"Good!" Wirata said then she walked to James first with the bowl of fried rice in her hands.
"Smell very nice, Miss. " James said to Wirata and she gave him a friendly smile.
"I hope you will like it." She replied and scooped the fried rice and put it on his plate.
"Thanks very much, Miss. " James said.
"You're welcome."
Then She moved to Ben and did the same.
"Thank you very much. it looks delicious and smells amazing." Ben said.
"I peeled the onion and cut tomatoes!"
The boss's voice inserted as if not want to be left out of the conversation causing Ben and James paused and looked up at their boss.
"Wow!" They said one word. The boss held his head up a little.
"It's not easy, you know? " Stefan said, it's true. His eyes still felt sore.
Ben and James hurried to nod in agreement with their high respectful expression,
"Yes, boss."
Then the two looked down to their fried rice to hide their amused smile.
Wirata walked to stand next to Stefan and put some fried rice on his plate, and of course, here was the peak, when she added a lot of squids and chili for him!
Then she came to sit on her chair. Put some fried rice for herself. She saw Stefan was using his fork to stir and his face frowned.
"What is this?! Damn! Squids! Dame! It's really squids! Are you joking?!"
He shouted and sent a daggered look to Wirata.
"I DON'T EAT SQUIDS! " Stefan emphasized each word.
"This is seafood fried rice, it must have squids."
Wirata said with a smooth voice. She gave him a gaze like he was an annoying fly. Stefan twisted his nose as if he was smelling something bad. His face was so moody.
"It's delicious. I like it. James and Ben also like it."
Wirata continued with a straight face. Feeling good for being ironic and provocative to him.
"It stinks!" The harsh voice said, skewed his face like a boy rather than a big mafia.
"I've already cleaned it well. " Wirata argued.
"Still stinks! I hate it."
Stefan argued back, wrinkled his nose when looking at the squids. Wirata shrugged without paying attention to the person who made a displeasure face.
"I said no squids!" He repeated. Wirata put down her spoon, sighed and looked straight into his eyes.
"Do you know democracy, Stefan? This is Amera, land of freedom and democracy and liberty. Three of us like it! " She snapped at him.
"James and Ben, look at your boss. He is behaving like a wayward child, you two are a lot better than him. He's like a baby, very picky and can't eat spicy food. In Thailand, a three-year-old child can eat squid and chili for snacks." Wirata meant to stir him up a little more.
Ben and James winced with a shock and gasped to hear!
Stephan's eyes turned dark at the daring person. Nobody dared to say anything like this to him.
"Who do you think you are, Wirata?! Dare to use this kind of words with me! "
The harsh voice said. He looked at his plate, a lot of rubbery squids and red chili in it! Stefan sneered and looked up at the daring woman.
Ben and James prepared to jump away because if the boss was furious and throwing heavy objects on their way, they would be able to avoid.
But, the two bodyguards opened their mouths and gasped again when seeing the boss staring at the squids as if he hated them since his previous life. He held the knife and the fork tightly made a serious face. Then out of their expectation. the boss cut the squid into small pieces, used the fork to stab it and sent it into his mouth, holding his breath, chewed twice, and swallowed it down his throat quickly! The big hand hurriedly grabbed his glass of wine and drank it to wash the piece in!
"How is it? ... Delicious?"
Wirata asked with a cool voice after watching him eating the thing he hated. He turned to look at her somehow his blue eyes amazingly turned into green eyes!
"Don't forget the rule. Eat it all, people are starving." Wirata reminded him.
"I know your game. Wirata. I'm not stupid! Who do you think you are and what you think you can do to me? People don't call me GODFATHER for nothing! Don't you dare to make me look like a fool. Ben go get more wine!"
Stefan said fiercely. Ben ran out to bring more wine, he could read the boss's mind that, Stefan Mackenzie was always up to any task!
It wasn't only poor people who starved, Stefan was starving too. And now the taste of the fried rice he just had was so delicious! He didn't even taste the squid. So he scooped some more fried rice to put in his mouth and chewed quickly and drank wine after it. These weren't bad steps. He must be really hungry that he found it wasn't bad at all, but the chili hit him hard. Stefan poured more wine in his glass.
He didn't look up, just kept eating and drinking wine and finally, he finished his dish with nothing left on the plate! He washed everything down his throat with wine and used the cloth to wipe his mouth and the sweat off his face.
Ben and James stared at their boss without words. And hurried to eat and finished with clean plates as the rule!
Wirata put her spoon down, drank her orange juice. Looking around with a calm gesture.
"How was it James, Ben?" She asked the bodyguards.
"Very nice, Miss. " Ben said.
"Very delicious." James also responded. They finished their wine. Two bottles of wine, Ben and Jame had only one glass each and the boss drank the rest himself!
Wirata turned to look at Stefan, he crossed his arms and watching her with knowing eyes. His face was ruddy and sweating.
"Now we have to clean the place. " Wirata said.
"I will handle it. " Ben said.
"No, today is the first day, since your boss was messing in the kitchen already so I think he would like to clean the place and the dishes to complete his duty. You two can take the next turn. "
Wirata arranged the schedule.
Stefan scowled his face. He knew she was messing with him.
"I am not doing it. I never do the cleaning and I have no mood to play the game with you."
"It's the second rule of the house and you are the boss, Stefan. The leader that people pay respect to. But you don't respect rules? You eat and you do some cleaning to exchange for the food. That's what we will do here from now on."
"I said I never do it! I don't know-how! I have a housemaid that is the rule here."
Stefan said with an impatient voice. His face was stern and felt very unhappy.
"You don't know how? So that's a good opportunity for you to learn. No one knows everything from the mother's womb. You are the boss. Basic skills like this you should learn to know. Who knows, someday it might be useful to you. A smart and capable person shouldn't be useless in every case. Someday, if there is no one to hand your shoes, what would you do?" Wirata made another long speech to stir up his mood. And it seemed to work. He was so far so bad.
"Bloody hell! I don't have you here to lecture me, Wirata. Are you finished?"
Stefan said with no more patience left. He skewed his face thinking if she was in a teacher mode or what, to lecture him in front of his men like he was a schoolboy like this. She really wasn't aware of who she was dealing with.
"Alright then. If you aren't capable, just go."
She said and got up, gathered the plates and carried them to the sinks.
"I'll do it with the dishwasher, Miss. " James said And helped her to carry everything to the sinks.
"There weren't that many, I can do by the hands. I am capable of."
Wirata said without glancing at the boss.
Stefan stood up to the full height. The tall figure walked to where she was rinsing the dirty plates and equipment in the double-sinks.
"Between you and me, it's going to be a lot of things to sort out! Who do you think you are?! I am not a child, don't you dare to speak to me like this! "
The harsh voice said with a furious expression. He stood near and watched her. Wirata tilted her head to look up at him without fear. They stared at each other without blinking.
Ben and James didn't hesitate to walk out of the kitchen to get out of the danger. The way they looked at each other. The bodyguards knew that the boss was so mad, the level of anger was at the sky-high!
Wirata shrugged, the mission to stir up his mood was successful! She rinsed the plates under the water.
"Just go outside, Stefan, since you are not capable of basic skills like this."
Wirata said with a calm voice and that really pushed Stefan's button. His patience had reached its limited point.
"I'm capable of anything! Give me a sponge now!"
Ben and James heard the angry voice of the boss snapped loudly.
They turned to look at each other.
"Holy God! She's really capable of stripping his egos." Ben said.
"But he won't let her strip him alone. He's capable of stripping, too, and maybe a little faster at the very specific task." James said. And they were laughing to the entertaining night.