AMA - The Divorcee: Day 11

"I wish I had a camera so I could say I caught you in 4K, Junior." Viv jokes, who apparently saw where your eyes went too.

"I saw where your eyes went too, Viv. I'm going to report you on Yelp." Paige jokes, which gets you to relax a bit since she seems to be taking it in stride.

"Pervert Chef sexually harasses customers in the private function room of her restaurant." Stella jokes.

"By eyewitness: Lizzie, the Waitress." Cassie adds on, making everyone at the table laugh.

"Okay. Fine. Let's stop it before Liz— 'The Waitress' comes back here with dessert." Viv states once everyone's calmed down. "So, why were you flustered by Paige flirting with you, Junior? It's not like you were that flustered when I flirted with you." Viv asks. You're pretty sure Viv's baiting for you to admit that you were just as flustered when she flirted with you, so you don't take the bait.

"I think I preferred the pervy topics over answering that question." You answer jokingly.

"Like father, like daughter." Viv jokes.

"You preferred perving on me, Mr. Craig?" Paige teases you, and Viv and the girls couldn't help but laugh. You noticed that Maddy wasn't laughing though.

"Someone's getting uncomfortable." Viv teases you, but it didn't miss your notice that she glanced at Maddy when she said it. It seems you and Viv both noticed Maddy being uncomfortable with Paige openly flirting with you. "Would I be correct to assume you were just afraid to make your girlfriends jealous?" Viv adds. Although, when she said 'girlfriends' she glanced at Maddy again.

"Dad knows we don't mind him flirting with other girls." Stella retorts, having apparently missed Viv's glance at Maddy, resulting in Stella missing Viv's point entirely.

"How are you guys so comfortable about that? I mean, you're the first polyamorous relationship I've come across, so I'm just curious." Paige asks. You and the girls are somewhat used to that question now, with Brooke and Celeste having asked some form of it previously. Surprisingly, it was Viv who answered it for the three of you.

"Trust." Viv answered succinctly, with a serious look on her face.

"... and a lot of foursomes too, maybe?" Paige jokes.

"Cue the waitress!" The four of them joke out of sync, other than you and Maddy, but it still gets a laugh out of everyone.

...

...

...

"She's not coming! I told you you shouldn't have named her!" Stella says in fake annoyance.

CHAPTER 121.1

What happens next?

Conversation Over Lunch

Viv looks at her watch, and gets a concerned look on her face, before going back to Chef Nguyen mode.

"The kitchen's missing its timings if the desserts aren't here yet. I'll be right back." Viv tells all of you before making her way out the function room.

"She's something else isn't she?" Paige asks with a chuckle.

"That's Viv in a nutshell." Stella replies.

"I guess I get what you guys mean now, Mr. Craig; when you said Ms. Viv's different when she's being flirty." Maddy observes.

"Wait, Viv can stop being flirty?" Stella jokes.

"She wasn't at all like that last night." Maddy points out. "I wonder why she pretends to be flirtier when her normal self is much better." Maddy observes.

"I think you have that backwards, Mads. Her normal self is her flirty self." Stella points out.

"Nah~. I don't think so. Her flirtiness felt exactly like what I was doing earlier. It was more pretend flirting than real flirting, if that makes any sense. That's why I was comfortable not backing down. I knew we were basically just playing gay chicken." Paige shares.

"What's 'gay chicken'?" Maddy asks innocently.

"Uh~ depends. It takes many forms, but the whole point is straight people doing gay things until someone chickens out." Paige explains.

"I-I don't get it." Maddy admits shyly.

"Okay. I'll demonstrate." Cassie tells Maddy, trying to be helpful. "I'm going to kiss you, Maddy." Cassie tells her.

'I like where this is going.' Your thoughts in Viv's voice says in your head.

"Oh-uh... Okay?" Maddy replies unsure of what's happening.

Cassie proceeds to place her hand on Maddy's cheek, and slowly inches her lips closer to Maddy's. Cassie's mouth is open, and her eyes are staring at how close her lips are getting to Maddy's. Maddy's lips who've been unflinching at the start begin to part as they're being hit by Cassie's hot breath. Maddy's eyes are flickering everywhere. It goes from Cassie's eyes, to Cassie's lips, back to Cassie's eyes, and then looking towards you in a matter of seconds. Maddy's face is beginning to blush noticeably red again, before Cassie finally pulls away and lets go of Maddy's cheek.

"I'm chicken." Cassie says with a smile, resulting in Maddy's eyes widening as if being freed from a trance.

'BOO~!!' Your thoughts in Viv's voice say in reaction.

"That's basically gay chicken. First one to flinch loses." Cassie explains to Maddy. Maddy bites her lip and nods her head in understanding, still obviously flustered at what just happened.

"You see that? The waitress would've popped up before Cassie would've even flinched. Lizzie's getting a one-star review on Yelp." Stella jokes.

"Just a few minutes ago you were paranoid of her appearing out of nowhere." You joke back.

"Yeah~. I miss 'the waitress' already." Stella says with forlorn. You rub Stella's back to console her; first as a joke, but it seems to actually be something she needs from how she's reacting. It could also be 'Magic Touch', you're not sure anymore.

"It's cool you guys are still the sweet father-daughter tandem that I remembered back in high school." Paige says upon seeing you rubbing Stella's back to console her.

"They've always been sweet together." Cassie says to affirm.

"I only got to see it my senior year before I graduated, but I'm not surprised that's true. You were always at our practices after school." Paige shares. "At first I thought you were just doing it to carpool since you were subbing at the school, but even after that quarter you kept doing it. You even went to away games with her! It was really sweet and supportive." Paige recounts.

"I wish I could've been there to see it." Cassie shares.

"You're here now, Cass. That's all that matters." Stella assures Cassie.

"We would've loved to have you on our team, Cassie. It's too bad you moved. You were a pretty good middle blocker from what I saw from your drills earlier." Paige replies to Cassie, and Cassie replies with a sincere "Thanks." to Paige.

"What about you Paige? How has your volleyball career been since high school?" You ask her.

"Non-existent." Paige answers with a laugh. "Unfortunately, I'm not like your girlfriends who are star volleyball talents." Paige adds.

"You're just being humble. We watched the tapes of games from your sophomore year. You were a pretty good libero." Stella compliments Paige. "Before..." Stella adds, then motions to her own chest once more, and you connect the dots in your head why she said her body's been a detriment to her athletic endeavors.

"Before these developed?" Paige asks, motioning towards her chest again. "Yeah. I know. It's pretty fucking hard to dig with these." Paige half-jokes in frustration.

"Not to mention your ass—" Stella adds before being cut off by Cassie.

"Stella!" Cassie interrupts her, and Stella immediately apologizes to Paige who just laughs it off.

"I apologize for the lewdness of my daughter." You apologize to Paige.

"It's fine, Mr. Craig. Stella's been a firecracker since I knew her. Glad to see things haven't changed too much." Paige tells you.

"Why were you practicing with Stella and Cassie if you're no longer playing volleyball?" Maddy asks. "Oh, sorry if that came off as rude. I was just—" Maddy added immediately.

"You guys can relax around me, okay?" Paige says with a chuckle, noticing that there were two unnecessary apologies addressed to her in a row. "I wasn't practicing, really. I work at the Sports Complex part-time while I continue to look for a marketing job full-time." Paige explains. "I've been really hoping to get a position at Hoffman Enterprises but they haven't called me for an interview yet." Paige adds.

"Good luck on the job search, Paige. I remember it was hard to get something full-time when I was a fresh grad too. Just trust the process. You'll find one eventually." You encourage her.

"In the meantime, you can continue doing drills with us." Stella says in excitement.

"I'll be at the Sports Complex." Paige replies with a smile.

"You could join us at our workouts too. If it's not inconvenient for you." Cassie suggests.

"Oh yeah! You should come to our gym with us! Brooke's going to love you! Especially your booty!" Stella invites Paige excitedly.

"~And we're back to the booty talk." Cassie says in half-fake exasperation, making Paige laugh.

"I'd love to go. It's not like I'm busy." Paige says with a self-deprecating laugh. Cassie tells Paige that you all plan to go tomorrow and Paige answers, "I'll be there.", to the delight of Cassie and Stella. Maddy's smiling, but you're not sure if it's genuine; as it feels like she's just being polite. A pause occurs in the conversation for a moment, and probably not wanting it to prolong any further, Paige breaks the momentary silence.

"What about you, Mr. Craig? What have you been up to? Do you still travel to watch Stella's games?" Paige asks you.

"Unfortunately, no. I haven't watched a volleyball game that wasn't animated since Stella graduated high school." You answer her.

"Animated? Oh! You mean Haikyuu!!? I love watching that too. I just finished reading the manga." Paige shares.

"What's Haikyuu!!?" Maddy asks, and Paige explains that it's a Japanese volleyball anime that adapted a weekly comics series. "Oh! I'd love to read that some time." Maddy tells her.

"The English translations are all online. It's pretty good even when you're not a volleyball fan." Paige tells her, and Maddy has an excited look on her face similar to the look she had when Viv shared her book recommendations with her.

Speaking of Viv...

The doors to the function room open once more and Viv enters with Lizzie the Waitress right behind her carrying a tray of desserts.

"Sorry for the delay everyone." Chef Nguyen says upon entering the room.

"Why do you have a stick up your ass again— Oh! Hey, Becca!" Stella was about to ask Viv, before she saw Becca entering the room.

"Hello again, Stella. Everyone. We hope the delay for your desserts wasn't too long." Becca addresses your group in a very professional manner.

"Didn't even feel like it was delayed, Becks." Stella replies playfully, making Viv suppress a smile at the nickname. Chef Nguyen immediately went into describing the different desserts that they're serving, most of which you didn't even order, before Becca could react to the new nickname.

As Lizzie the waitress makes her way to leave the room, you notice she doesn't leave entirely. Instead, she's keeping the door open for someone.

"I wanted to drop by once more to say my goodbyes." Becca tells everyone.

"It was nice meeting you, Becca." Maddy starts, getting a smile out of Becca. You and the girls say your goodbyes to her as well which she receives with a warm smile.

"Thank you for upgrading us to this room, Ms. Hoffman. It was incredibly generous of you." Paige tells her. Unlike with the four of you, she doesn't even acknowledge Paige.

"I'll leave you once more to the care of our head chef, Chef Nguyen. I hope you all enjoyed your meals here at Pho Hoa." Becca tells your group. "On that note, I apologize if it's rude for taking you away from your meal, but may I borrow you for a moment, Mr. Craig?" Becca asks you seriously.

"Oh, of course." You answer her before standing up and leaving the room with Becca.

As you exit the private function room and Lizzie closes the door behind you, Becca turns around towards you but addresses Lizzie first.

"Thank you." Becca says politely, before immediately saying, "Leave us." with authority. Lizzie immediately scurries away from the two of you. Becca goes back to looking at you sternly.

"Please be honest with me, Jay." Becca goes back to her polite tone, but her look remains stern. You immediately nod in response to assure her.

"What slander has that Paige girl been spreading about me?" Becca asks in a not so polite tone.

CHAPTER 122.1

What happens next?

Rumor Conscious

"I'm sorry?" You try to clarify upon hearing Becca's question.

"I'm asking if that new girlfriend of yours is spreading lies about me." Becca rephrases her question.

"Paige isn't my girlfriend, Becca. We just met this afternoon." You tell her defensively.

"So she is spreading lies about me." Becca retorts.

"I didn't say that." You reply.

"It was a negative-pregnant. You only denied the part that she wasn't your girlfriend." Becca points out.

"Then I'm denying the part she's slandering you too." You immediately reply.

"It's too late for that, Jay. Tell me what lies she's been spreading." Becca replies back just as quickly.

"Am I on trial here? What's going on?" You finally ask in a panic, not sure what's really going on with Becca.

"You are not on trial, she is." Becca replies, pointing to the door behind you.

"Why is she on trial then?" You ask her, trying to take control of the conversation.

"You're my witness, not her lawyer. Talk." Becca says in a commanding tone.

"I am not your anything, Becca." You answer just as assured as she is, making her eyes widen. You're not sure if her eyes widening is from the surprise that someone had the audacity to not do what she wants, or if she's impressed that you did have the audacity to not do what she wants. "You're not her prosecutor either. I need to know what's going on, and why you're so concerned about what Paige says about you." you add to clarify your intent with your earlier statement.

"So you confirm she has said something about me?" Becca asks shrewdly.

"You know what, not saying it is only going to make it sound worse; so, yes, she has mentioned something." You finally admit, not seeing any point to hide it any further. "The real question is, why do you care what a random person thinks about you? You didn't seem to care when Tanya called you a control freak back at Dorsia the other night." You ask her inquisitively.

"I did not care for Tanya's terminology as it was an appropriate description of who I am. I am someone who enjoys being in control." Becca answers your question. "What I do care about is when others spread their false perceptions about me to other people. I will not have it." Becca adds in a more serious tone, and you finally see where she's coming from. Although, not entirely. You didn't peg her as someone who cares at all about what other people think, whether that opinion was true or not. Based on your initial interaction with her, at least.

"I completely understand, but how were you so sure she said anything about you?" You ask her.

"I know my reputation around the Head Office. I'm also very much aware of how they act and how they spread false information about me. The only thing I'm not sure of is what false information she shared with you." Becca explains to you. "Is that a sufficient enough explanation?" Becca then asks, and you nod. "Talk." Becca once again commands.

"She said she got the impression that older management has, and I quote, 'old jealous bastard vibes', end quote." You inform her. Withholding the information that Paige shared before that statement, in order to protect the young girl. She just told you she's looking for a job and hoping to get one at Becca's office. You're not going to throw her under the bus for just sharing what old jealous bastards told her about Becca.

Becca was not pleased with your answer though. She knows you're not telling her the full story.

"That's not the part I'm asking about. You already admitted she mentioned something about me. Please stop wasting my time and tell me already." Becca tells you. You realize you've cornered yourself by admitting that Paige did mention something before thinking about what you were going to tell Becca. You close your eyes and take a deep breath, worried how what you'll say might affect the hopes of another person.

"She said you were ruthless, and that you fired and blacklisted a guy for an average marketing campaign; and something else after that that I don't recall as much. That's honestly all of what she mentioned since she was surprised we were friendly with you." You tell her. "Please don't take that against Paige. She—" you tried to say in defense of Paige, but Becca cut you off. Surprisingly, Becca didn't seem furious at all after hearing what Paige told you earlier.

"Do you believe her?" Becca quickly asks after you finished recounting what Paige said, looking more concerned about your answer to this latest question than the previous ones.

"Of course not, Becca." You answer her immediately. "I'm not stupid. You can't fire someone and blacklist them without sufficient cause. I'm pretty sure an average marketing campaign isn't one of them. Whatever rumor she heard when she worked there, I assume it was blown out of proportion already. That's how rumors work. I should know, one of my girlfriends is a victim of that." You add, and it seemed to crack a smile from her for just a second before she recovered her stern facade.

"Thank you. I also appreciate the candidness. Even if it was delayed." Becca says in a much softer tone than she was in previously. "I'm aware of the story she told you. The man I fired and blacklisted was the former VP of Marketing. I did so because I found out he's been sexually harassing multiple interns, if you must know." Becca explains.

"Thanks for telling me, Becca; but I didn't need to know. That was your business, and you were doing what you thought was right; which, in this case, seemed very right." You assure her, and now she doesn't suppress the smile she was hiding earlier and gives you a genuine one after what you just told her. "What I do want to know is, why are you concerned about what I think?" you ask her.

"I'm not." Becca answers defensively, not cracking her serious demeanor.

"I mean, you asked me if Celeste mentioned anything about you; now, you pull me aside to ask if I believed rumors about you. I'm just trying to connect the dots here." you explain to her.

"A bit presumptive of you to think that it's your opinion I care about." Becca replies, and you can't help but openly look surprised at her response. She sees the look on your face and smirks. "Then again, I can't say I'm surprised. A man with as many girlfriends as you must assume the world revolves around him." Becca remarks teasingly.

"Then who's opinion do you care about?" You ask her.

"If I recall correctly, you said you just wanted to know, correct? Well, my answer would be, you don't need to know." Becca answers you, the smile on her face more wicked than the one you got out of her earlier. You're stumped as to how to get Becca to talk, and she takes that as the cue to end the conversation. "Again, thank you for your candidness, Jay. It was much appreciated. I've gotten what I wanted, and as the ruthless bitch that I am, you are no longer of any use to me." Becca says, but she was obviously joking. At least you hope she was. "I won't keep you further. Enjoy your dessert." she adds. "Jay." she says with finality, similar to her goodbye earlier, and you can only reply with "Becca." before she walks away to leave the restaurant. You watch as she boards the backseat of an expensive looking car that drives off immediately.