Meal Management

I grabbed an extra work meal to entertain a client. My boyfriend's sister saw it and went ballistic, docking my entire $500K commission. She pointed at my nose and screamed, "Are you taking me for a fool? You're just hiding behind 'client entertainment' to rip off the company! It's shameful, damaging the company's image! All of your commission for this month will be deducted as a warning to others." The client looked at me, wide-eyed in shock. I shrugged. "Do what makes you happy. Just don't regret it later." From then on, I started slacking off, and she freaked out.

I check on family businesses in the countryside with my girlfriend, Mildred McClure, in tow. At noon, we stop by my uncle, Barron Cortez's, place for a simple lunch. Just as we are getting ready to leave, his new wife, whom he married just six months ago, Hilda Ross, rushes out and demands that we settle the bill. "Elden, you two just had the Supreme Farmhouse Set Meal, which is 1,888.80 dollars, and your girlfriend picked three organic, pesticide-free tomatoes in the garden. That's 199.80 dollars. "With an 80% service charge, your total comes to 3,800 dollars." Mildred is stunned. "Elden, do we have to pay to eat at your uncle's place?" I start to feel embarrassed, and my expression darkens as I look at Hilda, my supposed aunt, who's barely any older than me. "I've grown up eating at my uncle's place and never paid a single penny. Besides, your prices are downright outrageous!" Hilda calmly whips out a price menu and righteously declares, "That's all ancient history. Now, we're running a farmhouse business where all prices are clearly marked, so everyone pays the same rate. "Barron said you're some big boss in the city. Surely you're not going to stiff us over a little bill, are you?" She steps in front of the gate to block the exit with her body and shoots me a contemptuous look. "Even family settles their accounts. If you don't pay up today, don't even dream about stepping through this door!" While Mildred panics, I laugh in disbelief before taking out my phone and dialing Barron's number. "Uncle Barron, Hilda wants to settle accounts between family, so don't you think it's time we settled our accounts too?"

Jack Cooke—my husband, who'd never so much as scrambled an egg—suddenly went full kitchen freak. He bought a ton of pots and spatulas, then spent all day just... polishing them. When I called him out, he shrugged. "I like things clean. That a crime now?" Behind him? A mountain of dirty socks. Then it got weirder. He dragged all the kitchen stuff into our bedroom. At night, he'd get weird with a dishcloth. Like, disturbingly weird. I was done. I asked for a divorce. Jack stormed into a private dining room and shredded the papers right in front of our investors. "You're seriously ending our marriage over this? Kinda dramatic, don't you think?" I didn’t blink. “I gave up my spot for your pots and pans. A little thanks wouldn’t kill you.”

I set up a company cafeteria for employees with an abundant meal daily worth 150 dollars per person. Meals are prepared by a world-renowned master chef. Every day, I only ask my employees to contribute a token of one dollar. Instead of gratitude, all I get is their envy of the neighboring company. "I wish we had that. Their healthy lunches cost them nothing, and the company covers everything." "Yeah. Free salads always seem to taste the best." Before long, this chatter spreads through the office, and the new hires carry it into the company's group chat. "Mr. Shaw, can we switch things up? All this rich, heavy food is just too much for us!" A few of the senior employees quickly jump in. "Yes, Mr. Shaw! We're not asking for anything extravagant. We only want something like the healthy lunches the other company gives out for free!" Perfect. They ignore my lavish 150-dollar meals that cost them almost nothing, yet they pine over the neighboring company's modest lunches. I scroll through the chat, feeling nothing but sharp irony. I immediately send a company-wide email. "Attention, everyone! By popular demand, and so you can all experience a truly free lunch, the cafeteria's daily meal is reduced from abundant to simple starting today. "Snacks and fruit options are discontinued and replaced with the same healthy lunch set offered by the neighboring company. The company will cover the full cost. Enjoy your meal!"

Meeting me is for fate, having you is what I have always wanted. The first time she went to the bar, Rose encountered a pervert, watching his horrible smile shield her feeling very uncomfortable. Fortunately, there was a handsome guy who helped you get rid of his claws. But it seemed that this handsome guy was a bit arrogant, yes, she just wanted to invite him a meal as a thank you but that disdainful attitude made her very angry. The second time I bumped into him during the viewing, his impression on her seemed a little changed, he was a cold outsider in the heat that made her lonely heart beat throughout her 23 skies. At the same time, her recent manuscript was rejected by her management because she couldn't feel the love of the character, so the water pushed the boat she risked sawing down the handsome general within a month. Thanks to her best friend's ingenious military master, she created bad stories crying and laughing during the process of sawing.

Prem is a Tourism Management student in Ateneo de Iligan who faces problems in her family but not until she found herself sick which also leads in meeting Isia an Architecture student.

When Brynn lands a sudden, great job at a management company in New Beerenland, she revels in the fact that she has made it. A great job means the end of all the financial atrocities: no sharing apartments, no ex-drama, no checking the menu before ordering. With the perks of managing a private management agency, she gets the occasional run-in with royalty hosting their public engagements and managing how they appear to the general republic. Enter Ryker Glucksberg, a prince who runs his eyes down all over Brynn’s body and can’t seem to keep her off his mind. They meet, and sparks fly. Brynn doesn’t believe in love. Ryker is not the prince who wants to settle down. And then zero in on the institution that will do everything in its power to keep them apart or bring them together?

Sahithi, a girl of eighteen, joins a boarding school for girls that is run by strict management with strange rules. She has to graduate in order to inherit unlimited wealth. Will she manage to do that, or will she buckle under the hardships and give up? This story contains spanking and other content that is not suitable for underage readers. Reader discretion is advised.

After a team building event, my colleague, Matthew Wells, gives me a ride to the company so I can work overtime. That very night, his girlfriend throws a fit and claims I'm a homewrecker who tried to seduce Matthew. She even produces edited photos of us being intimate. The company's management speaks to Matthew and me—he claims I regularly harass him and pushes the blame on me. The management labels me as a troublemaker and fires me. My apprentice tries to speak up for me but gets bullied and sidelined. Ultimately, she quits out of depression. I charge over to the company to seek justice for my apprentice but accidentally get pushed down a staircase during an argument. I land with my head on the ground and die on the spot. When I open my eyes again, I'm reborn and taken back to when Matthew's girlfriend starts throwing a fit.

Have you ever fall in love with an unexpected man in an unexpected time? If yes, then you have the same situation with Alyanna Yvonne Bautista, a Financial Management major student of University of Nueva Caceres, who have fallen in love with his unexpected lovely man named Lace Martin Guererro, an Accountancy student of Ateneo de Naga University