Lillie"s steps halted and rotated her head to her right. It"s a pâtisserie [1] that Lillie was familiar of. When her family flew to France to visit her maternal grandparents, they would often come to this particular shop to buy sweets.
She"s happy they"ve finally build a branch that"s closer.
Lillie had already picked her nephew"s present and was about to go home, but her rumbling stomach and sweet tooth was begging her to enter to grab a few bites.
Defeated by her cravings, Lillie thought a break wouldn"t hurt anyone. She still got an extra time before rush hour.
Lillie entered the vintage style pastry shop and joined the queue.
There weren"t so many people in the mall, so it didn"t took too long before it was her turn to order.
"Good afternoon, miss! What will your order be?" A cute, male cas.h.i.+er greeted Lillie with a boyish smile. His cheeks were dusted pink when he saw how alluring the customer in front of him was.
"A slice of chocolate mille crepe and iced caramel latte for here, and five mont blanc to-go" The cute cas.h.i.+er was fascinated by Lillie"s perfect p.r.o.nunciation of the french desserts she"ve mentioned.
Lillie gave him her credit card after he was done punching the code.
Handing the card back, the cas.h.i.+er said, "You"re in luck miss, there are only six mont blanc left, since they"re our best seller. I"ll give you the sixth one for free."
"Ah, no, I"ll pay it."
"I insist, miss. Consider this a treat from me." He flashed her with another boyish smile.
Lillie then noticed the name tag pinned on his s.h.i.+rt.
Ah, so he"s actually the manager.
"We"ll serve your order in just a few minutes. The tables are over there, you may choose any seat you want." Lillie thanked the cas.h.i.+er.
She was about to move out of the line when a high-pitched, snarky voice spoke from behind, rudely grabbing Lillie"s shoulder to stop her.
"Excuse me! I can"t help but hear your conversation. Isn"t this unfair to us other customers waiting for the line for those...mont blanc?" She slightly struggled to properly p.r.o.nounce the name.
Lillie turned around to see who this rude woman was. If her mother was here, her eyes would definitely burn from the sight. The fas.h.i.+on police"s siren was ringing loudly in her head.
"Ah, I"m terribly sorry for that, ma"am. There are fresh batch to arrive soon, it"ll only take a few minutes before we put them on display."
The snarky and gaudy-dressed woman was irked when she was called ma"am instead of miss. But due to her thick make-up, her intended age was unclear.
In truth, the reason of her aggression wasn"t because of the dessert, it"s because of Lillie"s appearance and the treatment she received from the cute manager.
But, it"s also to show the socialites accompanying her that she now belongs to the Elite Society.
She wasn"t born from a rich family, only married to it. So, she doesn"t fully understand the concept of "not all expensive things are worth it, or pleasing to the eyes". She only followed what the socialites behind her were doing.
She asked them to accompany her to the mall to flaunt her wealth. Taking a break after shopping for clothes and accessories, they came across this expensive-looking pastry shop, and said she"ll treat them.
Seeing the names of the desserts, she almost regretted her decision because she didn"t know how say it. Though there were some in English, she thought it would impress her companions if she could order something in French.
Fortunately for her, she heard Lillie"s orders and decided that she"ll also order the same to avoid being humiliated. But her purpose diverted because of her envy.
"I don"t care! What I care about is your unfair treatment!" Her arrogance and pettiness earned her a look of displeasure from the other customer who were being held up because of the commotion she created.
"Hah! So this is how girls like her get what they want? Just because she"s a bit attractive? I bet she went to the blades!"
"It"s under the knife [2]." One of her companions whispered. The uncultured woman"s face turned red, but pretended she heard nothing.
"I apologize, ma"am. Is there something I can do to compensate?"
The uncultured woman pretended to think for a minute before pointing at Lillie, "Give her orders to me. We"ve waited long enough for those desserts. And since she said she"ll dine here, she could wait for those other batch instead."
The cute manager looked troubled. In his whole career, he had never encountered someone so ent.i.tled. "Uh, ma"am, I"m afraid this customer had already paid for it, and she was first."
He got a feeling that it wasn"t totally about the pastry.
"I"ll pay double!" She arrogantly replied, taking out her credit card.
The cute manager looked at Lillie for a reply.
"You can give it to her." Time is running, Lillie just wanted to eat in peace. Besides, the uncultured woman has a point that Lillie could just wait for the next batch since she"ll be staying to dine.
However, that kind of behavior she displayed was plain crude and immature.
The cute manager sighed in relief. He can"t help but be embarra.s.sed, thinking that it was entirely his fault she was being bullied.
The uncultured woman huffed, unsatisfied that she did not humiliated her enough. Then, her eyes landed on a certain paper bag Lillie was carrying.
She had familiarized herself with many expensive brands. The brand logo of the paper bag was from a baby clothes shop that was infamous for being too expensive, yet famous for having the best quality and cutest designs.
And only the uppercla.s.s could afford it.
a.s.suming that the problem has been solved, Lillie was, again, about to walk away.
But, her steps faltered when she heard the uncultured woman let out a mocking snort and loudly whispered to her companions.
"Ah, look at her. With the way she dressed, she clearly came from a middle-cla.s.s family. Her sugar daddy must"ve been treating her so well because he accidentally made her pregnant."