Touch the Billionaire

Chapter 5

Rosetta just took a note of what Yuri wanted while the latter glanced at his two quiet companions—one with the circle beard with bulkier build and short hair, in his late thirties, and the other in his forties, well-muscled, bald and with a goatee.

“Sergei? Igor?” Yuri prompted.

“Orange juice,” Sergei muttered with a straight face.

Rosetta could not almost believe it, thinking he wasn’t a juice kind of man, but she jotted it down.

“Sparkling water for me, little miss,” Igor spoke with a tight smile, but it was gone in a second like it wasn’t there.

Rosetta nodded, wondering if she heard it right. “Water?”

Seriously? Not vodka or something?

“Sparkling water, little miss,” Igor repeated.

She thus also wrote it down on her pad. “Anything else, sirs?”

“None for now,” the most friendly one answered.

She quickly excused herself after telling them to wait for at least half an hour. She almost dashed to the kitchen to give the order to their kitchen staff to prepare and ask their voluptuous middle-aged manager what the best Filipino cocktail was. She was grateful the other woman was not there when the incident happened or she would have been scolded by now. But she was sure that Karen already knew what happened, and Rosetta had to pay for all of it. She already braced herself anyways.

“What does it matter if you don’t know, Rosetta? You have a list there in the menu. You can just choose the most expensive one!” Karen pointed out.

Her mouth hung open, and their manager left the kitchen. Angelie pulled her in the corner and whispered conspiratorially, “I know what to do if he asked what’s best for you. You can just create one. I’ll take care of Jojo.”

“But…”

“Come on! Isn’t this fun?” Angelie grinned. Her round face brightened.

They approached the ever-so-busy Jojo, the mixologist and the chef’s assistant. He showed them where the drinks and everything were placed, and they started to experiment while the staff did their respective jobs, teasing Rosetta.

“Why do you care what’s the best? Ma’am Karen was right. You could’ve just randomly placed the order if you have no idea, Rosetta,” Jojo said. “The customer wouldn’t know anyway. You’re way too honest, you know?”

Rosetta frowned at the thiry-ish moreno guy while Angelie mixed gin and pomelo, calamansi juice, honey and orange.

“I think it’s time for me to know different cocktails anyway,” she reasoned. Her friend let her taste it, and she shook her head. “I think it’s good, but this is way too simple… or common rather?”

Angelie shared it with the rest of the staff, enjoying the taste. She made another one, which was called Negros Mojito. It was a mix of orange juice, calamansi juice, sugar syrup, rum, gin and mint. Rosetta shook her head upon tasting the sweet and spicy drink.

“I think he’s not this type of guy, but I suppose we should try this one.” She started making her own mix of lambanog—a traditional Filipino distilled palm liquor made from coconut or nipa palm sap—as the base, mixed with vodka, rum, triple sec, fresh mango and pineapple juice.

Mixing drinks seemed to be easy for Jojo, since he studied it for a few months. Rosetta already watched him do it countless times. Maybe what she was doing now was fine. Now, she stirred the mixed yellow liquid and sipped to taste it.

Angelie and the others could only gape at her.

“Ohh!” She smiled upon tasting the cool, frothy and thick drink. “I think this is the best!”

Jojo and Angelie exchanged glances.

***

As Alyona never stopped pestering Yuri for a week despite what he said to her, he finally decided to take an indefinite vacation in a tropical country, somewhere on an island where he thought she could not find him. He kept his destination a secret even from his own family, saying instead he was going on a business trip to Canada. This must keep him at peace while he was away from them. He just let Adrik tag along, with his bodyguards. He thought his friend was too happy to oblige. He knew very well Adrik would love an adventure with him.

Since Igor and he knew how to fly a plane, it was only the four of them who took this trip. He had no need of another staff since Sergei was also a capable cook. It was a bit of a challenge though upon touching ground on the short landing strip of Dumaguete airport. Seawater was right on its edge. They were glad they could take on such a surprise dare upon learning it.

It was Adrik himself who chose the so-called Exotic Sunny Resort. It was complete with amenities and offered a good deal for rental car, which had GPS on it. Sergei volunteered to be their driver; hence, he was not allowed to drink but only at night when they were back in their respective rooms. As for Igor, he minded his job as one of the bodyguards, so he wouldn’t drink while on duty.

Yuri already knew how dedicated these two to him, so he always felt safe whenever they were around.

That night upon arriving and checking in at the resort hotel, they went to the restaurant to have dinner. And just as they stepped in, his eyes were readily magnetized by a server girl clad in red shirt and black jeans, holding a tray filled with food, soup and drinks. He wondered how she could carry all those at the same time, with that little frame of hers.

He saw how it happened. In his opinion, that old hag was just too careless if not inconsiderate. It wasn’t like him at all but he thought there was something in the girl that tugged at his heart. As they took a table in a corner, with four menu copies on it, he was still unable to take his eyes off her as she cleaned up the mess. One of the waitresses came to help the poor girl, who apologized to the older woman earlier and to the customers she was supposed to serve the food and drinks with.

“Hmm… What’s so interesting that you’re not checking out the menu, Yuri? I thought you were hungry and can’t wait to try anything that’s Filipino, huh?” Adrik quietly inquired in his playful tone. His friend followed the direction where Yuri’s eyes were fixated on. “Hmm… Interesting, indeed.”

Just as the girl finished with the two customers, his friend Adrik raised his hand to get the girl’s attention. He pretended to study the menu while his companions checked it. Since the words just danced right before his eyes, he instead asked the girl what to order. She was even surprised he wanted to have everything she mentioned. He thought it was amusing. Her innocent and beautiful face was priceless to behold.

Rosetta. Rosetta. His mind whispered her name as though he wanted to say it over and over again. He loved her name. But was it her real name? He knew there are times servers wouldn’t use their real names.

Since Yuri loved cocktails, he would love to taste the local ones. But he wanted to know what her favorite was though. For some reason.

He watched her as she served the two tanned blondes that looked his way a number of times. He didn’t notice, though. Adrik just told him, teasing him he should get laid tonight. He just ignored his jesting. And nagging. His friend knew well he was suffering such a psychological condition, but still, he couldn’t escape from his friendly teasing.

“I hope you enjoy the food and drinks,” Rosetta said to them with a smile, after telling them which is which. Her chocolate brown eyes bumped with Yuri’s before she left them.

He and the others looked at their table filled with mouth-watering food. They smelled good and looked totally delectable. He tried the sisig, thinking it was good and so was the rest. He watched his friend and bodyguards enjoy the food as well, making comments now and then.

Because he was able to concentrate when she went to the kitchen a while ago, he checked the menu. Now his eyes fell to the tall glass of gold-colored cocktail, which Rosetta called Golden Well. He remembered the cocktail’s name was nowhere to be found in the menu.

Did she just make this up or what? he thought with amusement.

He held the glass and began to sip its content, finding it sweet, frothy and refreshing. In a weird way, it seemed to touch something deep inside him.

Rosetta’s Golden Well, I think you’re my favorite cocktail now.