My Cruel Boss Wants Me

Chapter 10: The Aftermath

When Elisse got home, she put away the supplies she bought before taking a short nap on the couch. The nap went longer than intended and she cursed herself when she realized that it’s already dark outside. She then proceeded to whip up a quick aglio e olio just to satiate her hunger. 

She looked at her phone while eating and was disappointed when she still hasn’t heard from Eric back. She started thinking if it was just a one-night stand for him. She’s not the kind of girl that sleeps around or has one-night stands. She can’t help but curse at herself for giving in to her desires on the first date. He was just so irresistible and she craved for the human touch.

Thinking of what happened, though, she can’t say that she’s sorry. s*x with Eric was beyond incredible. Even if it doesn’t happen again, she’ll have the memory of the time they spent together to hold on to.

She shrugged it off, and decided to stop obsessing about it for now. She prepared the ingredients for her muffins. She plans to make chocolate, blueberry and banana-flavored ones. The good thing about not having a job is that she doesn’t have a schedule to follow and she can stay up as late as she wants and sleep whenever she wants. It didn’t really matter that she overslept earlier.

She c****d her tab and turned it  on to look at the recipes so she won’t miss anything. She also wants to play some music videos to get her in the mood. She has a playlist of some of her favorite K-Pop songs on YouTube so she decided to play it. She finished mixing the batter for the chocolate muffin and scooped portions on the muffin liners on the tin. She put the tin on the preheated oven and set the time. She was about to start working on the blueberry muffin batter when she received a call on Skype.

She paused the song that’s currently playing and checked on who the caller might be. She saw that it’s Melissa, her eldest sister. She answered the call and adjusted the tab to make sure that she’s in the frame.

Melissa: “Hey sis, how are you?” 

Her sister greeted Elisse as soon as she came on the screen. Elisse can see her nephew and niece eating breakfast in the background. She was smiling before she replied.

Elisse: “Hey, I’m fine, how are you? I see that Mike and Molly are already awake.”

Melissa: “Well, they’re just getting ready for school. Are you baking?”

Melissa was surprised when she saw her sister holding a spatula with what appears to be mixing bowls and baking ingredients on the counter.

Elisse: “Yes, I am. I’m making three kinds of muffins.”

Melissa: “I’m glad you’re baking again. I really miss your coconut macaroons, I can’t find them anywhere here.” 

Melissa knew how much Elisse loved baking, and how she wasn’t able to do it anymore when their parents got sick. She felt guilty when her youngest sister was left alone to take care of their parents during this time. She is happy that her sister is getting back to doing what she loved.

Elisse: “My coconut macaroons are to die for. I’m even thinking of starting a baking business while I’m not working yet.” 

Elisse has always been proud of her baked goods. Although she’s just a home baker, those who’ve tasted it have been asking her to bake for them, even offering to pay her, but she couldn’t commit to it at the time.

After she submitted her jobs applications earlier, she formulated a plan to start up the business if she hasn’t gotten any replies in a week. She can just do it while waiting since she has a lot of free time in her hands.

Melissa: “That sounds good. Just let me know how I can help.” 

Melissa has always been supportive of her youngest sister. Even after moving to the US, she’s never failed to support her in any means possible. She’s always pampered her as well with gifts even if she doesn’t ask for it and claims that she doesn’t need them. 

Elisse has never been materialistic, and has always been happy and content with what her family has given her throughout the years. This is why she didn’t mind taking care of her parents and never resented her sisters for not being there with her at the time. She knew that if they could, they would be there.

Melissa: “Anyway, sis, the reason I’m calling is because I need a favor. We have a Condo unit in BGC that the sellers will be turning over, I just need you to sign for it and check the unit. I’ll be sending the papers you need to authorize you to do that. Is that okay?”

Elisse: “Of course, I would do that for you. Just let me know when you need me to go there.”

Melissa: “I’ll be hearing from them this week and let you know right away. Thanks, sis.”

After this, Melissa talked about her kids and her husband. They even talked about their other sister, Janice. Melissa had to go since the kids are done eating and she still needs to drive them to school. Before saying goodbye, she made sure to have her sister promise her to get in touch regularly and call her any day and anytime if she needs to.

When they dropped the call, Elisse felt so happy. Despite the long distance, her sisters never fail to make their presence felt. Although she’s alone in the house, she’s grateful that she has people she can turn to when she needs them.

She resumed playing her K-Pop playlist. The oven dinged indicating that her muffins were done baking,  just as ‘Left and Right’ from ‘Seventeen’ started playing.

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Elisse is lying in bed and is about to go to sleep. She decided to post on i********: some of the pictures she took of the chocolate chip cookies and muffins that she baked. She baked too much and made a mental note that she’ll be sending some muffins to Hannah tomorrow. She browsed through her newsfeed and reacted to some of her friends’ posts.

Before putting her phone down, she checked if Eric had sent any message, but there was none. She was a little disappointed but not enough to lose any sleep over it. As she was about to turn off the side lamps, her phone rang. She picked the phone up and noticed that it’s from a number in the US, but not she does not recognize the area code. She knows the area code for San Francisco  and Los Angeles where her sisters lived. She decided to ignore the call and just go to sleep.

She has barely gone to sleep when she dreamt of someone screaming at her from behind. She seems to be sitting in an office desk, with tons of papers stacked in front of her.  She kept on working to lower the stack but people kept coming and piling on top of it while a man kept screaming at her, ordering her to work faster.

She started panicking until she couldn’t take it anymore. She picked up the papers, stood up, turned around and threw them to the man who was screaming. When the papers hit the ground, he saw a faceless man, screaming at her “Elisse!”

She woke up startled, and was sweating a little. She thought about her stranger dream and what it could mean. She almost jumped off her bed when she heard someone calling her “Elisse!” while banging.

She looked at the clock and saw that it was three o’clock in the morning. The banging continued until she realized that someone was calling at her from outside the house. She looked at the window and saw Eric outside, looking drunk. He is banging on the gate while shouting “Elisse!”

She went downstairs right away to open the gate. She’s worried that her neighbors might wake up and complain about the noise, but at the same time curious as to why Eric is outside her house at this ungodly hour.

Once Eric was inside the house, Elisse led him to the couch and closed the door. She didn’t see his car outside, so he might have taken an Uber to her house. She had a lot of questions for him, but he didn’t seem like in any condition to answer any of them. She just let him sleep it off on the couch, since he’s too heavy for her to bring to any room upstairs. She took off his shoes, placed a pillow behind his head and laid a blanket on top of him. She puts a glass of water on the side table in case he gets thirsty when he wakes up.

She turns off the light and goes to her bedroom to resume her sleep.