I’ll have you know that I don’t take it easy on new workers, and you will have to prove yourself as good as sweet old Mei Mei Chung here. Hers are an impossible pair of shoes to fill. It would take you a lifetime to even get halfway.”

He turned to look at the already retreating old woman and shared a soft smile, and then back to Amy, his stern frown returning.

’How does he do that smile and frown thing? Is he bipolar?’

She nodded her head, her cheeks flaming even hotter as he bent to her level as if staring at a lab rat. His breath came in hot puffs, hitting her face and worsening her predicament.

She felt like slapping herself for thinking of this rude, uncouth person as even remotely attractive, but one look into his watery brown eyes, and she knew she was a goner. She wondered if his pupils were truly dilated or if she was only imagining nonsense.

’Why does she keep doing that thing with her nose? She looks like a little bunny,’ he observed, shaking his head to stop himself from giving in to the laughter that was threatening to spill out of him at the thought.

She was his employee and thinking of her as cute was as inappropriate as things could get. Besides, if he was being honest, she looked more like a wet rat, shaking all over as she was, than some cute little white bunny.

”Good,” he said curtly, and then drawing himself up to his full height, he walked over to his end of the table, subtly enjoying how Amy quivered at the sight of him.

His father had always said that respect should be valued more than fear, but the thrilling feeling of someone cowering before him always set a sort of flame ablaze in him.

”Now, I’m not sure if Mei Mei Chung told you about everything you will have to do, but–”

”Actually sir, she told me everything I have to do and I’m fully informed,” Amy interrupted, her eyes wide as saucers and cheeks still red.

”Of course, I trust her. So then, you must know just how I like my coffee?” he questioned again with a raised brow.

”She did, sir, I already know how to make your coffee,” she responded, eager to do something and maybe impress her new boss.

”Oh yeah? Go fix me a cup then, and be fast about it.”

”Right now?”

”Right away, Amy Lee.” He turned to her with a scowl that sent her scurrying out of the office with immediate effect.

Outside the door, she paused and leaned back. It was not even a whole day yet and she felt totally exerted.

She waited for her breathing to settle before setting off for the mini kitchen adjoining the office for the boss’s sole use. Her hands shook as she made the coffee, trying hard to make sure it was just how Mei Mei Chung had instructed her a few hours before.

When she eventually had everything ready, she put it all on a fancy tray she had found in the cabinet and took it to him, praying to all the gods and ancestors that he would not find any faults with it.

****************

”He asked me to make him five more cups of coffee, claiming they were all too sweet, or too creamy. One dumb complaint after the other, I tell you!” Amy exclaimed, drawing her knees up so that she was sitting with her legs akimbo.

Her living room had stayed the same way since her parents’ deaths barely four years ago when she was just eighteen years old.

She always liked to look at the family portrait hanging over the fireplace, forever saying a silent prayer asking for their forgiveness.

She had never stopped blaming herself for their deaths. If only she had not made such a fuss over the stupid talent show at school, perhaps her parents would not have gotten on the road to attend, only to get crushed to death hours later.

Two couches and a sofa sat in an l-shape at the leftmost side, while a floor mat adorned the center of the room.

Her parents had been of small means, but it was the simplicity of their hearts that truly reflected in the way they refused to fill their home with anything but what was necessary. Amy admired that about them.

In fact, she had loved everything about them, right from the first day they stepped into the orphanage where she had been abandoned as a wee baby to when they finalized the adoption papers and brought her home almost a year later at eight years of age.

Two years later, they had had their own biologically child, a boy they named Gu Zhou.

She liked to tease him about looking just like the wine vessel—slender with a wide head. This was one of the causes of their numerous sibling fallouts. Twelve years down the line and she had not yet tired of riling her brother up.

”So, he just stopped asking for more coffee at the fifth cup?” Chynna asked, drawing Amy back to the present.

”Yes! And do you know the most stupid part?”

”Tell me, Amy.” Chynna fought to stifle in her laughter, wiping at her nose and clearing her throat to hide it.

”I made the coffee the same way Mei Mei Chung had told me he likes it, all five times, and the only change was to the foam art at the top, can you imagine that? A part of me feels like he did all of that on purpose just to rattle me, because there really was nothing wrong with the coffee I made four times prior.

All that expensive coffee was wasted. I don’t know why he doesn’t just order directly from Greybox.