I SLOWLY OPENED MY EYES and sat up on the bed, holding the top of the blanket to my chest.

Where was I?

As looked around the room, I met Thomas peacefully sleeping beside me with his arm wrapped around my nude body underneath the blanket.

Oh.

I hugged the blanket tighter to myself.

"WILL THIS ENOUGH TO KEEP HIM BY YOUR SIDE FOREVER?"

I gritted my teeth and turned to stare at Thomas again. I hoped deep down in me that he wouldn't leave me. I would try my best to give him all that he needed, even if it wasn't easy for me.

Gently taking his arm off my waist, I got up from the bed and picked my brasserie on the floor. No matter how many times I slept with him, it was always weird being naked around him.

"Babe," I heard him faintly say.

"Yes?" I answered, not turning around to stare at him.

"Are you leaving?"

I clipped the hook of my bra and wore it on, "Yeah, I've got to go to work."

I awkwardly crouched on the floor and picked up my underwear, praying within me that he would not notice the stretch marks on my ass. I cringed in disgust. That would be so embarrassing.

"Can't you skip work just for today?" He asked.

"If I do that, they're going to cut my pay and I don't want that," I firmly said, putting on my skirt as I still backed him, "Hey, Tom, could you lend me a white shirt?"

"Alright."

I heard the bedframe creak softly as Thomas got up. He suddenly grabbed my waist from behind, pulling me along with him to his wardrobe.

"But you know, a normal girlfriend would just walk over to her boyfriend's wardrobe and take whatever she wants," Thomas added as he drew out a plain white shirt.

A normal girlfriend.

"Oh, really?" I asked, staring at him.

He dropped his shirt on my shoulders and kissed my forehead, "Yes."

Then, I had better act fast with winning the bet against that monster, so I would become a normal girlfriend to him. If I could get that makeover from Annabelle and finally be able to find something good about myself, I'd be set free and I'd never see that beast in the mirror again.

I slipped my arms into the sleeves of Thomas's shirt, while he left me to get dressed.

I couldn't wait to win.

I picked up my bag from the floor and turned to Thomas, watching him buckle his belt as he sat on the very edge of the bed. Man! Every action of his was artistic, pure sweet art. I was so elated to be called the girlfriend of this hot guy before me.

Jealous? You should be.

"I want to take my leave now," I said to him after I buttoned up the oversized shirt I had on.

"Do you need a ride? You can just take a walk, right?"

"Yeah, the cafe's not too far away from here," I pursed my lips.

We stared at each other for a long minute, examining the colour of our irides even from a distance. Thomas slowly blinked and went on sleepily gazing at me when he noticed that I wasn't backing down with my intense stare.

"Do you need something?" He asked me.

"Wh-What would a normal girlfriend do in a situation like this?" I pursed my lips again.

Thomas smirked, brushing his lips with his fingertips, "She'd probably give her boyfriend a goodbye kiss."

Just as I thought. See? Being normal was not so hard.

I took a couple of steps towards him and planted a quick kiss on his lips.

"Bye," I said and rushed out of his apartment.

It was so funny how we had been dating for almost five years and I was still so timid around him. It felt like I had to be perfect with everything I did for and before him like a student of a strict teacher. Well, in this case, Thomas wasn't a strict teacher, he was the love of my life whom I wished to impress the most.

I skipped down the road and turned to my right at the T-junction up ahead, sheepishly smiling.

One step closer. One step closer to being normal.

One step closer...

I halted in my steps, noticing that people were staring at me for an awfully long time as they walked past me. I frantically rubbed my left cheek and stared at my hand. My eyes widened in horror; my fingertips were clean.

I hurriedly pulled out my mirror from my bag as I backed the street. After dabbing layers of concealer over my birthmark with all my might, it seemed like my face had started to look normal.

"NORMAL?"

Normal.

I finished off with some setting spray, then went back to casually walking down the street.

Normal.

The bell softly rang as I opened the cafe door and walked in. The cafe was lifeless, lacking customers.

It was already half past five and not even Clara was in?

My manager strolled into the main cafe from his office while humming a song and a look of surprise gradually overtook his face the moment he saw me.

"Miss. Davis, you're working today?" He inquired.

I put on a formal smile, "Yes, Mr. Lenin. I'm hale and hearty."

"That's good to know. I didn't expect that you'd show up," he responded numbly, "Do well to inform Miss. Winters when she arrives that there's a meeting after today's work. We have a new worker."

New worker? Was the new worker supposed to replace me?

I slowly nodded and excused myself, walking off to the back room to get my apron and nametag.

Would they kick me out of the cafe when the new worker resumed? I hadn't even spent up to a year working here. Oh well.

The bell softly jingled the second I stepped out of the backroom and a young lady walked into the cafe. She looked like she was most likely in her late twenties as she wore a pink floral dress with a white Gucci bag and matching shoes. Her dark-brown hair was neat and went wavy down to her shoulders.

And as for her make-up, well, let's just say that the bold red lipstick made it look a little too much. But hey, don't judge, right?

The lady dropped her bag on the counter, "I'd like two venti peppermint mochas and four croissants."

"To go?" I asked.

My eyes darted for the door as the bell jingled once more. A young man stepped into the cafe, tucking his car keys into his pocket.

"No, I'll be taking them here," the lady replied.

I turned back to her, "That'll total to $16.56."

She tossed me the money from her bag, "Keep the change."

I really don't care about four cents bro, but thanks.

I shifted my gaze to the new customer as I sorted the money into the cash register, "What would you-"

"He's with me," the floral dress lady snapped and held his arm.

"Well, sorry," I raised my hands in defeat, "Please give me a minute to whip up your orders. You can go have your seats, I'll bring them to your table."

I was holding back so hard from eyeing her.

Why was she acting like I was going to take her man and run away? She could keep him. Obsessed girlfriends like her were bound to be cheated on anyway. Unfortunately, when it came to relationships, too much care made one's partner to draw back.

Apparently, showing too much interest was weird.

The couple moved along to settle down on one of the round tables as they awaited their meal. Strolling over to the coffee machine as I hummed one of Nathan Eiser's songs to let off some steam, I whipped up their order. I grabbed four croissants with a glove from the show glass and placed them into two ceramic plates before pouring out the latte into similar cups.

I sighed.

"Where is Clara when you need her?" I randomly asked.

I placed the pastries and coffee neatly onto a round tray and approached their table with it. The lady in a floral dress backed me on the chair she sat in while the young man faced me, since he sat opposite her on the round table. The young man's eyes never left my skin, rather he stared shamelessly at me as I walked towards him.

I tilted my face to my right and stuck out my tongue in disgust.

Why was he watching me? Was it because I was holding his order?

I walked on, watching my steps so as not to trip and spill all that was on the tray. Finally arriving at their table, I set their order down and walked back to the counter with the empty tray. I set the tray in its initial position and placed my head on the counter, squeezing my eyes shut.

The group date with Thomas and his friends was coming up in the next two days and I had nothing to wear. I needed to look good enough to impress his friends. I mean, their girlfriends were probably hot ladies who always dressed nicely. I couldn't afford to look any different.

I measured my left wrist with my right middle finger and thumb. Not enough.

"Miss. Davis," I heard someone call out.

I raised my head to see my manager standing some inches away from me.

I hurriedly stood upright, adjusting my apron, "Oh, Mr. Lenin."

"Has Clara reported to work yet?"

I racked my brain, "No, uhm, she told me she'll soon be here. She had some minor issues on her way."

Really? That was the best you could come up with?

He stared at me for quite a while, most likely because Clara and I were always giving flimsy excuses as to why either of us did not report to work on time.

"Hm, alright," he said, staring at me suspiciously, "Don't forget to deliver my message."

"I won't, sir."

"And stop slacking off. You should have stayed home if you knew you wanted to rest your head," he added before walking off to his office.

I thinned my lips and glanced at the table I just served, adjusting my glasses.

Yep! He was still staring at me.

His girlfriend was on her phone, not concerned about where her man was keeping his eyeballs. With the way she acted earlier, I had expected her to hide him under her pits.

As my gaze met that of the young man, he smiled and finally slid his focus over to his girlfriend. She instinctively placed her hand on his arm and the both of them started a conversation I couldn't quite pick. Just then, a familiar scent of perfume rushed into the cafe as the doorbell jingled.

"Sorry I'm late," Clara said as she strutted over to the counter, "He insisted I spend an extra hour with him."

She walked into the back room and reappeared minutes later; her gold bag had vanished and was replaced with the cafe's apron.

"I have a boyfriend too, you know?" I frowned at her.

She laughed heartily and joined me behind the counter, "I said I was sorry. Did the manager notice?"

"Yeah, but I covered up for you. You better start cooking up a good story of the 'minor issue' that you experienced. Oh, and he mentioned that we're having a meeting after we close too."

"Ugh!" She groaned, "What's it about this time?"

"He said something about a new worker."

"Working our shift?" She asked expectantly.

"I feel so. Since he informed us about it, the worker should be working the evening shift too."

Clara jumped for joy, "Sweet! I can't wait to meet her."

"Same, girl. Same."

This job was quite stressful for just two people, especially when there was a rush.

I shifted my gaze to the young guy who just walked into the cafe, "Welcome to Beanie's Cafe. What can I get you?"

The insanely cute guy standing before me was dressed like a typical 'bad boy', wearing a black and red checkered shirt over an ash round-neck top. He had a black cap on but I could not see the inscription in front of it because he was a little too tall for me.

I ran my gaze down his body, taking note of his chiselled jaw and his sculptured chest that outlined through his tight top. His baby face told me that he was a young guy but his physique said otherwise.

This guy looked familiar but I couldn't quite wrap my finger around it, no matter how hard I pondered. Dirty-blonde hair, dark-brown eyes. Where had I seen him before?

I could see a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he stared at me, "Oh, I'm not here to get something. I'm the new worker."

Clara and I stared at ourselves with widened eyes before I turned back to him.

"Hi," he said to me with a smirk, "I'm Adrian Everhart."

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Tip: Wendy's shift at the cafe starts at 4 PM and ends at eight.