Gauhar's POV
I grinned mischievously at Bill "So Miss favourite ex employ, are you ready to work hard to pay off the massive bill I'm going to produce today?"
Bill groaned, dragging a hand down her face before leaning forwards and narrowing her eyes "Shut up Gauhar."
I felt a strange satisfaction and happiness as I watched someone as hard headed as Wilhelmina let me have the upper hand, all because she cared for me and wanted me to smile. Even if that meant she had to work her arse off for the tyrant that Mrs Abercrombie is.
"Not helping your case.'' I gave her a smile so sweet it'd make her bitter black coffee taste like sugar syrup, as I sipped the warm coffee, feeling the warmth from the hot drink spread throughout out my body making me feel tingly all over.
I rested my chin on my hand as I looked at the board on which the menu for today was written down in chalk "I think I want the chocolate cake, maybe a slice of the matcha cake, the tiramisu and of course I can't forget about getting the pain au chocolat."
"You gonna eat ALL that woman!? You'll get fat and not to mention it's extremely unhealthy" she reminded me in a worried tone, her eyes nearly bulging out of the sockets as she calculated on her fingers how much all that would cost.
Knowing that her worry stemmed more out of concern for her own wallet losing weight than me gaining it, I batted my eyelashes at her tapping my chin as I contemplated what else to order.
"Don't care." I sipped my coffee, enjoying her panic.
Seeing her grit her teeth in irritation I added in a warning tone "I may also order something more, but for now this is what I want. And don't you worry about me getting fat, I'll work out to get rid of it."
"Will you consider letting go of a few of those cakes if I make you an offer?" she looked hopefully at me, her grey eyes shining with hope and making her look like an adorable puppy.
Hardening myself against her cuteness I shrugged, running my finger along the rim of my cup "It depends on what you have to offer."
I could feel the pity inside me, reprimanding me for making the poor girl so uncomfortable, but reason, my saviour reminded me that this was retribution for the many nights I had to stay awake helping her out during exams.
I deserved a bit of a treat, and my curiosity was also incessantly nudging me to give in. I knew that Bill had the best gossip in the entire college, and I couldn't give up on the opportunity to just forget about all my problems and just indulge in some good old, to put it politely 'consumption of hot tea'.
"Hmmm" I said taking a long sip of my coffee, pretending to contemplate her offer "You know I'm a really good girl, I don't indulge in gossip." I put on the most dignified expression I could muster, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Ah will you stop with your bullshiet Gauhar? Drop the holier than thou attitude and just give in, I promise you won't regret it."
Ah how I enjoyed being 'forced' to indulge in something that I really really wanted to indulge in.
Putting on a magnanimous air, I leaned back into my chair, smirking at her "Alright then Billy Bill go ahead and shoot, let's see what you've got. If it's not really good, I promise you I'll order the entire goddamn menu, and you'll have to pay."
She tucked a strand of her golden hair behind her ear, steepling her fingers on the table she looked more as if she was about to make a business proposition to me instead of sharing the sordid details of someone's scandalous and infinitely more dramatic life.
"Do you know Mr. Weatherby?" she looked intently at me and I had the strongest urge to hit her on the head to remind her that I attended the torture of his classes along with her.
But I controlled myself and nodded my head, silently urging her to continue whatever information she had regarding the most infuriating and insensitive professor that we had the misfortune of having.
She rubbed her hands and leaned closer to me, a smile appearing on her fierce but beautiful face "He's leaving the college."
I sucked in a startled breath, unable to believe our good fortune. Surely this was a lie, I couldn't allow myself to believe something as amazing as that was going to happen "Stop lying to me Bill, I can't dare to believe that that man would ever leave the job. If he could get married to it, I'm quite sure he would already have made it his wife."
She seemed to be enjoying my disbelief as her grey eyes sparkled with amusement, the huge grin on her face showing off the braces on her teeth "That's the thing though, he's got a better offer somewhere else and he couldn't let go of that, of course, so he decided to break up with this one."
She took a complacent breath and leaned against the back of her chair, placing her hands behind her head to make herself more comfortable, enjoying my surprise the same way a connoisseur of wine enjoyed a vintage. She looked as if she was sure she had managed to convince me to not buy the entire menu, and she was right.
This news was freaking amazing.
I gulped down the last of my coffee and placed the cup on the table, the grin on my face mirroring the one decorating Bill's face "I think I feel kinda bad for his future students, but god knows how happy I am that I won't have to listen to his relentless droning and stay up the entire weekend to get his assignments done."
"Well yes, and the best thing is that we didn't even have to kill to get rid of him. Sometimes...just sometimes I really do love my luck."
She jumped up suddenly, her eyes dancing in excitement as she remembered something amazing "I forgot to tell you, the new professor that has been appointed to us is apparently quite young, so yay for us."
"Where on earth are you getting all this information from?"
She smiled mysteriously at me, her eyes dancing as she enjoyed my cluelessness "Ah well a professional doesn't give away his or in my case her secrets now, does she? Especially since I've found out they can be quite helpful to get me out of sticky situations."
"Don't tell me Bill!" I stared at her with widened eyes, trying to emulate the best expression of shock that I could muster.
She furrowed her eyebrows "Okay I won't tell you….but what exactly do you not want me to enlighten you about?"
"You are dating someone from the college faculty aren't you? There's no other way you could find out about stuff like this." I placed both my palms on my mouth in mock horror, my eyes watching her intently for any tells that would prove that my speculation was correct.
A loud suction of breath caused us both to turn our attention behind me, where Natalie was standing, her green eyes so much like her mom staring at us with a look of betrayal on her face.
"Willie has a boyfriend? Why did she never tell me, is she not my best friend anymore?" I could clearly see the signs of tears in her eyes and her bottom lip had jutted out, so I braced myself for the upcoming show of waterworks.
Bill quickly got up, wrapping an arm around the little girl she passed an angry reproachful look at me. I could only shrug in response, watching how the usually rude and sometimes scary girl comforted the little girl.
"I'm not dating anyone at all Natters. I promise you that you'll be the first person I would tell once I get one." She looked earnestly at Natalie, before hugging her.
I always marvelled at how someone so cold and abrasive to others could be so warm and affectionate to the people they loved, but I knew why Bill was the way that she was and it always made me feel grateful to be one of the people she cared about, not that I would ever let her know that. It would inflate her already humongous ego, and I still wanted her to be able to pass through doors without getting stuck.
"Haru I have something for you." Natalie said, looking up at me with her large green eyes. She rummaged in the pocket of her bright pink frock, as we both watched her intently.
She took out a bunch of purple blossoms, and my eyes widened as I realised that they were lilacs. She smiled shyly at me as she handed them to me.
"Hey! Why does she get all the good stuff? I need those flowers as well." Bill called out, crossing her arms like a spoilt child.
Natalie looked apologetically at her and shook her head before looking up at me, and there was something in her eyes that made me choke up "I brought these for Haru, because I want her to give these to her Dad who is in the hospital. I think he will feel happy if he saw them." She looked down and wiped the tears that had fallen from her eyes "I think my dad would have been happy if someone had been there to give him those flowers when he was sick as well."
The sadness and sincerity in her eyes caused a searing pain to engulf my chest and I enveloped her in an embrace, feeling ashamed as I fervently hoped that I didn't have to go through what this little child had, I didn't want to lose my father.
I felt like a coward as I allowed this little child to comfort me, her presence imbuing me with strength.
As I pulled away from her I found that she was smiling at me, I clutched the flowers to my chest as I kissed her on the cheek "I'll make sure to tell my baba that you wished him to get well soon, I'm sure he'll love the flowers."
Her face brightened up at my words. She suddenly smacked her head as she started to rummage in her pockets for something, before taking out a fistful of what appeared to be brightly wrapped candies,
"And I brought this for you, I know that you were sad so I thought about what would make you the happiest, but I didn't know what grown ups liked." She looked down at her blue sneakers, tugging at the belt of her frock "So I brought you what would make me the happiest."
I took a deep breath to stop myself from crying, before taking the candies from her hand, holding both her small hands in mine I kissed them "This is exactly the thing that would make me happy Natalie, I loved it, thank you so much."
The smile that appeared on her face upon my words made my heart warm up with happiness, and it was only when Bill swiped her thumb across my cheek that I realised that I was crying.