I'm Guilty, My Beauty

"Will she be working here from now on?"

"At last, we now have a flower in this lonesome kitchen of thorns."

"Is she a regular worker or part-time?"

"the boss" relative or friend?"

Clarence realized that they entered a tiger"s den with a single tigress available. At first, he expected to have a headache but as he saw her focused on what she was doing, he brushed off those odd thoughts from his mind. He wouldn"t want to commit the same absurdity as he had with the kid. He continued to trust her no matter what and would have to learn not be always on guard.

Giorgio offered to become Beauty"s a.s.sistant. Though he was still unsure if Clarence was scary or not, he was willing to interact whenever the other initiated a talk. He reverted back as a child without the cares of the world.

Beauty continued her lessons for three days in a row. She enjoyed learning from Chef Dino, but her time was up. The National compet.i.tion would start a day after.

"Mama, Papa, can we go watch Big Sis?" Giorgio was tugging their clothes.

"You can only go in during semi-finals. Can you come at that time?" Beauty asked the couple.

"That won"t be a problem. Just give us a call."

"Yey! Big Sis, we will cheer for you."

"Bye, Lil" …" She was interrupted when he placed a finger on his pursed lips. He then pointed his finger to his cheek. The adults lightly chuckled. Beauty bent and gave him a kiss. He also gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Bye, Big Sis. See you later."

. . . . .

As they were approaching the car, "Hmph. Uhumph." Clarence was acting like he was coughing as he jerked her hand.

"What?"

Clarence copied Giorgio"s gesture, he pointed his cheek.

"There"s nothing there." Beauty understood but ignored him.

"Uhumph" He continued pointing his cheek.

"Will you stop that?" Yet, she slightly chuckled.

He got impatient and swiftly gave her a smacking kiss on her lips and whistled as he walked as if nothing happened.

"You, we"re in the middle of the road. A lot of people are staring." She heavily stepped on his foot.

"Ouch!"

Beauty shrugged.

"You"re unfair, you gave the boy a kiss but you ignored me."He was feigning pain on his foot as if he was limping heavily with a pained look on his face.

Beauty just ran straight to the car giggling. Clarence shook his head and sighed. He"s perfectly contented with their relations.h.i.+p now. He wished no one or nothing would disturb this perfect harmony.

. . . . .

Annual National Open Culinary Compet.i.tion day.

This compet.i.tion was held in the organization"s building itself. It was an eight-story building with a restaurant and bakery shop on the ground floor.

The Culinary Organization of the Philippines was not a newly established ent.i.ty. It has stood the test of time with its excellent reputation for its twenty-one years of existence. A lot of restaurants were opened through its guidance and influence. Their aim was also to discover the new generations of culinary talents.

From the second to the fifth level, cla.s.ses were continually held the whole week. There were different lessons from baking pastries to cooking special dishes, learning how to start a bakery or restaurant or for commercial cooking was also included.

Those heading to higher levels had to use the stairs or elevator provided at the side of the building. Clarence and Beauty chose to climb the stairs. On the way up, they"ve met most of the regional representatives from different regions nationwide.

Beauty hadn"t known the immensity of Clarence"s popularity until today. Along the way, individuals stopped and asked for a selfie with him. What frustrated the two was that, Intentionally or not, Beauty was pushed away as the people approached them. However, Clarence clasped her hand with a firm grip and didn"t allow anyone to break them apart literally.

He let this untoward actions slipped and were still cordial with his greetings. Somehow, he was getting irritated with a few who treated her discriminately.

These people were from the Greater Manila Region, most of them were even his peers. Those who knew him well were considerate, but there were a few girls who were envious. How could they allow her to take a hold of him?

Beauty was also intimidated when a handful of girls stared at her from head to toe and their mouths were full of words of contempt.

"Is she Clarence"s girlfriend?" said with sarcasm.

"Was it not Sheila?"

"She"s not that pretty as Sheila. She"s… plain."

"What happened between them? They broke up?"

"They said she"s just a girl from the province. What"s so good about her?"

Clarence was so p.i.s.sed. His blood started to boil in anger. He had two good reasons to get angry.

First, this was his life. They had no right to decide on who should he be dating.

Second, they had no right to look down on her. She even won the regional champions.h.i.+p while these girls had never even won a single compet.i.tion.

As he was about to retort, Beauty squeezed his hand, stopping him. He looked at her in the eye asking why.

"It"s okay. What they said won"t change the fact that you chose me." She hadn"t known the details but she had an inkling about Clarence and Sheila"s past base on these girls statements. After being with him, she understood a bit of his personality. He was choosy about who he befriended or alienated. He really chose her over Sheila.

He smiled back and nodded. He"s so proud of her. He wished he could kiss her now in front of these annoying girls and make them jealous but thought of the possible consequences. Provoking them might cause more harm to Beauty.

As they reached the third floor, the whole place was already packed with people. Some noticed Clarence and was interested with the girl beside him. One of them was a guy who couldn"t be missed. Just a glance and would leave an impression that he was really filthy rich from his branded expensive polo s.h.i.+rt, stylish shoes and expensive watch and pieces of jewelry.

"Clarence, nice to see you here." Then looked at Beauty. "This is GleeGal, right?"

Hearing her username mentioned, her attention was totally at the speaker, "You are?"

Clarence interrupted, "Yes, this is my girlfriend, Beauty. Hi, Max." His face was serious, didn"t show any friendliness at all.

Max sensed his hostility, "No need to be aggressive. Just being friendly. Just wanna meet Beauty here."

He winked at her and said,"Nice to see you in person. Same as your name, beautiful. Don"t mind me, I"m just invincible," but before leaving he leaned closer to Clarence, "Sheila is here," and snickered.

"What was his username in the chat?" asked Beauty.

"CaptureMex. Don"t go near him, number one playboy in the Org."

"Okay, and you"re the number one celebrity in the Org."

"I didn"t ask for it. It came after winning the Junior Master Chef twice. For me, it"s a useless t.i.tle." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear while his other hand didn"t let go of her hand, not a second. These intimate gestures were his announcement that she was his girlfriend and not Sheila. No need to say more.

While everyone was waiting for the program to begin, the rest of the eight representatives from Cebu Charter Visayas Region arrived, except for Cathy. They did a group hug and became noisy chatting in their own language.

"Everyone, please be seated. We are about to commence our Annual Open Culinary Compet.i.tion."

Clarence and group chose to sit at the back. Unexpectedly, someone went beside the former and whispered something to his ear, he frowned. The guy stood by his side waiting, Clarence whispered back then the guy left. The whole team"s eyes were on him.

"Who"s that guy?" Beauty and the gang were curious.

"The organizer wants me to sit at the front with the special guests. I declined, I"m also a contestant. I don"t like this special attention." He was also worried to be separated from Beauty. He"s sure Sheila would be there as well and might be arranged to sit beside him if he went. He even guessed she would come after that guy reported.

Minutes after, Sheila did come.