CHAPTER 16: Blind Date

FLORIAN'S POV

“Will you marry me?”she said.

I took a step closer, convinced my ears were playing tricks on me.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"I asked you to marry me," she repeated.

I had thought  that I'd misheard her, but her words hung in the air, undeniable and clear.

“Are you serious?”I asked.

“Is it a silly request?”

“No,”I quickly said.

To be honest, I never expected to hear those words from her and definitely not to me.

I never saw her as someone to consider marriage, she gave off these arrogant girls that weren't ready to settle down and obviously she wasn't, so what's with the marriage talk all of a sudden.

“My father asked me to get married, he wishes to see me get married while he's still alive and he doesn't have much time left”she said and I could feel the sadness in her words.

“Oh”I managed to say.

One of the worst feelings is the feeling of loss, especially if it's someone you love so much.

And when you know that the person you love will soon die, it’s really hard to accept it but at least you can try to make them happy before they are gone.

I never had that chance, my parents died in a fire accident when I was little, it was a sudden death so there was no time to start talking about it with them or asking what they wanted to do before they died.

“Honestly I'm not even interested in getting married but I have to do it for him,”she said.

“Yeah I know, also try to consider your choices wisely, think about your decisions first”

She nodded slowly and I offered a reassuring pat to her back. Once she finished eating, the exhaustion of the day caught up to us both. We said our goodnights and retired to our separate bedrooms for the night.

****

“Listen up everyone, tomorrow is the cookathon, an inter-state event, different cooks from across the state will come together for a friendly cook off.

The cookathon is mostly about having fun and connecting with other cooks. But please let's work towards bringing the trophy home. And don't forget to have fun” I said to the cooks.

There were like twenty in number but I had some top cooks that were exceptional and Rose was one of them.

“Okay Boss man, how do you intend to pick the ones you want to compete in the cookathon?”Gabriel asked, appearing by my side.

“I already know who the top chefs are, I just need to carry out a little test just to make it fair”

“Is your roommate among these top chefs?”

I quickly covered his mouth with my palm.

“Reduce your voice, you don't know who's listening”

“Oh I'm sorry for saying your little secret out loud”he said with a slight chuckle.

“I'm being serious”

He nodded slightly.

Speaking of Rose.

Where was she?I hadn't seen her since the morning.

I paced through the massive kitchen, scanning every corner for her. Chefs waved and called out greetings as I passed, but I barely noticed. My focus was entirely on finding a flash of brown hair tucked under a cap, worn with that perfectly careless, thrown-on look she always preferred.

That's when I caught sight of her at the back of the room, completely engrossed in her phone. A soft blush was creeping up her cheeks.

I furrowed my brows, a sudden prickle of curiosity making me wonder exactly what, or who was making her blush so hard.

“Why aren't you working, miss?”I asked the moment I got to her.

She quickly hid her phone and started steaming the chicken in the pot in front of her.

I just stood there and watched her work forgetting that there were other chefs around the kitchen.

“Can I leave early today?”she asked.

“Huh?, why?”

“I have a date later in the evening so I need to leave early,”she said, slicing carrots on the chopping board.

“A date?”

I felt a heavy lump in my throat.

“Yes, a blind date. I thought about what you said yesterday and I want to go husband hunting”

Husband hunting?

“That's not what I meant yesterday –”

“Thank you for the talk yesterday. It helped me think about things a lot more. So can I leave early?”

“Yeah, you can,”I finally said after much hesitation.

Her face lit up with a bright smile.

She continued with what she was doing until her phone buzzed. Checking the screen, she let out a light chuckle.

I felt suffocated, so I decided to leave.

I returned to my office with a sad look on my face, spending the rest of the day staring blankly into space and watching the clock.

Once it was almost closing time I went to the kitchen, I looked around and there was no sign of her.

It seems she had already left.

"I grabbed my coat from the office and decided to head out for a bit, not that I was going to follow her or anything.

“Where are you going?”Gabriel asked.

“To grab something from someone”I said, dashing out of the restaurant.

I skimmed through lists of expensive date spots, then decided that they were a bit too expensive. She couldn’t afford that kind of luxury right now. I opened I*******m instead, tapping through her stories until the screen illuminated with her face. There she was. A snapshot of a local ice cream parlor, bright and not too expensive but it had good quality.

A slow smile tugged at my lips as I memorized the background.

Minutes later, the engine hummed to life, and I drove the car, heading straight to the ice cream spot.

Before I got into the place, I saw them from the glass wall.

They sat at a table close to the glass wall.

I could see Rose laughing at something he said.

My hands folded into a fist by my side.