"We've decided that you are the perfect fit as our Communications Manager at White Eclairs. You've got the job."

"Thank you so much, Ms. Jung! I promise I will work hard!"

"You're welcome, Momo. And call me Jessica. See you Monday at 9 AM."

Momo was thrilled to finally land a higher paying job to pay for her mortgage on her new condo. The downside was, the company location was 30 miles out from her house so she would be forced to drive. But that was a decent tradeoff for nearly twice the increase in pay.

Monday came around and it was the first day at her new job. The travel out to the company headquarters was a quite the long drive; she learned on the day of her interview that it was nearly an hour. But it was tolerable as long as she continued to think about the pay increase and all the money she will be racking in soon.

She had arrived at the location early, after all, it was her first day. She made several rounds to try to find free parking, but every street within a half-mile radius only had metered parking and the free, all-day parking spots were taken. She settled for a metered spot near her office and got out to check the fee.

"25 cents per hour, maximum 4 hours. Not bad at all." She reached into her purse to grab several of quarters to feed into the parking meter. She just needed to remember to come out and reload the machine.

A whole orientation and a countless number of introductions took a better part of the day. By the time she settled down at her new desk and her first day of work had ended, she had remembered something she didn't do.

"Oh ! I forgot about the meter!"

She ran out of the building and around the corner to her spot to see two parking tickets on her windshield and a tow truck coming. She quickly got in and begged the tow truck not to tow her car away with her inside it.

Momo really wasn't sure if this new job was a blessing or a curse.

--

The next day Momo got carried away with the fast-paced operations of the company, getting trained, receiving work left and right, and still trying to remember half the people she met on the previous day. Though, the one particular person that she did, without a doubt, remembered was Sana. The CEO's assistant practically squealed and talked her ears off when she found out they were both from the same region in Japan.

When she was able to catch a break from work and the blabbermouth, she stole a glance at her clock and realized she forgot about the meter again. She sprinted out to her car immediately, hoping she wouldn't have two new tickets waiting for her.

It just so happened that her meter's time was about 10 minutes expired, but she already saw a meter maid opening her ticket book, pen in hand and ready to mark up the ticket.

"Hi! I'm sorry, but I-I can pay for the meter now!" she panted, trying to catch her breath from running full speed on heels.

"Your time expired," the meter maid tapped on the meter.

The meter maid was young. Very young. She couldn't have been more than a year older than Momo judging from her soft features. She had a bunch of moles dotted on her face like someone had sprinkled pepper on it.

"Yeah, but can you give me a break? It's my first week at work and I keep forgetting."

The cool disposition of the meter maid could not be moved.

"Well, you should be more responsible. Then I wouldn't have to write you up two days in a row."

"So you're the meter maid who issued me my tickets yesterday? And you had to call for a tow truck?!"

The young woman finished writing a third ticket and handed it to Momo. "It's parking enforcement officer for you."

"Parkin– what the! Hey!" Momo yelled after the strict meter maid, who did not turn around or seem to care.

How could such a beautiful, terrible meter maid be so ruthless?

For the rest of the day at work, Momo's co-workers stayed as far as possible and didn't bother her about work. Even Sana, who was usually bubbly around Momo avoided her office, for the Communications Manager was fuming so much that one could practically see the fire in her eyes.

--

On the third day, Momo set up the alarm on her phone so that when did go off, it will be the exact time it expired. Being as naive as she was, she figured there was no chance that the meter maid would be right on the dot when the meter's light blinked red.

She walked out to her parking spot and saw the same parking enforcement officer once again, checking the meter two cars behind her own. Fearing the woman would reach her own car faster than her, she rushed over right on time. Momo smirked and stuck her tongue out childishly at the parking inspector. The latter disregarded her immature behavior and proceeded to check the timer on Momo's meter.

"Are you going to pay? It's expired."

"Duh. I just need to get my coins."

Momo reached into her blazer pocket, front pants pocket, fake pockets, but could not find a single coin.

"Hold on, they're in my car," she said, unlocking the vehicle.

The emotionless parking attendant patiently stood in front of the meter.

Momo supported herself with one knee on her driver's seat as she dug around the glove compartment, the bottle holders, underneath the car mats, the front seat pockets. Her search turned up fruitless, considering all she found were some lint and food wrappers tucked away under her seat.

"Crap."

"Having trouble?"

The sudden voice from the meter maid spooked her, causing her to hit her head on the ceiling of the car. She could not believe that the woman was still there.

"Ow..." Momo rubbed the injured area on her head. "I'm not having trouble. Why don't you go check the other meters? Don't meter maids usually skip the ones with the driver in the car?"

"First of all, you're not sitting in your car. Second, only the lazy ones do that. Third, I can still technically write you up since it is clearly expired. But, I have enough time during my shift to wait for you and finish my route."

Wow. Momo was in disbelief of this savage meter maid. Weren't government workers supposed to be lazy? Why was she so uptight for!

"Well?" The woman tapped her foot.

Stupid tyrant meter maid with her cute face and her cute moles.

Momo continued to hunt around in her car and practically turned the entire contents inside out and still failed to even find half a coin. She sighed in defeat and slumped in her seat.

The meter maid wrote up a ticket, walked over to where Momo was resting and slapped it onto her hand. Momo closed her eyes and accepted her fate.

"Meter witch," Momo mumbled under her breath.

The meter maid's laugh came as a surprise to Momo, causing her to open her eyes to trace the source. She didn't think the cold, uptight woman had a single funny bone in her. In fact, it sounded like a genuinely playful laugh and definitely not something Momo would mind hearing again.

"That's it? I've heard worse." The meter maid continued off on her route, but not without a small "blockhead" thrown back at Momo.

Momo looked back at the ticket in her hand and groaned.

God, this first week of work was starting to cost her a handful of expensive dinners.

--

On Thursday, Momo was extra prepared. She made sure to bring a bag of coins, set her phone alarm to go off 10 minutes before her meter and to top it off, she was going to show the meter maid, right in front of her face, that she won't be writing any more tickets for her!

"I'll show her who the real boss is!"

"On your fourth day at work and you're already after me?" Jessica appeared right behind her, arms crossed.

Momo whipped her head around, shaking her hands nervously. "N-no I didn't mean you, Jessica!"

Her boss hummed skeptically. "Just make sure you're not treating our clients and investors like this."

Momo ensured Jessica walked away and was out of earshot before continuing with her plans.

"Alright, this time, I will seriously show that dumb meter Nazi who is in control. And she almost got me in trouble with my boss," she spoke in a hushed tone.

She was for sure going to laugh in the face of her tormentor and she was excited.

Unfortunately, the meter maid did not show up that day, despite Momo standing around, ready to mock her. Instead, a different, much older, traffic warden was on patrol. The man smiled and thanked Momo as she dropped some coins into the meter. All that planning and anticipation of sweet revenge was for nothing.

She won't admit it, but Momo kind of missed her usual routine of badgering a certain pretty parking meter bully.

--

It was finally Friday, which meant it was almost the weekend. And the weekends were the best because Momo wouldn't get any more tickets since she won't be driving out here. It was also very nice because Fridays at work were more casual and everyone else was in a more relaxed mood. Maybe except for Sana with her giggle fits.

This time, Momo had not forgotten to set up her alarm for the meter. But she had a meeting with Jessica that ran late, which forced her to break out into another dash.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't write that ticket!" Momo once again sprinted over in a very disheveled state. At this rate, she might as well be training for the Olympics.

"It's my job. Are you telling me not to do my job?"

"No! I know it's your job. But can't you spare me just this once? What if I paid you 20 bucks?"

"That's bribery and against the law."

"Okay, okay scratch that. But please don't give me another ticket. This whole month has been nothing but hits against my paycheck. I was hoping that my new job would assist my financials, but now I'm struggling to even pay for parking." She shuffled around in her pockets for a bunch of change and displayed them flat on her palm. "Look, I have coins this time!" She fed the meter hurriedly.

The meter maid's features softened at her explanation, only in the slightest. She sighed.

"I've never met such a forgetful person like you." She put away the ticket book. "You're lucky I hadn't written anything yet."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so glad you've finally seen the light!" She grabbed the meter maid's hand in gratitude, causing the latter to blush in surprise. Momo was not expecting that response from the cold-hearted parking official and quickly let go.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"It's fine." She mumbled. "By the way, if you don't want to keep rushing out here to pay on time, there's an app you can download to pay wirelessly on this meter."

"An app? Oh, I'm not that tech savvy..."

"Here, let me see your phone. Do you have data for me to help you download it?"

"Yeah."

The meter maid downloaded the app and showed Momo how to set up an alarm on it and how to pay and reload. She helped her pay for 4 hours through the app, so Momo wouldn't have to feed the meter with her chump change. Momo was taken aback. The parking enforcement officer was surprisingly much nicer and very attractive up close.

"Wow, thanks! Technology is neat these days!"

The meter maid looked like she was fighting back a smile. "Okay, well now you don't have to put up with my bad attitude and I won't have to put up with your lame excuses. Blockhead." She mumbled the last word and left.

Momo smiled at the cute meter maid's spunk. It saddened her because now that she had the app, she wouldn't have the chance to see her anymore.