Chapter 2

Lucy's persistent cajoling wore me down. In the end, I agreed to it.

"This time, why don't you guys transfer the money to me beforehand? If there's extra at the end, I'll return the money to you guys," I suggested.

Lucy's lips twitched. She was still smiling, but her words were a little biting.

"I thought you considered us your friends, Jess. I guess we were the only ones who thought that," Lucy said.

I furrowed my brows. In the past, the grocery bill only ever came up to a few hundred dollars per meal. But this time, it would be a few thousand, at least. I'd have to be a fool to front the money without giving it any thought.

All I could say was, "I've been financially tight lately. I don't think I'll have enough to cover the groceries."

With a look of realization, Lucy said apologetically, "Sorry about that, Jess. I misunderstood you. I'll definitely come by earlier this Sunday to help you!"

That night, Lucy began messaging away in the group chat we had with our colleagues. She asked everyone if they had any food preferences before also asking everyone to pay up in advance.

As I scrolled through the lively chat, the discomfort I felt eased a little.

…

Lucy showed up late on Sunday. She claimed to have been held up, and I didn't think much about it.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food very much. When the meal was over, I wanted to transfer the extra money back to them, but they all said it was fine. They even gave me an extra 500 dollars each.

Smiling widely, Lucy said it was just a token of appreciation from everyone.

I felt quite touched by that.

Later that night, after cleaning up the kitchen, I finally managed to sit down and get some rest. Just then, Lucy added my personal number to a group chat that was named "Matured Investment Withdrawal".

When I first started working, I had foolishly used my personal number as my work number as well. After Maisie had roasted me for that, I got myself a new number and used that as my work number instead. My colleagues also made the switch and used the work number to get in touch with me.

Therefore, I didn't understand why my personal number had been added to a group chat about some kind of matured investment withdrawal.

I didn't have any sort of financial investments.

I figured Lucy might've forgotten about this number of mine and added me by mistake. Just as I was about to privately message her about it, she sent a document to the group.

It detailed every single time my colleagues had gathered at my place for a meal, the cost of the ingredients each time, and the records of the transfers they made.

If I hadn't seen this document, I wouldn't have realized that, in the last three years, my colleagues had eaten over 40 meals at my place.

Some of these had been for festive celebrations, and others were for celebrating one of my colleagues' promotions. They would always thoroughly enjoy the food and ask to get together again next time.

I couldn't help but marvel at how close and friendly we'd been as colleagues.

But soon after that, Lucy sent a voice message to the group chat.

"According to our laws, it's illegal to conduct a catering business without a license. If the value of the provided service exceeds 10,000 dollars, the fine is basically 20 times that amount. We can use this standard to demand compensation from Jessica."

The smugness and malice in her voice made my mind go completely blank.

More and more voice messages from her kept popping up.

"Not only can we get back all the money we gave her for the groceries in the past, but every one of us can get tens of thousands of dollars extra.

"We would've gotten peanuts if we'd left that money, which is only about a thousand dollars each, in a bank account. We're going to make a killing from giving it to Jessica instead. You guys should really thank me, you know. You wouldn't be making so much money if I hadn't suggested this back then."

Lucy even taught everyone how to pressure me into giving them the money. She sent a whole bunch of rules and regulations for the food industry.

"Make sure you familiarize yourself with all of these rules, guys. You'd better not mess up at the last minute, yeah? We even gave her extra in the end just to make sure the total reached 10,000 dollars."

I flipped through the document again and looked at the total amount they'd given me for groceries over the last three years.