Standing Right Next To You Chapter 45
Advertisement
After working on the files that Benji had sent, Lina rubbed her eyes with exhaustion. She got up and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
Gulping down the water, she noticed that the cupcake boxes were still inside.
"Huh? Did I forget to give away the other boxes?" She hit her head.
She had asked Suzie to pack the cupcakes for the employees in large boxes, whereas the ones for her new friends were in containers that held 3 cupcakes in them, just like Stuart's.
There was still one big box and five small containers in another big box.
It was 12:45 now.
'Better go give it to them before everyone leaves for lunch.' Carrying two small containers, she walked to Anthony Shen's office.
*Knock*
She entered when she heard the 'Come in' from inside. She saw Anthony and Leon discussing something seriously.
"Is this a bad time?" She asked with an awkward smile.
"Not at all. What can I do for you?" Anthony asked as he closed the file that they were discussing.
Putting the box on his desk, she smiled at him.
"A little something for my new colleagues." She winked at Leon, who drooled looking at the box.
Anthony who had come in late today did not know what the box contained. He saw Leon's expression and was amused.
He opened the box and immediately a rich chocolate aroma filled the room. Leon's hungry stomach instantly growled causing him to turn red.
Anthony looked at his assistant and saw Lina chuckling and Leon glaring at her.
'When did they get so close?' Then he ignored them and concentrated on the cupcake.
"It's my signature vanilla cupcake with dark chocolate butter frosting. Make sure to workout today." She advised him playfully
While Anthony pigged out on the dessert, Leon stared at her wide eyed.
"Your signature cupcake? As in you made them?" He asked incredulously and Lina nodded like it was the most normal thing to do.
"Amazing! Sorry." Anthony apologized for speaking with his mouth full.
"Thanks! But this is the most basic thing that I know how to bake." She boasted proudly and earned an appreciative nod from them.
"I wanted to ask about the person whose office is next door. When will she come? I have a box for her as well." Before coming to Anthony, Lina had tried knocking on her next door neighbor Maxene Kang's office but no one answered.
Advertisement
"She's on a business tour out of the city and will be back sometime next week." Answered Leon because Anthony was now onto his second cupcake.
"Ohh.. Okay carry on. I still have to give one box to Ms Zhou." She said before leaving the room.
"Wow, not only is she a Marketing Wiz she even is an amazing baker. Have you eaten these?" He asked Leon.
"Thankfully I had one earlier, or else I wouldn't get any if I had relied on you." He grumbled looking at the empty box.
"You already had one?" Anthony disregarded his greedy eyes and licked his fingers clean.
"Yes. But what is this about a marketing wiz?" He asked curiously and Anthony narrated what had happened yesterday in the conference room.
"Impressive!" Leon muttered.
'You are getting more and more interesting, Lina Yang.' He looked at the closed door.
-----
On the other side of the floor, Irene Zhou happily ate the cupcake that Lina had dropped off and raved about it to her elder brother in her messages.
Julia, her assistant stood watching Irene enthusiastically clicking pictures to post on the company's internal weibo group.
*Our Marketing Department just had a cupcake fairy drop off her delicious treats!* attached were pictures of the cupcakes from various angles.
"This is not fair Madam! Why did we get only one while you've received three?" She spoke about the injustice.
Irene just smiled gently and slowly hid her cupcakes from Julia's greedy eyes.
-----
Oblivious to the uproar that her cupcakes had caused in the Weibo group, Lina made her way to the 18th floor.
She walked in with two boxes, one big and one small. The interns and manager were packing up to go for their lunch when they saw Lina.
"Hi. Is Steph in his studio?" She asked the Tall glasses guy who looked like he was incharge.
"Miss, Boss has not yet come." He answered politely.
"Who exactly are you to ask the whereabouts of our boss?" A young lady spoke up with a shrill and haughty voice.
'There is a better and polite way to ask that same question.' Lina was tired of people who did not have basic manners in this place.
"Rude, but I'll still introduce myself." She looked at that lady with distaste.
"Hi, I'm Lina Yang, the new Marketing consultant." She smiled at the people there and they smiled back, well most of them did.
Advertisement
"Hello, I am Timothy Ling, the manager here. I apologize for her rude behaviour. I'm sure she too is ashamed of her behavior. Aren't you, Vivian?" He then glared at Vivian Ye, the woman who spoke rudely to Lina.
"Please forgive me for my behaviour." Vivian said through gritted teeth, when she saw the look that Manager Tim gave her.
'She must've gotten that position by sleeping with the VP.' Vivian thought and looked away.
"Well, I had just come to meet Steph and give him something." She showed the boxes in her hand.
Placing them on a desk, she handed the bigger box to Manager Tim and said, "These are for you guys. Just an introduction present. Can you do me a favour, let Steph know that I had come here to meet him." She said and picked up Steph's box and walked back to the elevator.
"Thank you Miss Yang." Came a few excited voices from behind.
The interns immediately swarmed around Manager Tim and stared at the box.
"I felt that the box looked familiar! Look, it's the same as the picture that Miss Zhou posted earlier." One girl screamed and everyone else pulled out their phones to see what she was talking about.
"What are you talking about?" Tim put the box down and checked the company weibo group.
A barrage of comments followed the pictures of the cupcakes posted by Assistant Director Zhou.
[The cupcake fairy of the Marketing Department. I like that name, let's call her that! ]
[My crappy morning became blessed after eating that cupcake!]
[You guys from the other departments are missing out on this!]
[Someone find out where they were bought from?]
[+1]
[+2] ….
On and on went the replies.
They stared at the messages, then at the box in front of them and smiled widely.
"Quick! Take pictures and post them, even we received those cupcakes!" Yelled one girl before she started clicking pictures.
Soon everyone followed and only after posting them, did they start eating the cupcakes, completely forgetting about the instant replies they received on their post.
[Why did the design team also get them? That too the interns?]
[I want them too!]
[Which floor are you from? Wait for us!]
The intern who read that message immediately stuffed the cupcake into his mouth.
[We are from the 18th floor, but sadly the cupcakes are now in our tummy! Bwahahaha..!]
Everyone stared at Manager Tim who had just sent that message out.
"What? Do you want to go for lunch or not?" He glared at the interns and they immediately scurried away.
----
When Lina reached her floor, she saw Derek waiting outside her office.
"Derek, why are you here? You should've just left our lunch with Wade." She said with a quizzical expression.
"Miss, Master Wade is in a meeting. I have given him his box, this is yours. He asked me to inform you that he can't eat his lunch with you." Derek relayed the message from Wade.
"Okay, Thank you." She saw him off at the elevator and went back to put Stephen's box back in the office.
When she came out, she met Leon there who was on his way to eating lunch at the cafeteria.
"Hey? Can I have lunch with you today?" She showed her lunch box and asked with an adorable smile.
"Sure! But be careful, you are already famous thanks to your cupcakes." He joked and led her to the cafeteria.
Lina just laughed and was confused as to why he had said that.
"I have my own lunch here, will that be okay?" She asked as she did not know how this place worked.
"It's fine, many employees get their own lunch and eat it with everyone else here." He reassured her and pushed the cafeteria door open.
----
Derek had to wait a little longer because the elevators were packed and he finally took a sigh of relief when he reached the lobby.
Walking past the reception, he glared at that lady who had stopped his Miss in the morning.
He saw her following a tall man with curly hair to the elevator.
'That hair annoys me!' He remembered an unpleasant memory at the cafe and increased his pace to walk out of the building.
----
While all of this was happening..
On the top floor, Wade Luo sat on his bouncy couch staring at the man sitting in front of him.
'How long does he plan on staying here!?' He mentally pulled his hair but smiled on the outside.
Advertisement
-
Hello, Mr Li
You're crazy. But I love you He said to her.
8 1819 -
War of Seasons
Dorothea Atlin is the young, apathetic leader of the neutral territory of Sirpo, a chilly land hovering above the continuously warring factions of Sacer and Ghuria, whose devastating magics have ravaged their people and lands time and time again. Following a shocking attack and a cruel deception, Dorothea grows her conscience and takes up arms, using her self-destructive ability to manipulate the flow of time to ensure Sacer’s victory. Her growing understanding of war and the two factions is guided by Iree Nobelis, the determined and enthralling commander of Sacer’s forces, Ariana Kingfisher, a steely swordswoman of mixed Ghurian and Sacerian descent, and Rhys Tamlin, a kind but haunted soldier who goes to challenge Dorothea’s self-imposed celibacy and join her on a mutual journey of healing from the tragic legacies of the Atlin family and wars between the nations. Meanwhile, Dorothea’s only friend and deserter from the Sacerian military, Shark Olyen, returns to their homeland to face the family that disowned them and finds more than they bargained for in meeting Cerid Creed, a noble whose duty to his people clashes with his desires in romance and in life, much like Shark’s did long before. As their developing or preexisting loves and differing convictions on how to achieve peace create rifts between these major players, Dorothea experiences a personal revolution that leads her to fight for what she believes is right, no matter the cost. A slow-burn story that takes time setting up the psychology and motivations of characters for explosive payoff later down the line. Cover by Ben Arisson, who is also a wonderful author on this website!
8 197 -
The Touch of Infection
Carisa's been running for her life the past two years. Loosing her loved ones and anyone she grows close to. The apocalypse was caused by an alien raise coming to earth and proclaiming they'll fix the planet. Their way to 'fix' it being destroying humanity with a plague. However they didn't expect the human body to be as persistent as it is, the infection they spread mutating and making humans reanimate with a hunger for flesh. They thought they could contain it, control it even, but it's spreading faster than they thought. The world is dying faster than ever before. And Carisa only want to survive, to make it to the next day, bumping into an Alien she thought she'd be petrified. But upon further inspection... their not that much different that humans. Curiosity at its peek with both of them and so she gains a tail always creeping behind her. The aliens just won't let her go. Story is written on my free time so it has a lot of typos, sorry.It's been marked #1 in "alien race" woooBook cover made by: @tinybandaid on instagram
8 89 -
For Only A Moment (Student/Teacher)
Desiree Carlisle is in the 12th grade. When she is not in school, or with her friends, she is at her history teacher's house babysitting his five year old son. As the winter months get colder, Desiree and her teacher get closer. The one thing she thought, along with everyone else, turns out to be wrong. How will the sexually of her teacher effect their relationship, if anything besides teacher and student and father and babysitter happens?
8 193 -
Anger Issues
"I am calm. I'm nothing but calm all of the time.""No, you're not. You're fifteen seconds from starting a fight all of the time."....In which an egotistical and money-hungry young businessman who acts like an overgrown toddler with anger issues gets assigned a petite and delicate young lady to deal with him and his abundance of problems.
8 242 -
lydia
"are we going to go to the butterfly exhibit? it's the other way" "not exactly, lydia."-in which a clueless innocent girl gets taken into the life of captivity > started june 7 2021 <>finished august 26 2022
8 273