Walking away from Jessica, Tiffany couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. The blonde had been eerily quiet after their 'restaurant talk' which meant she was probably drifting away into her own thoughts.

'Typical Jessica,' thought Tiffany as she made her way back to her office building through the crowded downtown streets, she reflected on their conversation.

“How about a restaurant?!”

Tiffany didn't know why she had told Jessica to start her own business, let alone a restaurant. Was she really being a good friend by suggesting such an idea? Maybe she was being a little too hasty. Tiffany didn’t want Jessica to fail, especially not because of something she suggested. Her best friend barely had any business experience besides a handful of management classes in college. Also, the last time she had was in charge of a team, someone ended up with a broken nose.

Tiffany's thoughts were full of worry, but was broken when a man's voice called out to her.

“Hey there pretty lady, would you like a copy of today’s newspaper?” A grizzled and elderly man greeted her as she approached his small news stand, trying to sell a stack of the gray papers. She decided to buy one and catch-up on real world events and get her mind off the 'Sica problem', as she decided to call it.

The front page headlines were filled with depressing stories that would get peoples attention. She flipped past that section, not because she wasn't interested, rather she needed to look at something that would get her mind off of negative thoughts. Finally she went to the business section and was shocked to see a familiar face on the bottom of the front page.

‘Wunderkind Kim Taeyeon shares her investment secrets, Read more on P.9’

It had seemed like such a long time ago when Tiffany had bumped into the short and clumsy girl in college. It felt like just yesterday that they sat through Sociology classes together. They were very close friends but all that changed after graduation, and they both went their separate ways. Taeyeon was now an up-and-coming investment trader, making money for one of the largest Finance firms in the country. Unfortunately her job did not give her much time to socialize, which was probably why they hadn't talked in person for so long. Thinking about her now, Tiffany remembered all the fun times that they once had and missed her. She decided to be bold and call her up, Facebook messages would not cut it anymore. If she was going to plan a reunion, she should do it right and invite someone she really wanted to see.


Taking the newspaper back to the office, she glanced over the interview with Taeyeon, which contained some very generic and simple investment principles that she already knew. ‘Spread your investment portfolio, don’t do mutual funds that pay commission, and pick a fixed selling price so you don’t hold onto your stocks for too long and get greedy, the value of compound interest...’.

'Geez, so much for a life changing epiphany.'

Taking the elevator up to the 32nd floor, she walked into the office and saw Gus staring at her with excited eyes from inside his office. She felt shivers run down her spine at the sight of her boss. As he always did when seeing Tiffany alone, he quickly got up from his chair and ran as fast as a man of his size could, to come out and chat with her. 

“Tiffany! Back from lunch already? What'd you have? Where’s Jessica?”

“We..." Thinking about Gus's stalker tendencies she decided to keep it as vague as possible.

"...went for Italian. Anyways she’ll be in here soon, she had to catch up with someone.”

Gus had a smug look on his face hearing how Jessica set her priorities. “Well I'm not surprised,' he said, snobby. "The girl just doesn't care about punctuality, among other things. Which is exactly why she'll be gone by next week. I’m sort of glad we’re firing her because someone like that can only negatively affect model employees such as yourself.”

Tiffany had a strong urge to punch her boss in the face. The man didn’t even personally know Jessica and was making such bold statements. Her best friend had a ton of redeeming qualities. Gus had shown his true colors. Tiffany who never really cared about what people said about her, had to stand up for her friend.

“For your information Jessica’s one of the nicest people I know," Tiffany said, defiant. "If you just gave her the proper support, like a boss is supposed to, then maybe she wouldn’t be getting fired.”

Gus seemed repulsed at the idea. “Support? I never had any support when I was working as an employee.”

“That’s a barbaric way to think. People need support in their lives, so why not in the workplace? Didn't your mom take care of you when you were little?"

"But Jessica's not a child."

"That's true, but we all start from somewhere. We're all 'first-timers' in something. Everyone grows at different speeds and sometimes people need to be motivated and pushed in the right direction. This is Jessica's first full-time job, don't you think it's your responsibility to help and nurture her? Help her improve her performance so things like this don't happen?”

Gus stood there in shock as Tiffany defended her friend with poise and convinction.

With a totally stunned face Gus asked, “So you don’t think she should be fired?”

“Of course not. She's not the only one to blame for her poor results. Isn’t it the bosses responsibility to get the maximum potential from their employees? You didn’t do that with Jessica, and you certainly haven’t done that with most of the workers in this office.”

Gus was on the verge of fainting from Tiffany's verbal backlash. His image of pure and innocent employee was being shattered right before his eyes. “Why Tiffany, when did you get this attitude?”

“It’s not Tiffany! It's Ms.Hwang!” She stormed off leaving Gus in disbelief, with some some food for thought. With confidence she headed back to her cubicle and heard an ovation from some of her fellow coworkers, all of which,  overheard their conversation much to the boss's chagrin. "Get back to work!" Gus shouted, angry as he stormed into his office.

Beth came over to give Tiffany a high-five and shared some kind words. “I’m really sorry that Jessica is getting fired. I know you two are close.”

“Thanks Beth. I didn’t know you felt bad for her.”

“Of course I feel bad. That girl might have broken my nose but she doesn’t deserve to be tossed away like this," Beth stated, leaning on Tiffany's desk. "Anyways some of the people around the office we’re planning to throw her a little gathering after her last day this week. Do you want to help plan it?”

Tiffany stared at the girl with blue eyes, frizzy long blonde hair and the oddly shaped nose. Beth was around their age, and was what people would call a 'stickler' at work. She always tried her hardest in everything and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. When someone was doing something wrong, she would point it out, and unfortunately for her she had done it to the wrong person. However, Tiffany knew a couple of 'sticklers' herself, so the two of them got along, despite Jessica’s disapproval.

“Why the change of heart?” asked Tiffany with a slight grin.

“Well some of the guys in the office are totally obsessed with Jessica. You know how guys go over a blonde that dresses as y as she does to work.”

Tiffany let out a laugh. If only they knew how she swung. 

“Well no Beth, I mean you," she said, with a surprised face. "You always avoided working with her and now you’re going to organize her going away party?”

Beth simply gave Tiffany a smirk. “Just because I don’t like working with her doesn’t mean I don’t want to wish her the best in life.”

Tiffany felt closer to the other blonde at work, after she heard her sincerity and kind words. If only Jessica had gotten to know this side of Beth, she was sure they'd be really good friends. Maybe they still could be.

“Anyways what’d you guys have in mind?” asked Tiffany with excitement.

“Does she have a favourite bar? We were just thinking about going for food and drinks.”

In her mind, Tiffany picked out the one that would be appropriate for a work party. A club or lounge would be inappropriate. “I’m sure she’ll be fine with ‘The 9 Brewers Pub’ just down the road.”

"And afterwards?"

"I'm sure we can find a cafe nearby and just relax."

“Perfect. Do you know what would be a good going away present from the office?”

Tiffany hesistated. She thought carefully of what would be the best gift given the recent circumstances.

“Get her a book. Something related to starting a restaurant.”

Her co-worker was surprised. “Will she even read it?”

“Good question,” replied Tiffany. She wasn't sure, but it felt like the right suggestion.

“If you guys come up with a better idea, then go with it. I know that she does read when it interests her. Surprising right?”

Beth let out a slight giggle. “Alright, sounds good. Plan is to split her bar tab for the night of course.”

“Sure. We’ll talk about it more tonight. Just make sure not to let Gus know about the party.”

Beth gave a wink. “Gotcha,” she said, slowly tip-toeing away back to work just-in-case Gus came out on a rampage.

Looking at her watch, Tiffany was worried about Jessica. The girl should have been back by now.

Thinking better of it, she grabbed her smartphone and looked through the list of familiar names and picked out the people that she should invite to their little college reunion that she was planning. She figured that Hyoyeon, Taeyeon, and Nicole would be a good place to start.

As she started calling Hyoyeon, in the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder why she was doing all this for Jessica.

Was she really just being a supportive friend?

----------------------------------------------------

 

Yuri eyed the Dessert menu for tonight's dinner service like a hawk. The couch of her one-bedroom apartment provided ample space for the chef to comfortably nest on while she went through the processes involved for each recipe in her head. The chef was trying to forget the awful mistakes that she had made last night in the kitchen, by thoroughly memorizing the recipes and focusing on a new night at work.

Her head chef, Gustav, had yelled at her in front of the entire line of cooks, for her inability to correctly poach a raw oyster to medium temperature. Yuri didn’t quite understand what ‘medium’ temperature meant. She had wasted a good $50 worth of premium oysters which was docked from her day's pay. Her 2-year apprenticeship in France & Italy had trained her well. The young chef had the credentials to work at many of the restaurants in the city, but she still had a lot to learn. Thankfully cooking was her passion, and she wasn’t about to stop doing it anytime soon.

As punishment for her 'sins' as Gustav called errors in his kitchen, the ruthless French-trained chef sent her to handle the 'Desserts' section for today. Which was the easiest of all the stations. It was a warning sign for Yuri. She was on her last leg, and needed to prove herself worthy of a position at the famous restaurant. Yuri wasn't about to give up now. Not when she had the opportunity to learn from one of the city's best chefs.

She memorized the recipes the night before until now and was extremely familiar with how to make the two house desserts, 'Fine Feuille De Chocolat' & 'Crême Brulée' in 3 different flavors.

Getting dressed for work in her walk-in closet, she heard the familiar sound of her smartphone vibrating on her living room table. In a rush she stormed outside to pick up her phone, without looking at who it was.

"Hello?"

She almost dropped the phone when she heard the voice of the woman on the other line. It was a voice that she had tried hard to forget.

"Hey Yuri, It's Jessica."

There was a prolonged silence. Yuri had the urge to check if Jessica was still on the line until she finally talked again.

"How are you doing?"

Yuri weighed her options. Should she hang up? This person was supposed to be out of her life for good, and now she was calling her out of the blue. However Yuri liked to think she matured over the 4-years since they broke up and thought better of it.

"I'm doing great. I just got back from an apprenticeship in France and Italy and I'm about to head off for work."

The blonde replied, "Oh? Apprenticeship? Sounds like fun."

Jessica already knew about all that stuff.

"Where are you working now?"

The chef was taken aback by all her questions and wanted to get past the small talk.

"At a French restaurant in the city. Jessica I know this might be rude, but why are you calling me?"

"Can’t a girl call her friend? I just want to catch-up! It's been such a long time and I wanted to see you."

Yuri took the phone with her as she continued to change for work, putting the phone on speaker. The word 'friend' caught her off guard. They hadn't talked since the messy break up.

"Is that really it? After all these years you suddenly decided you wanted to catch up?"

"Yeah," she replied bluntly.

Yuri had always had a tough time deciphering Jessica's facts and fibs. For some weird reason she sensed there was an ulterior motive. There must be, for her to make a call like this.

"How about I call you back, I need to be at work within the next half hour."

"Just tell me where you work and I'll drop by."

Yuri didn't feel like seeing Jessica. Not today. There was too much to do.

"I'm sorry. I promise I'll call you back another time."

"Oh come on-"

Yuri quickly hung up the phone before her-ex could say anything else. The aspiring chef couldn’t help but pinch herself on the cheek, to see if she was day-dreaming. Jessica had ended Yuri's first real relationship with finality and now she just wanted to ‘catch-up’. Whatever that meant.

She felt the phone, that was now in her left hand, vibrate with another call. Yuri gazed at the screen looking at the caller ID that read 'Sica'.

The ball was in her court.

'What should you do Yuri. What should you do.'