"Jen! You are here!"
Before Jen walked to Sebastian, Victor jumped out of the room, holding a plate full of cookies and delicate-looking sweets:" Come, sit, I prepared something for you to try out."
The long hallway led Jen to a balcony- "It's beautiful!" She gasped.
The cozy-looking cottage hid the spacious garden that looked like the combination of a farm and flower exhibition. Even though summer days were ending, the garden was still filled with flowers of different colors.
"I'm glad you like the view, please have a seat." Victor seemed very proud to introduce his garden to Jen.
Sebastian pulled out a chair for her, asking Jen to sit at the table on the balcony.
"Sebastian was up all morning, looking for the best view to set up this table for us," Victor whispered to Jen when he was putting down the plate of cake, "He wants you to feel at home."
"Uncle Vic, I can hear you, ok?" Sebastian was a little embarrassed to let Jen know that he was nervous to have her over.
"Thank you, Sebastian, that is very sweet of you." Jen nodded at him, felt a little funny how he was acting so jumpy when the two of them had known each other for a while now.
"Jen, I have something to tell you." Sebastian pulled out a chair next to Jen and was going to say something when Victor stopped him:" Se, let her taste my cake first, please. I also got some sweets on my trip. Jen, I don't know what you like, but here is a bit of everything."
Jen was presented with a huge plate of different pastries and sweets- chocolate, Éclairs, a small pot of creme brulee, what seemed to be mochi and a lot of other things that Jen couldn't name.
"You need to try Victor's Tiramisu, it is the best one you can ever get," Sebastian said, gesturing for Jen to try some.
"Wait, Victor, did you make these yourself?" Jen was surprised to hear that.
"Well, not everything, I didn't pick cacao beans and make chocolate of my own." Victor laughed, "But yes, I made a lot of these. I love cooking and baking, please try."
Jen took the elegant silver spoon that was lying next to her plate and carefully took a piece of the tiramisu that looked like a piece of art.
"It is delicious," the words escaped her mouth, filling Victor with so much joy.
"Oh, I am so glad. You two talk, I will go and check out the rest of the dishes. Don't get too full on the sweets, we have a nice dinner coming."
"But now it's only early afternoon! Sit and rest for a while." Jen wanted to make some room for Victor to also grab a seat.
"Oh, I won't bother you two, the young kids have more things to talk about." Then Victor was gone without saying another word.
"He is indeed so special." Jen stared at Victor while he walked away, "I would never imagine him to be one of the Day family members."
"And me? Do I look like one of them?" Sebastian asked, didn't know what answer he was waiting for.
"Depends. You were not like one of them until you got sick from eating street food. How delicate are you?!" Jen started making fun of Sebastian, seeing that he still looked a little tired from being sick the day before.
"Good point." Sebastian wasn't offended by the answer, and turned to look at the garden, "I have something to talk to you about."
"Shoot. I knew you wanted to talk about something, or why would you call me to have dinner?"
"You made it sound like I would only talk to you when I need something." Sebastian sighed, "I really wanted to invite you over because I know you would love the view. And Victor wants to get to know you more. He was so impressed by how kind you are."
"I was just kidding. So, what do you want to talk to me about?" Jen took another beautiful piece of sweets off the plate, it was shaped like a rose, "Is this made of... gummy?"
"No, I don't think so, try it, then you will know." Sebastian poured a cup of coffee for Jen, "Drink something if it is too sweet. Victor gave me too much sugar rush as a child."
The rose was too beautiful to be eaten- but wanting to know what it was made of, Jen took a small bite and instantly, her mouth was filled with the fragrance of roses.
"Oh, he used rose water... this is wonderful, you should also try it." Jen wanted to offer Sebastian a piece of it, but he shook his head:" I am still recovering, can't eat too many sweet things. Maybe next time."
"So, I wanted to ask you, what exactly did Lynn tell you that day about the person who she thought set us up, and also the news article?"
"She didn't say much, just that she knew who it was and she would take care of it. Which she did, the article was taken away, I don't know if you have seen that." Jen casually answered, thinking that it might have been a prank arranged by one of the competitors of YD.
Sebastian couldn't take his eyes off Jen, she looked extra charming today- blue is really her color. He hated to break her peace but she needed to know.
"Jen, I am not blaming you. But I think it's better for us not to trust Lynn."
"What?" Jen's attention was suddenly drawn away from the beautiful garden, "Why? What happened?"
"It's complicated. Victor tried to explain to me but he is also not 100% sure."
"What, that Lynn might want to be the real CEO of YD? Or that she might want to know everything about your life? But she couldn't have done anything to harm you."
"Oh Jen, we are not so sure about that." Victor came out at the right moment before Sebastian ran out of explanations, "Lynn has always had big ambitions as a child. She is not who she seems to be. But that's beside the point, Sebastian has something important to ask you."
"Wait, how can that be beside the point, I do need to know." Jen started to catch a strange feeling.
If the whole Team Sebastian incident was her trying to help out a clueless boy, now she rather not be dragged into someone else's family drama- especially when Victor is now back, protecting Sebastian if necessary.
"Victor, I don't know if Sebastian told you, but I am not going to be in YD for a very long time." Jen patiently explained to Victor, wanting him to understand that she was not going to be very helpful for a long time.
"We know. That's why you are here today." Victor gestured at Sebastian, but he was looking down, like a child who was caught making a mistake.
"Come on, Sebastian, we raised you better than this!" Victor let out a sigh and rolled his eyes at Sebastian, "Sorry, he is too shy. Ah, I see you liked my rose cake, here, take another bite." Victor grabbed Jen's spoon, took a big piece of the cake, and wanted to feed it to her:
"I used premium Belgian chocolate, with rose water and the lightest yet flavorful cream, isn't it tasty?"
Jen was caught by surprise and couldn't say no to Victor.
Hmmm, it is indeed tasty. The flower and the lingering taste of chocolate... Wait, what is this?
Jen felt like there was something hard inside the big bite of cake: is it chocolate that should have been melted? Maybe she should just swallow and pretend like it was nothing so that Victor's pride wasn't hurt? No, it couldn't have been chocolate, this thing is too hard...
Sebastian saw Jen's struggle, and immediately told her:" Spit it out, Jen, don't eat that."
Hearing that, Jen wondered if Victor had a history of dropping foreign objects in his pot and instantly spat out the "strange thing"- but it turned out to be a ring!
A rose gold ring, shaped like a rose, with a red stone on top as the center of the follower.
"Oh, Victor, I am sorry but I think you dropped something in the cake, here, let me go clean it."
Jen felt very bad that the beautiful ring was then in her mouth, and wanted to run to the washroom to clean it up.
"No, Jen, that is for you. Sebastian, I can only help you that much."
"Jen..." Sebastian suddenly stood up, his hands holding onto the bottom of his shirt, his voice became shaky again like the first day they met.
His face was visibly turning red, Jen was confused by how he was acting and froze there as well, staring at him.
It took Sebastian a while to finally make up the words, he looked at Jen, with his big watery eyes and said:
" Jen, could you be my..."
"Girlfriend? Partner? Bride?" Victor couldn't wait any longer.