Lea woke up next morning. Was not at all happy. Mind was brooding over a lot many thoughts, especially regarding how to buy sweets for the kids. She at first thought of giving all of them a lunch. She had to reduce this to presenting them with snacks because of low budget. Now she cannot even buy the chocolates.
I will borrow some money from the Manager.... Then only I can do this. She decided.
The shop she went yesterday was on the way to her office. When she reached the shop, her gaze went inside the bakery, to the chocolates there. She stood there for a moment.
The tall man who she met yesterday was sitting there today also, but in the cashier area.
Oh, he is the cashier here. She just turned away and moved forward.
When she was about to reach the turn, she felt someone is following her.
'Who can that be, Oh God, Save me' She increased her speed. Still she had a tendency to look back. She stopped there and turned to see who it is with all her courage.
'It was him, the tall figure at the cash'
"Hi, I thought I should gift you this, have a nice day" telling this, he handed her a bag. She was struck dumb for a moment. 'What sort of intro is this? This guy might have though I am craving for chocolates. Is that the reason why he followed me and gave this. This is not fair. I should behave more cautiously. It is true that I stood there for a some time looking at the chocolates. He might thought me as a beggar???'
She looked at the packet he gave her. It contains a lot of chocolates. Initially she thought of giving that pack back to him. When she saw the chocolates, she was a bit reluctant to give that back because smiles of a lot of children came to her mind. She smiled.
"Thank you"
She unpacked this. The man just smiled at her. "I am Micheal. This is my shop. I know you like them much. Taste them and tell me if it is good. Take is as my friendship gift"
"I am Lea. Working in a nearby office as a clerk"
'No idea why, may be because she was all alone in her life, when Micheal spoke to her in a friendly way, she was happy and responded according to the flow.
"How much this costs?"
"why? you want to know the cost of a gift?.. We used to remove the price tag when we gifts someone... This is such an era and you want to know the price?"
"No Mr Michael, actually I don't have much money to buy this now. This is not for me but for my relatives. I thought I should pay you back when I get next salary."