ADRIEN
I hear my alarm clock ringing and I immediately wake up. Gosh, this is tiring. Another day of non-stop work. Oh, the joy. I get up from my bed and I take a bath. I change into my long-sleeved polo and suit. I look at myself in the mirror and I sigh. I look glum right now. Another long, boring day of work.
I head downstairs and I pass by the kitchen to grab an apple and just as I was about to exit the house, I stop to look at the living room. It's still messy. I smile and laugh just thinking about the other day. Why should I be glum when today is Marinette's first day of work?
"Today is going to be a great day, I can feel it." I whisper to myself and I exit the house. I decide not to drive my car to work and knowing that it is not that hot this morning, I decided to walk to work.
Walking through the streets of Paris, I see people doing their morning exercise. People are eating and drinking their morning coffee at cafés. I see little children getting ready for school and I see one crying, never wanting to let go of his mother's hand.
"You would have been going to school with them, Thomas..." I say and I realize that I am walking in a familiar part of Paris. I know this place...
I stop and I look to my right. There it is, the bakery. I see people entering and exiting the bakery. It seems like everyone in Paris is buying from the bakery. I cross the street and I am right in front of the main entrance. It's so tempting to go inside and buy all of their, freshly-baked in the oven, croissants. But sadly, after what happened four years ago, I can't enter.
I see a teenage boy eating a croissant and I approach him.
"Excuse me." I tap the boy's shoulder and he turns to look at me with a questioning look on his face. "Can you buy 5- no, make it 10 croissants, please? I'll give you money."
"Why won't you go in and buy for yourself?" He asks me.
"Well..." I start, what should I say to him? "Sadly, I'm an...alcoholic! T-they don't allow alcoholics inside!"
"Really? You know what, whatever." He opens his palm in front of me and I hand him my money.
"I'll be waiting here!" I shout to him as he enters the bakery.
After 10 minutes he comes out holding a big brown paper bag.
"Here you go, 20 croissants-"
"20?!" I shout. "I only ordered 10!"
"Yeah, and I'm a pancake. The lady behind the counter wanted to give you extra ones...she knew that they were your favorite. Here, take this." He hands me the bag and immediately leaves. I wasn't paying attention to him because I was looking at the lady behind the counter. It was Alya who was behind the counter. She saw me looking at her and I immediately mouth a 'thank you'. She just shrugs her shoulders as her reply.
I continue walking while I eat a croissant. It stills tastes the same and I feel like crying because of how long it took me just to taste this again. I remember when I asked Sabine permission to marry her daughter. Her husband gave me permission, but I also wanted to let Sabine know about it through me.
It was one of my free days. I didn't go to work and Marinette was still attending her fashion school.
I was helping out in the bakery and during my break, I would always eat croissants. Sabine was with me and we talked about anything.
"Sabine," I say as I put down my croissant, "Your croissants are amazing." I praise her.
"Don't say your praises to me, Adrien. Say them to your girlfriend. She is the one who does the croissants." She says as she continues mixing the ingredients to make a cake.
"Would it be okay for you if she continues to bake croissants in a different place? Maybe in a house where the both of us will be staying with, maybe, our kids..."
She stops mixing and she looks at me. "Adrien Agreste, what are you trying to say?"
"I love your daughter so much and I want to be with her forever..." Sabine gasps and she starts squealing like a little girl.
"Oh my Gosh! I can't believe that this is happening! My daughter is going to get married!!" She started mixing the cake mix happily. "Great timing! I am now baking you an engagement cake!"
I start to laugh at how silly my future mother-in-law was acting.
"Woah! we don't even know if she would say yes, yet. But will you allow me to have Marinette as my wife, Sabine?"
"Yes! Make me the happiest mother alive, Adrien!!" She approaches me and hugs the life out of me.
"Please take care of her heart, Adrien..."
"I will. I will always take care of her."
I guess that I'm not good in keeping promises. This is why I cannot enter the bakery again. I don't have the strength to see Sabine and Tom. I feel like I disappointed them and that I didn't take care of their daughter.
I continue eating the croissants and I enter the building where my art exhibit is being held in. I see the staff cleaning the gallery.
"Good morning, sir."
"Sir."
"It's nice to see you this morning, sir."
"Hello, Adrien."
I stop once I hear someone say my name. It is mandatory for an employee to call their employer by their last name or 'sir'. I know all too well the person who called me by my first name.
"Ms. Dupain-Cheng, please come to my office." I can feel her presence following me. I open the door to my office and I make her enter the room first.
"Please take a seat, Marinette..."
"Did I do anything wrong, Adrien?" She looks worried as she asks me. She sits down on the chair in front of my table.
"Yes-I mean no, you just forgot to sign some forms..." I hand her three forms and a pen. She grabs them and starts signing the papers.
"One more thing, Marinette." I grab her attention as she stops signing to look at me. "You must call me 'sir' in here, not Adrien. You must have forgotten that this is a place of work and I am your boss."
She goes back to filling up the forms. "I understand, sir." She says emphasizing the word, 'sir'.
"Good. I don't want the others thinking that we had some 'thing' in the past-"
"Don't worry, sir." She interrupts, "We never had any 'thing' in the past."
What? Okay, that just caught me off-guard.
"Oh...I see." I say, a little deflated and disappointed.
"I'm finished." She stands and hands me the completed forms and the pen. I grab them from her and she starts walking to the door.
"Wait first."
She stops to look at me and I show the brown paper bag full of croissants to her.
"I have something for you."
She approaches me again and she grabs the bag. Her eyes widen once she sees what are inside the bag.
"This morning, I was just passing by a bakery and I smelled the scent of the croissants. It tempted me to buy them, so I did. You should try them."
She was just staring at me the whole time and my heart is rapidly beating right now.
"I will try them, sir. Thank you." And with that she immediately leaves the room.
I sit on my chair with a big smile on my face.
Oh Marinette, what are you doing to me?
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It's night time already and the guests are now arriving. We have another auction being held tonight. I walk around greeting my guests, drinking champagne and checking to see if my staff are doing their jobs. I see Karla leading the group and everyone is following orders, which is good.
Karla looks at me and I give her a thumbs up. She smiles at me and she goes to the crowd, handing them glasses full of champagne.
I walk around the exhibit just to check if everything is going out smoothly. Just as I was about to turn right, I hear voices and I see that there is a tall man wearing a suit talking to a woman wearing the staff's uniform- Oh my God, it's Marinette. I hide behind the wall, hoping to hear what they were saying to each other.
"S-sir, would you like a glass of champagne?" Marinette asks, and she sounds like as if she wanted to distract him.
"Darling, your skirt tempts me too much. I would rather have you more than anything, my dear..." He says and I hear Marinette gasp out loud.
I peek to see what he was doing. He was walking closer to Marinette, while Marinette was walking backwards until she hits the wall. Now the guy has trapped Marinette between himself and the wall. I can't handle this anymore.
"Oh, there you are!" I say excitedly as I walk towards them. The man immediately moved away from Marinette upon hearing my voice.
"Good evening, sir." I greet the man, "This lady here is very busy and the guests need her assistance in the main hall right now. I hope you won't mind that I will be taking her from you." I grab Marinette's arm and I drag her from the man. We start walking away from him until I stop.
"I'm sorry, what was your name again, sir?" I say as I turn to look at the man.
"I-I'm Mr. Cotton, sir..."
I hear Marinette trying to hold her laugh and I, too, am trying to hold mine.
"Well then Mr. Cotton, your name doesn't suit a pervert like you." And with that, I start walking again, dragging Marinette with me.
"Thank you-" Marinette starts.
"You should learn how to defend yourself." I cut her off. "Men would always find ways to bring a woman to bed. Learn to be strong, Marinette."
I stop walking to look at her. Her head is down and she starts to fiddle her fingers.
"They need help in the main hall. You should go there." I say and she nods her head. She didn't even make eye contact with me. She immediately went to the direction where the main hall is. I get my phone and I dial Karla's number.
"Hello Karla? Please see me in my office right now."
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I hear a knock on the door.
"Come in!" I shout and Karla enters my office.
"What do you need, sir?" She asks.
"Starting tomorrow," I start, "I want all of the staff to change their skirts to slacks. I don't want to see anyone wearing skirts."
"Sir? Did something happen?" She asks and I look down.
"Let's just say that I want to protect you from perverted people."
"But, sir!" Karla starts, "Our skirts are not even above our knees! We can protect ourselves!"
"Those skirts are short! All kinds of skirts are short...and not everyone can protect themselves..."
Karla nods her head in agreement. "I understand, sir. Is that all that you had to say?"
"Yes, you may now go. Thank you."
Karla opens the door and she stops.
"Shall I make Miss Marinette's slacks very long?" She asks with a teasing smile. Okay, she caught me. I might as well go with it.
"If it's possible, then yes please!"
"I'll be right on it, sir!" Karla chuckles as she leaves my office.
I look at the time and I think that I can escape the exhibit without anyone noticing.
God, I need to buy those croissants.
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Hi!! I'm sorry that I took a long time :( I am just really busy right now :( But I hoped that you liked the chapter :D
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