CHAPTER FOUR:
If bitter coffee needs a sugar, then bitter people needs what?

Welton Residence
Ivory Mansion
Harriden City

Warren was aware that he was bad at handling liquor in his body. But he had no idea what was going on with his head that he always tries to drown himself with alcohol. The hangover was like a torment, but the next night he will knock himself with alcohol again.

'Mr. Welton, this is getting out of hand. I know that it is hard to move on, but please, take a look at yourself.' Ms. Levinson said as she gestured her hands at Warren, who was sitting on his bedroom floor surrounded by bottles of whiskey. 'You are ruining your own self. This is not the Warren I know. If you need anything, I am here to talk.' She said with concern in her eyes.

'Ms. Levinson, just leave me alone. I know that you practically raised me. I owe you that. But this is my life. It's a mess. Can't you see?'

'Mr. Welton, if this goes on, I will call your mother's attention.' She said like a guidance counselor talking to a problematic child.

Warren grunted when her mom was mentioned. 'Just-,' Warren waves his hand at her, telling her to leave the room. '-do whatever you want.' He said as he headed to the bathroom.

Last night, Ed, his secretary, flooded Warren's inbox with messages. He even called Warren several times. The board was already requesting Warren's presence at a meeting. His absence had caused a great decline in the company's profits for that was all that mattered to them. Profit. Profit and more profits.

Warren opened his black Porsche and drove towards the Welton Incorporated Main Office. Passing by the tall buildings around the city, Warren stopped in a huge traffic jam.

'Now, would you look at that?' He muttered as he saw the long line of cars. He pressed the horns violently. 'Come on! Move!' He shouted inside his car.

He rested his head and doing so didn't make him relaxed a bit. He decided to watch people walking on the sidewalk from his car window. Right there he saw the newspaper girl on her bike hurrying to somewhere. The corners of his mouth rose as he thought of that day he met her and how stupid the girl was.

'Interesting. It's a small world after all.' He uttered to himself. 'She's hot, though. Now, what am I thinking?'

He jolted at the sound of horns coming from the back.

'Oh, Damn it.' He said as he looked at the rearview mirror.

He didn't waste more time and dashed his car to leave that street. He knows he had a lot of catching up to do in his office. He could imagine a huge pile of paper works on his desk. But Warren was very hardworking that he was confident to finish them within this week.

Welton Incorporated Main Office

Harriden City

Warren could sense some eyes ogling over him as he entered the entrance of the building. He could see fear and intimidation from them. In other words, respect.

'Good morning, Mister Welton.' says the security, standing at the glass door in the entrance.

Warren nodded and replied. 'Morning.' He replied in monotone.

He stood at the elevator waiting for it to open. In the corner of his eyes, he noticed some worker whispering behind me.

'Did you know...fiancé left...' one employee whispers to the other.

'Shhh. Quiet.' The other employee scolded her.

'It's okay, ladies. Feel free to talk about whatever your topic is.' Warren said.

However, he made sure to remember their faces for his employee evaluation. He can't wait to see their faces the results of their evaluation. He thinks that it would be priceless.

'G-good morning, Sir.' They greeted him while smiling nervously.

'Morning.' He replied coldly as he turned my eyes at the elevator door.

'It's obvious they were talking about me. I mean how they could not talk about it. It's our fault for making our wedding announcements on the tabloids, magazines, and newspapers. I didn't want to inform the media about it. But since Mary really insisted on it, I had no choice. I was stupid to follow the saying "Happy Bride, happy life".' He thought as he entered the elevator.

Warren pressed the button number on the highest floor. He walked towards his office and noticed that Ed was already outside the door.

'Morning, Mister Welton.' said as he opened the door of my office for me.

'Good Morning, Ed.' Warren replied. 'How's my schedule for today?' He asked him as he sat on his comfortable swivel chair.

'You are absolutely behind schedule. One more thing, please call me Mr. Laslow at work. Didn't you know how many business meetings I postponed yesterday? Can you imagine how many calls I have to make just to apologize to every Mister Someone because Mister Welton was not feeling well? You know too well that you are not good at handling alcohol.'

'It doesn't concern you.' He replied coldly.

'Mister Welton, I know it's hard to lose your fiancé. But please, don't let that brokenness make you lose this company, which your parents entrusted to you to manage. Next time, instead of drinking and you want to talk about it, I can listen to you anytime. Just please don't turn into this pain in the ass alcoholic, as what Miss Levinson described it.'

'Really? She said that?'

'Yeah, really. The old lady was worried about you, Mr. Welton.'

'Please, Mr. Laslow. Let's stop this conversation and just order me some cappuccino at my favorite coffee shop instead.'

'Right away.' Ed said as he picked up the receiver to order cappuccino via a landline.

Ed talked about the schedule and how he adjusted them so that Warren could catch up. He overloaded Warren's scheduled for today in the morning that left him no choice but to work, work, and work.

'Ed might be having his revenge for letting him do most of the job in this office. I knew it. He wouldn't look this satisfied if he wasn't.' Warren thought.

He stopped thinking when there was a knock on the door. Edgar opened it and a girl in the delivery uniform appeared. He wants to know who it was as he tried to peek. But the wide frame of Ed didn't give him a chance to see whoever it was.

'Is this the Office of the CEO?' the girl's voice said that Warren thought to be familiar with his ears.

It took a while before Ed could reply to the lady in front of him. He thinks his brain had a momentary mental shut down.

'Sir?' The girl asked one more time.

'Y-yes.' Ed replied.

Warren being curious, walked slowly towards the door. He had a feeling that it was someone that he knew. Slowly, he walked towards them. As he comes closer, her face comes to light.

'Good morning, dear customer. You have a delivery from the Barista's Coffee shop.' Merry greeted the man in front of her.

'T- that would be for Mr. Warren Welton.' Edgar replied, while stuttering like dumb.

'Warren? Did you just say Warren Welton?' She asked like she was showing some interest in his name.

'Y- yes. Something wrong, Miss?' Ed asked.

Merry shook her head. 'Nothing. It's just the name that reminds me of someone. Here are your two orders of cappuccino and a dozen of donuts.' She said as she handed them to Edgar.

Warren ran rapidly towards her to grab the coffee from her hand before Ed could get them.

'Hey, you are the newspaper girl from the other day.' He stated.

Merry looked surprised to see the rude man at the Ivory mansion. 'I think you are mistaken, dear customer. Apparently, I work at Barista's Coffee Shop.' She denied.

Warren was taken aback by what she said. 'Does she imitates me? Just like how I denied that I was that man in the news.'

He scoffed. 'No. You are the Newspaper Girl! You threw a newspaper at me. Right on the face.' Warren said as he gestured how the newspaper landed on his face.

Merry rolled her eyes. 'Why? Do you want more rolled newspapers to be thrown at you?' She said mockingly.

Edgar laughed at him. Warren just gave him a deadly glare, then Ed faked a cough and went back to his laptop on the top of the coffee table.

Merry sighed and rolled her eyes as a sign of her impatience. You can't blame her for that, because she was itching to leave the establishment the moment she saw Warren's face.

'Can I get the payment for cappuccinos and donuts? It's 299 for the donuts and 98 for the two cappuccinos.' She stated, showing Warren the palm of her hands. 'Pay up, billionaire.' She added that made Warren's blood boil.

Warren took out his wallet and slammed a thousand on her soft palms. 'Keep the change.' He said with a deadly look.

'Hell. This girl is not scared at all even though she was inside my building.' Warren thought.

Merry raised her brow. 'I'm not a beggar.' She said.

'Who do you think you're scaring here, Mr. Rich Boy?', Merry thought.

Warren huffed at the ceiling.' Then throw it away.'

She narrowed her eyes at him, then shook her head. 'Then I'll keep it. You should not waste money just because you're rich.' She said as she pockets the money.

'Are you giving me a sermon on how to spend my money? I can do whatever I want with my money, Newspaper girl.'

'As I've said earlier, I work for a coffee shop. Thank you for your patronage and generosity, dear customer. Your secretary already signed the purchase receipt. I will take my leave. Excuse me.' She said, rolling her eyes and flipping her long hair as she about-faced.

'Wow. What a big head! I can't believe a girl like that existed in this world. She's so full of herself!' Warren ranted as he slammed the door.

'She's hot.' Ed commented.

'Uh, uh.' Warren said, shaking his head. 'Correction. She thinks she's hot.'

'And you're denying she's hot.' Ed said as he shot up his brows at Warren.

'Why did I hire him as a secretary, anyway?' Warren questioned himself.

'She's not hot, Ed. And that's an irrevocable truth!' He said in his annoyance.

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