The Cursed King

Elise woke up early, with the intention of preparing breakfast for them before Loriel woke up. But apparently, he still beat her to it.

When she entered the kitchen, she already smelled the delicious smell. Ahh.. did Loriel wake up early again?

"Good morning," she greeted him. "What time did you wake up?"

Loriel didn't sleep. Actually… he couldn't sleep.

It was so hard to get a wink of sleep when he was longing to make love to his wife who was sleeping not too far away from him, but he couldn't touch her. 

So… after fighting blue balls for hours, he finally went out of his room to exercise in his private gym and break some sweat. Then, when morning came, he decided to prepare breakfast for them.

"Oh.. not too early," he lied so easily. "I did a simple workout and ended up feeling hungry. So, I made breakfast."

"I see..." Elise was still wearing her nightgown and a robe. She walked to Loriel's side and remove her robe and then took an apron from the kitchen counter. "Can I help with anything?"

Loriel wanted to say no, but Elise already put on the apron. Finally, he gave her a simple task to make her feel like she contributed.

"You can make us tea," he said with a smile. "You know where the tea is, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

She happily made tea for them. This time, because she already knew how the kitchen worked, Elise didn't use her power to make them tea. She wasn't sure if Loriel saw what she did back then, but she didn't want to take any risks now.

What if Loriel thought she was a freak when he clearly saw her power? He had been so kind to Elise. She didn't want their friendship to be ruined just because she was not 'normal'. At least by Tessa's and her family's standards.

Loriel finished preparing the breakfast in no time and soon they were sitting at the dining table, facing a delicious meal.

"Thank you for breakfast," said Elise. She got up to get ready for work. She still needed to take a quick shower and change.

"No problem," said Loriel. "Oh, too bad we don't have leftovers from last night's dinner. So, you cannot bring your lunch box."

"Ah, that's fine. I can eat lunch in the cafeteria," said Elise.

"Okay then."

Loriel nodded. He actually preferred it if Elise ate his food for lunch, but last night he had let her do the cooking and the soup she made was awful. He couldn't possibly let her bring it for her lunch today.

Hmm... he could just ask Marc to take care of today's lunch.

"Bye, Loriel. See you later after work," said Elise when she passed by Loriel in the living room, ready to leave for the office. The man looked up from his book and nodded with a smile.

"Bye, Elise."

Pot and Pebble came out out of nowhere and stopped her. Elise chuckled and got down to pet both of them before she finally continued her journey.

*** 

By lunchtime, the staff in Sanderman Group head office was surprised by an announcement made by the HR that special for that day, they would enjoy a five-star buffet provided by the best catering team from St. Laurent Hotel New York's main restaurant.

"I think it's the birthday of the company's founder or something," some girls talked among themselves. 

"Yeah, but this never happened before."

"Ah.. who cares what is this for. I am just so happy we can eat for free such good food from the best restaurant in the city."

"What a beautiful day! Not only do we get to eat for free, but we will also get our salary today," another girl gushed. 

"You are right! Today is payday!! I am soooo excited!"

Elise felt lucky that she didn't bring her lunch box today. If Loriel prepared food for her, she would feel bad about taking the free food provided by the company.

So, in the end, it all turned out for the better. Judging from her colleague's enthusiasm, it looked like the lunch provided by the company today was quite special. She wanted to try.

Wait a minute. Did they just mention... payday?

Elise became excited too. Did this mean, she would also get her salary?

But she had only worked for ten days. Was she eligible for salary? Didn't people need to work the full month to get paid?

She turned to Alex and voiced her concern.

"Oh.. of course, you will get paid," Alex reassured her. "Your salary will be pro-rated."

"Pro-rated?"

Alex batted her eyes and looked at Elise attentively. There were so many things that she couldn't comprehend about Elise.

This woman was beautiful and smart, but some little things about her were a bit... off.

How could she not understand the simple fact that she would get her salary even though she had not worked for one month? As this was the end of the month, all staff would get their payment.

If staff had not worked for a month, that means their salary would be divided by the total workdays of the month and then multiplied by the number of days she actually worked.

However, considering Marc paid so much attention to Elise and had explicitly told Alex to take care of the girl, Alex tried to brush off her suspicions.

She kept telling herself that it was none of her business.

It was none of her business.

It was none of...

"Yes, you will get paid for the number of days you have worked. A bank account was set up under your name on the day you were hired. You can check the balance after work today," Alex explained patiently.

"Ah.. that's wonderful! Thank you for explaining it to me. I understand now."

Elise was so excited. If she really got money today, she would use it to buy Loriel a nice dinner. The man had been so kind to her. Taking him to eat out was the least she could do since she sucked at cooking.