Her eyes peered down at Lucy as if she will strangle her friend. She clenched her hand and spoke with gritted teeth, "I asked you to help me find a decent job and not a wrestling job!"
"And that is what I did," Lucy replied with a smile etched on her lips.
Seeing the nonchalant look and the smile on Lucy's face infuriated Seraphina more. "What do you mean it is what you did? Are you telling me a wrestling job is a decent work for a lady?!"
Lucy blinked at Seraphina in confusion and then scrunched her brows in question, "What wrestling job are you talking about?"
"Oh, Seraphina. You should stop getting annoyed easily. Look, you are all red." Lucy teased with a giggle. "Who said I found you a wrestling job? I'm hurt. You don't even trust me." She placed her hand on her chest in pretense.
Seraphina blew a tired air from her mouth. She facepalmed and lamented, "I should have known the type of person and friend I have. What was I expecting?"
Lucy frowned "You bring me low, Phina. Look at the exquisite place and job I found for you, where you will work and earn fat salaries, yet you speak and think so low of me."
Seraphina snapped out of her daze. "What exquisite place? A wrestling job? If I had known, I wouldn't have come out with y…" Seraphina's words died in her mouth when she finally saw the place Lucy had been looking at since they stopped walking.
There on the signboard was a job notice of the perfect and suitable job she had been looking forward to getting. And now she was seeing it, she suddenly squealed,
"Oh, Lucy! Why didn't tell me that this is the job you were talking about? You always make me get annoyed unnecessarily."
"Oh, Seraphina!" Lucy mimicked "You don't always let me finish speaking before you jump in to chop my head and ears off!"
Seraphina rolled her eyes at Lucy, "I know why you always do this. You always want to see my reactions."
"I'm glad you know that." Lucy chuckled and grabbed Seraphina's hand "Come on, let's go inside and see how it goes."
Seraphina nodded and followed Lucy to the place where the signboard was placed.
Reaching the entrance and a little more inside the building, a young boy sat behind the desk with an oversized spectacle that hung on the bridge of his small nose. He looked below 15 years.
Lucy knocked on the desk to get his attention. She spoke, "Excuse me, we are here concerning the job vacancy that was stated on the signboard outside."
The knocking of Lucy's hand on the desk and the way she hastily spoke startled the young boy. He quickly raised his head which made his spectacle almost drop from the support of his nose.
"Hello! Welcome to the…" The boy began and abruptly stopped speaking when he saw the Ladies standing in front of his desk. Weren't this the town's Belle and her friend? What were they doing here? Did they come…
Before he could go on in his internal fantasy, Lucy snapped her fingers in his face. "Wake up boy. We don't have all day to spend here."
"Ahem…" The boy nervously cleared his throat and began his introduction again in his business-like tone that sounded like a young boy that was forcing himself to have a deep voice. "Welcome to the law firm of Mr. Hasbrouck. This is a place where all…"
"Stop the introduction, boy. We know what this place is for. We came to inquire about the job vacancy. Is it still available?"
"Yes, my lady. The job vacancy is available. In fact, you're among the first to inquire about it." He spoke in his best voice trying to impress the ladies with his best behavior.
"Is that so? That means we have a great chance to be the ones to get the job?" Lucy asked with a thoughtful look.
"Most definitely, my lady." The boy replied with a respectful bow.
"Hmm," Lucy hummed "That is good then. What are the procedures to be followed?"
"Uhm…about that. Let me bring you the form you have to fill out." The boy said and quickly bent his head under the desk. He opened the last drawer of the desk and brought an old brown carton containing some white sheets and placed it on the desk. The impact made the dust that accumulated on the carton blow off at Seraphina and Lucy's faces.
"Ah, forgive me, my ladies. The carton accumulated the summer's dust. I'll have to clean it. Phufff!" He blew on the carton making more dust fly around.
Seraphina and Lucy took a step back to avoid the dust from touching them. Seraphina shook her as she watched the boy struggle with the carton that appeared to be heavier than him.
"Alright, here is the form, my lady." The boy pushed his spectacle up as he spoke. "You need to fill in your name and other credentials in the required spaces. Here is the form and this is the pencil." He listed out and pushed the white sheet and pencil in front of Lucy.
"I'm not the one doing the signing. It is my best friend here."
"Oh," The boy exclaimed in surprise that it was the town's Belle who was actually looking for work. He didn't know it would be her since her friend had been the one to do the talking. The thought of spending time together with her if she got the job internally thrilled him.
He watched as Seraphina took the pencil to fill out the form. The way she wrote her letters suddenly became the most interesting thing to watch.
"Here, I'm done," Seraphina announced when she finished filling out the form.
The boy took the sheet and his pencil from Seraphina and bent his head to read what she had written. He nodded in approval making his big spectacle bounce on his nose.
"What is your name?" Seraphina questioned.
"Pardon?" The boy surprised for being asked his name stared at Seraphina with a slightly flushed face. No one had ever asked him his name unless he had some important work to do for them.
"What's your name, boy?" Lucy repeated Seraphina's question with a snap of her fingers on the boy's face to get him back to reality.
"Uhm…I'm Raymond Walnut."
"Okay," Seraphina nodded "I'll call you Ray. Raymond is kind of long in my mouth. So when should we come back or when would we get feedback from your boss?"
"About that, once my boss goes through everybody's files, we shall select the person suitable for the job. It usually takes two to three days. Till then, always keep in touch with us."
"Alright, we will get going then."
"Have a safe trip, my ladies." Raymond wished with a bow that made his spectacle finally fall from his face which he was quick to pick up and inspect for any damage.
"Come on, Lucy. Let's hurry before my parents get back home before me." Seraphina urged Lucy as she quickly turned to start walking only to bump into someone.
"Ahh," She winced and looked up to see two men who stared at her with narrowed looks. One was an older man who she bumped into and the other was a young man with a silver mask that was the same color as his hair. He looked like a very handsome man even with the mask on. With his broad shoulders, long legs, and strong-looking body together with his silver hair and silver mask, he was beautiful. No doubt.
But is a man beautiful? No, a man can not be beautiful. Seraphina thought. But this man eluded such attraction with the way he proudly stood and stared at her.
"I…I am sorry. I didn't mean to…" Seraphina began to apologize and was cut off when Raymond suddenly shouted her name.
"My lady! Lady Seraphina Castiel. I forgot to give you a number tag." Raymond rushed to give Seraphina the small tag made from wood when he stopped and saw the man Seraphina bumped into. "Mr. William?"
Mr. William chuckled softly and spoke, "I must have startled the lady. Did I hear you call her Lady Seraphina Castiel, Raymond?"
"Yes, Mr. William. You heard correctly. Lady Seraphina Castiel came here with her f…"
A wave of the hand from Mr. William was enough to shut Raymond from giving more details than he was asked. He turned to the man beside him and said, "Isn't it a wonderful coincidence to run into my future daughter-in-law?"
Future daughter what?!
The three, Seraphina, Lucy, and Raymond's eyes almost bulged from their sockets at the words of Mr. William.
Seraphina was the most shocked out of the three. Did I just bump into the people I'm avoiding getting married to?! She questioned herself as a small warning bell started ringing in her head. The same marriage that made me come out here to look for work? Seraphina's eyes and mouth widened in horror.
Though she knew Mr. William was her father's business partner by name, she haven't seen him before. Seeing him upfront was the last thing she wanted for it to happen. And the other man, who was he?
The silver-haired man stared at Seraphina for a long while before he finally spoke in his deep masculine voice,
"I guess it is a wonderful coincidence, Father."