The Spark Restaurant, Elffire City.
4:23 PM
Theo parked his car in the parking lot next to the restaurant.
He exited the car and walked toward his restaurant at a steady pace.
When he arrived in the kitchen, he noticed that Ayia and Shizuka had just come out of the Women's Changing Room.
"Good afternoon, guys!" Theo greeted everyone who was already there with a smile.
"Hey, boss!" They greeted back as they looked at the silver-haired man smiling at them.
Theo walked to the Men's Changing Room and on the way, he hugged Ayia.
"Good afternoon for you too." Theo whispered in her ear before letting her go.
He also greeted Shizuka with a smile before entering the changing room.
Goosebumps crept on her skin when she heard his whisper.
Ayia was taken aback when she felt Theo hugging her in front of everyone in the kitchen.
The purple-haired girl tried to act normally and not blush because she saw that everyone was looking at her with shining eyes.
They could not help but be curious!
After all, they have never seen Theo being so affectionate with someone other than Aurora.
Kimiko, Lauren, Gwen, and other girls were fighting against the urge to fire multiple questions at Ayia.
This was a hot gossip, and they want to learn the facts directly from Ayia's mouth.
Still with a blushed face, Ayia pretended to not notice the ardent and curious eyes of the girls at her.
She took a seat by the side and started to go through her Wing account.
The girls noticed that Ayia didn't want to talk about that, so they gave up asking her.
But everyone had to admit that Ayia and Theo looked amazing together.
The two of them were unbelievably pretty and talented.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe kitchen staff started shipping Theo and Ayia straight away.
They only wondered what name the ship should be.
'Thia' or 'Ayeo'?
While the kitchen staff was imagining this silly stuff and Ayia was trying to not blush while thing about the hug, Theo exited the changing room dressed in his chef clothes.
He looked at them and smiled as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
"Ready to start cooking?" He asked with a calm smile.
"Yes, chef!" They shouted back.
But all of them were admiring Theo's thick skin.
He really was behaving as if he didn't do anything!
Ayia was relieved when she saw him behaving like that.
The service went by with the whole kitchen working like a well-oiled machine.
With Theo and Ayia's guidance, the quality of the food served at The Spark increased up a notch.
Theo could feel that with every night that he spent cooking, his cooking skills increased little by little.
He figured that was what some people say, 'Practicing leads to perfection'.
And all the cooks in the kitchen could also feel that they were much better cooks compared to when they first arrived.
They could tell that was the result of the guidance of Theo and Ayia every night.
Even though it would take years for them to reach Ayia and Theo's level of skill, they could feel that someday they would arrive there.
But two people in the kitchen were closer to that objective.
Shizuka and Kimiko!
Shizuka was already an amazing cook and with the practice of cooking every night at a high level of difficulty, she was starting to achieve the level of a professional chef.
Theo predicted that she would achieve that in two months.
Kimiko in another hand was just a cook that arrived at the restaurant looking for an internship job.
But she was greeted with an amazing environment that offered her a job as a professional cook instead of an internship.
And she grabbed this opportunity.
In the months that she has been working at The Spark's kitchen, she could feel that she learned so much more than in the four years of college.
Theo predicted that in one year Kimiko would reach the level of a professional chef.
The other cooks also had the potential to reach this level, but they would take more time.
Theo was happy to cook with so many talented people.
The time that he spent in the kitchen was a therapeutical time for him.
Even though the service demanded him to cook racing against the time, it was exactly that made his brain relax.
He worked so focused that he did not have time to think about anything else.
When every service ended, he felt like his brain was rebooted.
The service of that night went by without any hiccups.
When the last dish was served, Theo ordered the kitchen staff to clean the kitchen while he went to June's office.
He had something important to talk about with her.
When he arrived there, he saw June taking care of the sales report of the night.
"How was the income of the night?" He asked as he took a seat in front of her desk.
"Another success, boss!" She replied with a smile as she saw Theo seating in front of her.
"I'm glad to hear that!" Theo chuckled.
"I have something to ask you. What do you think about the restaurant closing for vacation at the beginning of January? Do you think that will affect the restaurant?" Theo asked as he exposed his plans.
Theo wanted some time off from work during Aurora's vacation.
He wanted to take her somewhere to relax and figured that after working so much for the last months, he also deserved some resting time.
And he also wanted to give his employees some vacations to enjoy the New Year's Festivities.
But he didn't know if this vacation would affect negatively the restaurant, so he figured he should consult his restaurant manager.
After all, she knew better about the restaurant's day-to-day workings.
"Hmm, I don't think so. We already established ourselves as one of the best restaurants in town other than the Aether Starred restaurants. So, even if we close for some time, our loyal customers will still come after we open again." June replied after thinking for a while.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Plus, everyone will be occupied with the New Year's festivities, so we can take this vacation without worries." June added.
"That's great then!" Theo exclaimed happily.
"What are the days of this vacation?" June asked with an excited voice.
She was also excited about these days off, even though she loved her job, she also wanted a time away from it.
"Stop taking reserves from December 31st until January 11th. These will be the days of the vacation." Theo replied the time that he decided before.
"Hmm, there are already some reservations for those days, but I can reschedule them to be after January 12th." June recalled as she looked at the reservation schedule on her computer.
Theo left June's office after a while with a contented smile.
He could not wait for these vacations.
Later, Theo exited the changing room at the same time that Ayia and Shizuka also left the girl's changing room.
"Hey, girls!" Theo said with a smile.
Ayia had a loving smile as she saw Theo.
"Did you have any luck in hiring a crew to shoot the music videos?" Theo asked Ayia as the three of them walked to the parking lot.
"Yeah! I managed to hire a talented director. He will arrive at Elffire City with his crew in the following days." Ayia replied with an excited voice.
"Really? That's great! You are very efficient!" Theo complimented the girl with a smile.
"Of course!" Ayia replied with a proud smile.
"Hmm, even this director arrives now, I don't have any money left to pay for the music videos budget. So you can tell the crew that they can arrive on December 1st. At that time the money from the monthly profit of my companies will arrive and I will be able to pay for the videos' budgets." Theo pondered with a thoughtful face.
"Did you really invest all your money in that animation studio?" Shizuka asked suddenly.
"Yeah, and the next months' profits of all my companies are all compromised to that too. It's so expensive opening a studio!" Theo chuckled.
"Hmm, if you want I can pay for the budget of the music videos. And in the end, you can pay me back." Ayia proposed after thinking for a while.
This little amount of money was nothing to her, so she figured she could help him.
"Are you sure? I don't want to leach off of you." Theo said hesitantly.
"You're too silly! You know that I have more money than I can spend." Ayia replied with a confident tone.
"Well, if you say like that I will accept then. But you have to take note of everything you spend on these videos. I will pay you for everything you paid at the end!" Theo stated with a determined voice.
The two of them talked about other stuff before they each entered their cars and went home.
Theo was looking forward to the results Ayia would bring him.