shy her eyes looked around

Calyx sighed and asked 'weve noticed that you've been sitting here alone for an hour now, is everything alright?'

'oh..yes I am okay, I'm just waiting for the time' Lilliane said

Akira looked at Lilliane 'why?' he asked

'uhm,.because..err' Lilliane couldn't answer him

Calyx and Akira just stood there with an awkward silent until Calyx broke the silent 'oh well if you're just waiting for time, why not My assistant here show you around in your workplace?, you're starting next week Monday correct?' he said with a firm tone

'yes' Lilliane replied with a monotoned voice

Akira seemed to be surprised and looked at Calyx 'why me?' he whispers to Calyx

'...what, I don't have all day, I'm going somewhere later on' He whispered back

Akira sigh and smirked 'you should be the one to do it, remember I'm on my break, you're the boss here and you know the place better than I do, let's not forget, because of your stupidity she has to work for free'

Calyx twitches and seems to be annoyed because of Akira, but he couldn't ignore the fact he was correct

Calyx sighed 'fine' he said

Akira sticks out his tongue playfully and looked at Lilliane 'Dont worry miss Lilliane he may be scary or intimidating but here, in this company were basically all friends with each other or treat each other as family, so relax alright?'

'ahhh..okay' she replied but she's still shy and anxious about it

'well then, Mr.president or should I say Mr.Owner, I'll be off!' Akira said with a bow and runs away

When Akira left the two seemed to be awkward to each other, people are actually looking at them especially Calyx because of his appearance but he didn't care

Calyx cleared his throat 'well then..shall I take you to your workplace?'

Lilliane looked down and breaths in, she stood up 'yes thank you so much' as she smiled to calyx

Calyx smiled back and begun to walk 'Your workplace is not to far here, and I'm glad to have seen you, we were going to call you tomorrow or the day so you can explore your workplace, but thankfully we saw you today, and might as well show you now'

Lilliane just followed Calyx and looked around 'i see, thank you..oh..and uhm thank you for accepting me too I may don't have experience but I'll do my best'

Calyx smiled 'oh no problem,..and..before it's to late I'm also sorry for making you go through that when my men escorted you to the building and..the way I spoke to you that day'

Calyx seemed to be genuine on his apologies making Lilliane not know what to do

'oh no, it's okay Mr. Rainarius, it's understandable' Lilliane responded

Calyx was confused why she said understandable but he just lets it off anyways

They arrived at the building, it looked like a handicraft shop they entered the shop and saw some people browsing and staffs doing their job

One staff approached Calyx 'hi there what can we- oh! Calyx, what brings you here?' the staff said

'hey, how's everything going?' Calyx asked

'everything's going good!, a lot of sales been happening to be honest' The staff said proud of what they had done

'oh really? That's actually quite great! Oh do tell me if there's anything you need and just send me the invoices and sales to me as usual' Calyx said, his tone was gentle, yet it seems to be as if he's just talking to a friend

'is this what Mr.akira meant' Lilliane thought,

'ah right, by the way you might've talked to this lady before in the interview but this is Lilliane'

Lilliane reintroduce herself 'hello, I'm Lilliane or just call me lily for short'

The staff smiled 'oh it's finally good to see you Lilly, I'm Diana the person who interviewed you'

Diana seems to be friendly as what Lilliane thought

'well then Miss Lilliane, or..I can call you Lily too right? We don't need to be formal to each other' calyx said 'you can also call me Calyx too, just treat me as a friend, that's how things are here' he added

Lilliane was hesitating at first but now she feels like she needs to lighten up her shoulder and be not tense 'alright but.its going to take me.time to get used to calling you by your name ..if that's alright for you?' she said as she gathered her courage to speak

Calyx smiled and nodded 'of course you can, take your time and be comfortable'

Lilliane smiled brightly making Calyx to be in awe

'well, Diana can take it from here, I would've done it..but I really really need to go, I'll be in touch or one of my employee will call you soon' calyx said 'alright see you' he seemed to be in a hurry so he left

'so Lilly, as we have talked about last time you're just going to do some packing for now, here we don't just put the products in a bag or something, we actually care for what the costumer buy here, like how small business owners do'

'ahh I see I see..I do have experience in packing some products neatly' Lilliane said in a soft voice

'mhm, that will be your job for now but maybe next time once you're comfortable we will teach you to make stuff like doing designs, and making pots and you get what I mean right?' Diana said with a smile

Lilliane nodded 'yep!' she responded

Diana leads her the way of where the stuff are, where the storage is, where the toilet are, etc.

Fast forward and it's already 8:21pm.

Lilliane part ways with the staff and was very comfortable around them because of how kind they were almost forgetting of why she came at the city in the first place.

When Lilliane arrived to the club she waited for Abit until one of the staff opened the front she waited for 10 minutes until she went in, she was Abit early but the club was open, she looked around until she saw someone on the bar area sitting down.

She carefully approached the person being fidgety 'excuse me' she said in a soft voice, the person didn't hear her making her even more nervous

'uhm excuse me!' she said once again, making the person turn around

Feeling annoyed the person said 'you talking to me?', Lilliane was shocked that it was the man from yesterday!

'oh, hey there, what brings you here? You're here to do another dancing?' Cedric smirked as he leaned back and inhales his smoke

lilliane doesn't know what he meant by that and seemed to scrunch up her face

Cedric chuckled as he leaned closer towards Lilliane 'seems like you don't remember' Cedric stated with a smirk

Lilliane doesn't seems to be bothered when Cedric leaned closer.

'anyways what brings you here?' Cedric said as his eyes seemed to be looking directly to Lilliane's eyes

Lilliane noticed it and avoided the eye contact 'oh.i..just came back...to find my lost wallet' She said with an uncomfortable look

Cedric grabbed his own chin and suddenly, he grabbed the wallet inside his pocket and showed it to Lilliane 'you mean this?'

Lilliane's eyes lit up feeling relief that her wallet's been found

Cedric pulls his hand away and raised his hand above Lilliane

Lilliane confused reaches out her hand asking to give it to her

'Ill give it back to you if you give me a kiss' Cedric said as his lips turned up

Lilliane wasn't amused rather her nose wrinkled up, eyebrows pulled down 'What?' she said

Cedric chuckled 'come on, just a small kiss?'

Lilliane crosses her arms 'what is this guy's purpose, he's kinda creepy'.. Lilliane thought

Cedric knew what Lilliane is thinking since she's showing it through her expression 'Lilliane, you do know that I'm trying to flirt here right?' with an amused look

Lilliane blinked.....confused...'flirting he said?' Lilliane thought she finally realizes what he meant and felt shy, she felt extremely awkward 'why would he flirt with me when we just met or barely talked to each other!?' she thought, she tried to reach out her wallet, even trying to grab his arm just so he can drop it, but he was strong. Lilliane doesn't want to hurt him either so she doesn't have a choice

'if.i' Lilliane hestitates for a moment

Cedric smirked as he pulled Lilliane closer

Lilliane twitched and slowly tries to kiss him 'ive never done this before!, I haven't even gave anyone a kiss before! Wait I did kiss my father and Naya on the cheek but that's about it!' Lilliane's lips puckered but you can see it's twitching

With Cedric's amusement he closes his eyes waiting for her to kiss him, their face got closer until

Lilliane kissed Cedric and saw the opportunity that he lowered his guard and grabbed her wallet and left

As soon as Lilliane left Cedric opened his eyes as he touch his cheek 'touche' he said to himself laughing , as the bartender and the people around them looked at him

He covers his mouth, blushing and talking to himself 'shes so innocent..and pure...she's so cute'

When Lilliane arrived back to her home she feels pissed and disgusted she couldn't believe she kissed a stranger, she messaged her friend Naya about it earlier making Naya feeling bad at the same time squeeling over it as if the story that Lilliane told her sounded like a love story from a novel.

Lilliane went to her room didn't tell her dad about it so he doesn't worry. She couldn't sleep at all because of the feeling on her lips.

As she touches her lips, she kept thinking about it 'he was..handsome...like...the prince...' Lilliane finally realizes that she just kissed a stranger without being shy making her more embarrassed and wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out

The next day Lilliane couldn't sleep at all, it's Sunday and tomorrow is going to be her first day of work when suddenly her phone lit up.