Season: Summer
Weather: Hot and humid. Overcast. When is the heat wave going to end?
Day of the week: Thursday
Date: 2nd February, 2024
I entered the office early in the morning to drop off lunches again. This time, I had made a lunchbox for THE biggest boss of all as well.
This time, I had made cinnamon scrolls, apple strudels, pizza rolls and a big boston bun for the boss floor to share. The fragrance had made people on the bus and train drool, looking around for the source of the smell.
THE biggest boss of all had Korean rice cakes in spicy sauce with spicy chicken wings and pigs in a blanket paired with a Caesar salad. Stony Boss got fried noodles, pigs in a blanket and bacon wrapped asparagus.They could share the baked goods with the rest of the floor for their dessert. I hoped they would be satisfied with this.
I dropped off Stony Boss's lunch in his empty office, telling the cleaners that I passed by that they were welcome to help themselves to a baked goods on their way out this morning. They thanked me with stars in their eyes. It was still very early and if they were like me, they might not have a chance to eat before moving into their next job.
Knocking on THE biggest boss of all's office door, I was surprised hear his voice. Why was he in the office so early in the morning?
"I knew the lovely smell was coming from you, Jane," he got up from his office chair, kneading his temples and the space between his eyebrows, enveloping me in a surprising hug. He had bags under his eyes and looked exhausted. Had he pulled an all nighter? "I'm sorry," he backed away the moment he felt me stiffen up. "Sorry. It's been a long night and you coming in at this time is a life saver. I just needed a hug. Is that ok?"
I blinked at him and then nodded, holding out my arms for him.
All hard workers sometimes just need a hug. If that was all he needed, I could give THE biggest boss of all the hug he needed to help energise him.
"You smell like a delicious bakery," THE biggest boss of all murmured, his voice and breath tickling the hairs by my ear.
"I baked quite a lot this morning, sir," I told him, enjoying the warm and enveloping hug. It seemed that I had been needing a hug as well. The hug really helped sweep away my fatigue. "It's in the lunchroom."
"Wonderful. Jane, could you be a dear and go downstairs to buy me a coffee? Double shot espresso long black, two sugars and no milk. I'll give you the money. I'm going to need a pick me up before work starts. I'll have the coffee with whatever delicious goods you baked this morning."
"Oh. Ok," I nodded. I could do that. Just a small errand. I repeated his order back to him out of habit. "Double shot espresso long black , two sugars, no milk."
"Thank you, Jane. If you don't mind, can I sometimes find you to get a hug once in a while? Your hugs are so comforting."
I wanted to rub my nose. Was he making a move on me. He was, wasn't he?
"Let go. I'll go get your coffee," I tried to push him or myself away to escape this abnormally long hug, but got crushed even tighter. "Ugh. Boss, boss, I can't breathe."
"Hey, Jane," THE biggest boss of all loosened his hold a little so that I could catch my breath but didn't let me go. "Be my girlfriend. Ok? Don't be with Stony."
"Boss, do you want your coffee or not?" I bypassed his whispered question.
"Is that a 'no'?" the man sighed and let me go.
"Boss, sir, you're THE biggest boss of all and I'm a nobody," I pointed out. "I hadn't even met you until the other day. We don't know each other. To be fair, I only met Stony Boss the other week too. So the fact that both of you want to be in a relationship with me is frankly very off putting. You're both my bosses and we're all still strangers. There's no way either of you have actually fallen in love with me. It's impossible. I don't understand why either of you would mess around in this way. So whatever the reason is, please, don't. Just stop it. I'm just a little worker on the floor. I can't aspire to the heights of you fire breathing dragons. So you guys go your dragon way and I'll go the way of the rabbits and mice. We're a completely different species."
THE biggest boss of all froze.
"I'll go get you your coffee. After that, you can have your breakfast and I'll go back home to continue my sick leave."
I strode out the door, rubbing my arms and feeling cold and shaken.
Whoa. I had stood up to a fire breathing dragon. Was I going to get fired? I hoped not.
When I got to the cafe downstairs to order the coffee, I realised I had no money with me. I put the order in and then ran back upstairs to ask the boss for his coffee money.
Knocking on the door, I heard his low, "Come in."
His voice sounded raspy and gloomy.
"Uh, boss? I forgot to get the money for the coffee."
"Oh, right," THE biggest boss of all cleared his throat, turned around to search his pockets and surreptitiously wiped his slightly redded eyes all at the same time. I pretended I hadn't seen anything. "Here you go," he held out his hand to drop some coins into my open hand.
"I'll be right back, sir," I told him and ran back out the door.
Minutes later, I returned with his hot coffee to see him sampling a plate full of the assorted baked goods that I had brought in this morning.
"Your coffee, sir," I put the cup down where he pointed to on his desk.
"Sit," he pointed to the chair in front of his desk, handing me a pad of paper and pen. "Let's talk business. Write down all the shared baked goods you've made for the lunchroom this week and their prices. I will make sure you're paid for your hard work. I've heard about your situation from Stony and you shouldn't need to feed our floor out of your own pocket. The office has enough petty cash that we can use for things like this. Tomorrow, there's no need for you to make a lunchbox for Stony and I. We've both agreed that today's the last day of personalised lunchboxes. What you have done is sufficient. We don't want to give cause for others to gossip and hurt your reputation. Have a good rest, get better and come back to work as usual on Monday."
I exhaled, feeling slightly relieved.
"There's no need for you to make anything for our lunchroom tomorrow either. However, I will order something for our lunchroom for every Wednesday when you have your day off. I will make you an official caterer for our Wednesdays shared snacks and for special events if needed. If you're willing, we can have people put in lunch orders and then you can make a collective lunch run for all of us on this floor and people can pay you individually. Stony said that if we don't find a way to make work for you and help you continue to earn extra money, you will go find a number of other jobs and potentially overwork yourself again. So, this is my proposal. What do you think? From the way you cook and present things, it feels like you've been in the food or hospitality industry before. Do you have a catering business?"
I blinked a few times. I did, as a matter of fact. I had an old national business registration number that was sitting there, gathering dust after a failed business venture years and years back. How could he tell? He had a sharp eye. I nodded.
"Write all the details down."
I wrote down what I had baked and calculated the prices based upon what those cakes and things had cost when I used to make them in the various businesses that I had once worked in and had learnt a variety of skills. Doing some calculations in my mind, it gave me a good margin of profit. This was doable business.
Once I wrote down what was owed. On another page, I wrote down a lunch meal proposal. Since I wouldn't know what ingredients I had and what I was going to make, I just made a random list.
Pocket change lunch surprise $6
Sandwich lunch surprise $8
Soup lunch $9
Dessert surprise (portion for one) $3-$5 depending upon item
Medium lunchbox surprise $15
Large lunchbox surprise $20
At the bottom, I wrote the name of my old catering business and national business registry number.
THE biggest boss of all glanced over it and crossed out the pocket change, sandwich and soup lunch options. He then added a small meal option.
"The cafe downstairs provides these kinds of things," he told me, pointing at the crossed out items. "Let's keep your menu simple and exclusive."
So the list became:
Small lunchbox $10
Medium lunchbox $15
Large lunchbox $20
Dessert (portion for one) $3-$10 depending upon item
"So do you have the startup funds to start this next week?"
I shook my head.
"Will $1000 be enough?"
My eyes widened in shock.
"More than enough," I said, making calculations in my head for where I would go to buy ingredients, lunch boxes and so on. "$200 is sufficient."
THE biggest boss of all gave me a withering look.
"You're really bad at business, aren't you?"
"I just don't want to owe anybody anything," I rubbed my nose and shrugged. "I'll definitely pay you back with interest as soon as I make money."
"Alright," THE biggest boss of all rubbed his forehead, shaking his head at me. "I won't shortchange you. Just keep in mind that we are talking business here and you need to ensure you don't work yourself at a loss. I'll have a contract written up and sent to your email. From now on, for as long as you have Wednesdays time-in-lieu, you will make $50 worth of snacks and treats for our lunchroom on this floor to share for the Wednesday only. You will also take lunch orders on a Tuesday to bring in on Wednesdays."
"May I add, sir, that people need to provide their own appropriately sized lunch boxes in order to keep the costs down. They can put all their clearly labeled and cleaned lunchboxes into a box that I will take home on Tuesdays and bring back on Wednesdays. So if someone orders a big lunchbox but only provides a small lunchbox, they will only be getting a small lunchbox. Likewise, if someone orders a small lunchbox but provides a big lunchbox, they will only be receiving the small lunchbox within their big lunchbox according to their order. Otherwise, I will fill their lunchboxes according to the appropriate size within reason."
"Then you need to provide lunbox sizes so that nobody can complain," THE biggest boss of all told me. "Go home and do your research and then send my your finalised list with rules, prices and sizes. Don't forget to add a delivery fee for all items and a disclaimer that these lunchboxes are made early in the mornings, are homemade and people will have to heat up their own lunches. Figure out how you will invoice, bill and get people to pay. Perhaps you can add an single use QR pay code to your invoices that will be attached to the lunchboxes or something like that."
I scribbled down the ideas and suggestions, nodding. When I was done, I looked up at THE biggest boss of all.
"You really won't give either Stony or me a chance?"
"Maybe," I twitched my nose in irritation, "in the future. I don't know either of you well enough to even consider it for now. Add to that the fact that you're both my bosses and getting into a relationship with a boss is just plain weird."
"Alright," the man sighed, shoulders slumping. "You have the power. Do you have PayID? Can I make payments directly to your back account using your phone number?"
"Ah? Yes?" I nodded, wondering what he meant by this question.
He typed on his phone and in the next second, my phone chimed with an alert for $1000 that had just been deposited into my bank account.
"Huh?"
"This is your startup loan, Jane. You can pay me back when you start earning money. You don't have to add interest."
"I thought we agreed on $200?"
"You suggested $200, but I didn't agree. Use that first and tell me if you need more money. For now, we'll only keep this business deal for this floor. If it all goes well and you feel well enough and up to it, you can consider expanding to other floors. But for now, your food only belongs to our lunchroom. I don't want to share it."
THE biggest boss of all was a domineering and possessive businessman after all.
I didn't see Stony Boss on the way out.
At home, I did my research, made a menu layout, prettified it and made a business proposal within the best of my ability with all the details that THE biggest boss of all had asked for. I sent it to him to have a look at and approve by the end of the work day and then decided to take Captain Hank Ted to the Laundromat to get a wash and tumble dry. He stank of old sweat and it was disgusting.