One More Night Episode 24

ONE
MORE
NIGHT 🌃
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🎄🎋A Night Before Christmas 🎋🎄
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Owned and written by:- Racheal Dennis.

Episode twenty four 🎄

❌ Do not copy or repost ❌

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Authoress Racheal’s pov ☃️🎄

VERONICA’S TEAHOUSE.

“Here’s your cappuccino” she said and dropped it on the table.

Stephen looked at the cappuccino, then checked his wrist watch and arched an eyebrow at her.

“You spent almost an hour making a cup of cappuccino? What took you so long?” he asked her.

Veronica stared at him innocently, chuckled lightly and sat on the stool next to him.

“I was done making it, but there was a mistake” she paused and watched him.

He’s simply staring at her, waiting for her to complete her words. She cleared her throat and continued.

“I added salt instead of milk, so I had to remake it” she lied smoothly.

He stared at her for a few more seconds, her words replayed in his head and he tilted his head, giving her a strange look.

“Why do I feel like you’re lying?” he asked.

She laughed and blew raspberry, then waved her hand.

“Lie?” she blew another raspberry. “I don’t lie in matters as small as this” she said.

If Stephen had studied her closely, he’d have noticed she was lying, because her heart was rising and falling… It’s the only trait liars have in common.

“Alright” he said.

He reached for the cappuccino and took a large gulp, just enough to fill his mouth.

Veronica watched with a smile as he closed his eyes, as he swallowed it slowly and let the taste linger on his tongue.

“Sweet?” she asked in a very soft voice.

“Yeah, sweeter than the one you made yesterday” he answered.

Veronica’s smile grew w¡der as she nodded in approval, she reached for her apron’s pocket and pulled out his wallet.

She held it in her hand and stared at it for a moment, she decided to open it to see if Stephen’s playing pranks on her.

*Ah! It’s not a prank!*

Veronica gasped mentally when she saw the notes in,side the wallet, she quickly dropped it on the table.

Then a random, but very relevant question strike her, she banged on the counter gently.

Stephen paused and raised his head.

“What?” he asked her.

Her eyes moved to his wallet on the table, he also looked at the wallet.

“You’re giving me all that money?” she asked him.

“Yeah”

“For just a cup of cappuccino?”

“Yeah”

Veronica banged on the table again, she pointed her forefinger at him, there’s a perfect frown on her.

“You’re up to something, you can’t just give me so much money for a cup of cappuccino.. tell me what you’re up to!”

“Yo! so you knew that’s too much for a cup of cappuccino?” he asked rhetorically.

He snickered, took a large gulp of his cappuccino again and sighed.

“Relax, I don’t mean any harm, I just want a cup of cappuccino.. that’s all” he said.

“Nah ah, I don’t trust you! What are you up to?”

He shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking his cappuccino, Veronica grabbed his arm and began pulling him up.

“Get up and leave, I don’t have what you wanna buy” she told him.

His eyes moved to the cup in his hand, he raised a brow at her.

“You don’t have coffee?”

“No, I don’t”

He moved his gaze back to his hand.

“Oh, but you’ve already sold it to me”

Veronica laughed nervously.

“I was drunk and stole it from my neighbor’s kitchen”

“Oh? You stole it?” he chuckled. “Never knew a hot chic like you would do something so nasty and shameful” he cackled. “well, that’s just so crazy!”

“Everyone has their crazy sides, now leave or stay and watch me unleash my madness on you” she said.

Stephen reached for his wallet, threw it at her, she released him and caught it at once.

“See? You can’t do without that” he said and winked at her.

Her cheeks flamed up as she felt something burning in,side her, that’s the flame of anger spreading slowly in her.

She gritted her teeth and glared at him.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Or an insult?” she asked lowly.

Stephen turned towards her, he was a bit shaken and taken aback at her expression.

She looked like she’s a hungry lioness, who’d do anything to devour him right now.

“It’s a compliment” he said quickly.

“Why did you give me so much money?”

He chuckled, adjusted himself on the stool he was sitting and emptied his cup of cappuccino.

“Don’t tell me you’re just compensating me for a job well done” she said, gesturing at the empty cup.

“If I told you that, would you believe me?”

“Nope!”

He laughed.

“Well, you’re right…” he pointed at the wallet. “.. those money ain’t for free”

Veronica pulled out a stool and sat down, she faced Stephen and waited for him to continue.

“Jay and I are going over to Jay’s uncle’s place for a welcome party tonight, Jayden’s uncle is coming back home today after 9months in Australia” he paused.

“So..?”

“I want you to come with me”

Veronica’s brows furrowed, she’s already getting a hint where this is heading to.

“As what?”

“My girlfriend”

“Really?” she asked with a overly sweet smile, Stephen nodded.

She threw his wallet back at him, glared at him and shook her head.

“Nope! I don’t do such!”

“I know, I know, but you’ve got to help me out…a girl from my school back in the day, is coming over, I wanna teach her a lesson”

She scoffed.

“And what if you wanna teach her a lesson? How is that my business?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s none of your business, and it wouldn’t be mine too if I wasn’t doing it to save my best friend”

Veronica paused, she let Stephen’s words replay slowly in her head.

“What do you mean you’re doing it to save your friend?”

Stephen sighed.

“Jay’s aunt is matching Jay and her, I wanna go over there and sabotage her goody two shoes image and let her show aunt who she really is”

Veronica’s first thought, when Jayden was telling her about this was Cassandra! She was thinking what’s gonna happen to Cassandra, if Jayden gets married to someone else.

“No, I can’t let this happen!” she growled lowly.

“Right?” Stephen supported her. “But we can’t do this if we don’t join hands together”

“I’m with you now, what should we do?”

Stephen smirked.

“First, you will be my girlfriend and go with me to the party”

“Is it necessary I must be your girlfriend before we bring her down?” she asked, she doesn’t wanna be a fake girlfriend.

“Yes, I can’t bring Merry down if I don’t have a girlfriend, she’s gonna use it against me” he explained.

Veronica narrowed her eyes, as if she’s trying to imagine something.

“Merry?”

“Yeah”

“Hm, I’ll come with you, just give me some informations about her and leave her to me”

“Huh”

Veronica nodded.

“Trust me, just leave her to me, she’s in safe hands!”

“A-are you sure? That girl is crazy and…”

Veronica leaned forward and placed a finger on his l-ips, shutting him up.

“You’ve witness my craziness first hand, I don’t think she stand a chance against me!”

“Hu…”

“I can get crazier than anyone in the world, when it comes to my Cinderella!”

Stephen simply nodded speechlessly, it’s true that he’s seen a little bit of Veronica’s craziness…she might defeat Merry.

Veronica smirked, hopped off the stool and tapped Stephen’s shoulder lightly, she winked at him.

“I’ll be right back and you’re gonna tell me…everything I need to know about her.. I mean, everything!” she winked again and rushed off.

Stephen stared at her behind, with his jaw dropped and mouth slightly opened.

★★★★

JJ construction.

“Mr Grassi, there are a lots of reporters already.. should we take the underground?” Kelvin asked.

Jayden looked out the window, he saw a lot of reporters flocking the place. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Should we take the…”

Kelvin was cut off by Jayden’s ringtone, Jayden quickly reached for his phone and saw Pearl’s name flashing on the screen.

“Pearl” he said the second he answered the call.

“Hello, Mr Grassi, I have been trying to reach you, there’s a big commotion outside the company” Pearl said in a panicked voice.

“Why are the reporters here? Why didn’t you block this from getting to the press?” Jayden asked in his calm voice.

Kelvin looked at him (Jayden) through the rearview mirror, he knew his boss is angry, very angry right now.

But sadly he can’t express his anger or his mechanical heart would pay the price.

The worst Jayden could do right now, is grit his teeth, balled his fist and clenched his jaw.. he can’t shout.

“I asked you a question Pearl, why did you let this get to the press?” Jayden asked again when he didn’t get any response from her.

“Sir, the customer came with them” Pearl answered.

“Then you could have called her in, talked to her about it and have it solved quietly”

“I’m sorry, sir”

He scoffed and hang up.

“Keep your sorry to yourself!” he grumbled to himself.

Kelvin tilted his head.

“Should we still take the underground?” he asked.

“No, find a space and park”

“But Mr Grassi, your heart…”

Kelvin trailed off when he noticed Jayden’s glaring at him through the rearview mirror, he shifted on his seat.

“… I mean, your heart can’t take so much shock”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I need to talk to the press personally”

Kelvin nodded, he drove towards the parking lot, he found an empty space in a safe distance and parked.

He reached for his phone and dialed a number, after a few seconds the call was answered.

“Hello, this is the security department” a male voice said from the other end.

“This is Kelvin Sebastian, Mr Grassi has arrived, get men to make way for him and don’t let the reporters touch him!” Kelvin said and ended the call.

He turned to Jayden.

“Mr Grassi, we’ll step out when the security men arrives”

“Hm” Jayden simply nodded.

After two minutes or more, Kelvin stepped out and get the door for Jayden, Jayden stepped out and approached the building.

Reporters started rushing over when they saw him, but thankfully the security men were strong enough to stop them.

The lady who was shouting seemed to increased her volume, when she saw Jayden approaching.

Jayden stopped at the entrance, his eyes moved to the lady making a fuss. Just a look from him, the lady took a step back and lowered her voice.

Jayden smirked and shook his head.

“Mr Grassi, this lady has been complaining about the infection your product inflicted on her, what are you gonna do about it?” A reporter asked.

“Could this mean your product is causing damage to humans?” Another asked.

“What chemicals are you using? Do you usually have them tested before using them?” Another asked.

“Mr Grassi, your followers are dropping on your Facebook and Instagram pages, some netizens are leaving very nasty comments and demanding for explanations…what do you intend to do?” Another asked.

They are all bombarding Jayden with questions, he felt kinda suffocated because this incident just brought back his unwanted memories.

But he balled his fist and tried his very best to remain calm, he took a deep breath and raised his hand to get their attention.

There was finally silence and he started talking.

“I know most of you are angry after seeing this lady’s condition, but trust me, I don’t think our product is the cause of this…”

“Then what’s the cause?” a reporter cut him off. “She said she’s been using only your products for years now”

Jayden maintained his straight face, he didn’t let the reporter’s words get to him, he turned to the lady.

“I wanna ask the lady a question, you said you’ve been using our products for years?”

“Yeah!”

“How many years exactly?” he asked her.

“Five years!”

“In those five years, have something like this occured before?”

“No!”

“Have you gotten an itchings before?”

She shook her head, but quickly frowned.

“I don’t understand, are you interviewing me?” she scoffed. “I didn’t come here for a job interview, I came here to lay a complain!”

Jayden’s eyes moved around the reporters, he snickered.

“Miss, you sure have a funny way of laying complaints” he said, gesturing to the reporters she came with.

The lady glared at him, but kinda shrunk back.

Meanwhile, Jayden’s busy studying her every expression and from her body language, he’s concluded she’s a just a con artist.

But she seemed more suspicious, he felt like there’s more to this, no con artist would boldly come to trick a company as big as his.

“Mr Grassi, we don’t care about all these questions you are asking her.. what we wanna know is how are you gonna compensate her?” A reporter asked.

The other reporters started supporting him, Jayden raised his hand and stopped their uproar.

“I’m not gonna compensate her” he said.

“Why?” Another reporter asked.

“If we compensate her, it means we’re telling everyone our product is really bad…”

“Then what do you plan to do?” The same reporter cut in.

“.. JJ construction will do a proper investigation on this, we’ll make sure we get to the bottom of this and call for an exclusive interview.. then give everyone an explanation”

“But, Mr Grassi…”

“That’s all for today!” Jayden said in a firm tone.

He looked around and locked gaze with a security man, he gestured towards the lady and the security men rushed over.

The security man grabbed the lady and pulled her away from there, Jayden turned and entered his company.. leaving the reporters outside as they continued to snap photos of him.

“Kelvin, go get Pearl to my office right now!”

“Yes, sir!”

To be continued.