Chris scrunched her eyebrows in concentration as she played with the delicacy inside her mouth with her tongue. The man in front of her stared at her with nervous eyes, watching her reaction.

Bowing her head, she nodded a little, approving the taste.

"Ahh, thank God," the man - the head chef - exclaimed after puffing out his breath, "If you didn't like it, I was going to throw a fit. I put my everything into that dessert, Chris."

She laughed, "I would like to think you put your everything into all that you make, chef, but that was delicious. I think it's ready for our menu."

"If only we were back home. It would be a bestseller."

Her smile fell when he said that, shoulders drooping to match, "It's okay, we're making magic in this little corner of the world, that's what we're about, isn't it?"

Fake it until you make it. That's what she would always tell herself. She couldn't let her employees see how sullen she was over the fact that she was still there. She couldn't let them lose their spirits because of her.

"Hey, Manager?" someone called for her through her in-ear piece.

"Yeah?"

"We have a situation at reception."

Her sigh now was heavy. She loved her job to bits, but there was always a downside of every job. Having to deal with angry customers - that was it.

She made her way to the reception in no time, finding a lady standing at the desk, showing her phone screen to the employee behind the table. Taking in a deep breath, she walked up to the scene.

"Hi ma'am, I'm the general manager here, what seems to be the problem?"

"I have to cut my trip short by two days, and your employee here isn't giving me a refund," she stuck her index finger at the receptionist, "I want my refund, now."

"Sorry ma'am, we do not give out refunds forty-eight hours before your booking, we need at least two days notice."

"What kind of service is this? Haven't you heard; the customer is always right? I need my refund before I leave, I'm not going without it."

"I'm really sorry I won't be able to process that refund for you as it is against our policy and also written in our terms and conditions. You can leave whenever you like, but I recommend staying the extra two days as per your original plan."

"Do you know who I am?" the vein on the side of her forehead was starting to show, and Chris was getting tired at this point.

"No, I'm sorry-"

"I'm the wife of Kim Group's president!" she was so furious it was almost laughable, "You better treat me with respect!"

If she was that rich, why was she so mad about a small refund?

"Sorry ma'am, I can't give you a refund, but I will gladly offer you some complimentary drinks from our bar if you would like."

"This is ridiculous," she scoffed, turning around and strutting to the elevators, "I'm going to make a complaint to your boss. Your CEO and my husband are good friends, you know."

That made the side of her lips pull up in a smirk. You mean my father?

"Thank you, ma'am," she let her voice trail after her, "I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay."

--

Just another regular day at the hotel. Customers complaining to her, employees accidentally burning a table cloth, cleaners walking into a room despite the 'Do Not Disturb' sign being hung on the door, all this on top of the admin work she had to do as a manager.

Walking out into the garden, she went past the pool, the sunbathing seats and the hedge that separated the current hotel from the field surrounding it. Her father had recently bought a couple of hectares next door, planning on expanding the hotel, and this meant Chris had to come up with ideas, ways to enlarge, things to add on.

She loved her job, except for the times she didn't.

Chris slipped her hands into the pockets of her pantsuit as she sunk her stilettos into the soil. Sighing heavily, she tried to absorb the skies in front. She had been living at this hotel for two months now but still had never spent time with herself to admire the scenery.

The luscious green of the hills seem to go on forever, the differences in shades adding to their magnificence. The rolling mountains met with the teal of the sky, not the mention the faint streaks painted throughout it resembling peacock feathers.

Lifting her foot, she attempted to take a further step forward into the paddock but stopped when - well she literally couldn't move.

Looking down, she saw that her heel had dug itself so deep into the ground that she couldn't pull it out again. A small laugh left her lips as she stepped out of the shoes and picked them up in her hands, feeling her feet stretch into the soft grass. The warmth of the ground seemed to shoot up through her leg and metastasise through her whole body.

However, amidst the peaceful atmosphere, as she continued to walk, she couldn't help but let her thoughts start to form giants in her mind.

Even as she walked through this beautiful field, she still missed the business of home. The dark smoke which formed a bitter taste in her mouth as she caught a whiff of it in the streets, the immensely tall buildings which made it impossible to see the sky, even the loud yelling she would hear every night of the drunken passerbys. She honestly missed it all.

She felt so alone in this new place, two months in and her only friend was the head chef; who had a wife and kids and so would hardly have time to spare to hang out with her anyway.

It led to her putting all her effort into work, into trying to make the hotel better, because maybe then she'd be promoted and could move back home. This, on top of the fact that she had nothing else to do, meant she spent hours and hours working, reviewing business plans, renovating ideas, video call conferences. She didn't realise how detrimental it was to her health, and she probably would never know.

But there she was, staring at the candyfloss of the clouds in the distance, clouds that looked akin to a tree, a dolphin, she was sure one even mirrored her high school crush's face.

Crossing a bridge she had come by, she settled on top of a relatively large hill, sitting and lying her head back. Closing her eyes, she tried to listen to everything around her. The soft swish of a nearby creek, the quiet chirping of birds flying around the area, the growing churning of a... tractor?

Jumping up, she quickly turned to see a machine getting bigger in size before halting abruptly before her.

Blinking a few times at the shock of it, she took a couple of seconds to get up on her feet again. That thing really almost ran me over!

Before she could get those words out of her mouth, the driver hopped down from the tractor.

"Hey, are you alright? Are you hurt? Did I run over you?" He looked genuinely concerned, and it made Chris recoil back into herself a little. It was only a natural reaction of someone who thought they ran over another person, but why was she in such awe of how he cared?

"I-I'm- uh - I'm okay," she quietly let out, struggling to meet his eyes. She was trying her best to get over the surprise of it all - if she hadn't moved, would she have been okay?

"Do you want me to take you to a doctor? Are you sure you're okay?"

"A doctor?" She asked, laughing, being able to regain her composure as she finally looked up, "Do you people even have a doctor?"

All the breath was whipped from under her. His hair was of marigold, the light playing with it so that it looked like it formed a halo on his head, the amber locks falling over onto his forehead messily. Golden carnations were his skin, honey rippling across it in daylight added to the persona that he may really be an angel. Finally, his eyes held the sun - for, while they were dark and menacing, upon looking at them for longer there was a shrill brightness to them - the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ripping her eyes away so that she could allow herself to breathe, she started to fiddle with her thumbs.

Although she was looking away, she saw him tilting her head at her in her periphery, and she gathered it was because of what she had said.

"'You people'?" He tried to imitate the way she said it, and she realised it had come out more accusing than she intended, "Wow, you make it seem like I'm another species or something."

His voice was light, and even though she hadn't known him for long, the way his words were laced with hurt, she winced at how it pained her.

"I - I didn't-"

"We do have a doctor," he cut her off, "And because of what I had just done, I would gladly take you to visit her. You clearly haven't been here for long, but I think it would do you some good to perhaps not be so condescending towards 'us people'. And maybe don't trespass."

"I truly didn't mean it that way, and I'm really sorry. But... what do you mean trespass? This land belongs to the hotel," she turned to point at the building she was in a few hours ago - which was now entirely out of sight.

He threw her an amused look, watching as she searched for the hotel with his arms folded over his chest.

"You were saying?"

"I swear I-"

"The land after that bridge," he motioned past her, and she followed his hand to see the concrete divider she had walked over in the distance, "is the land of the hotel. This paddock, on the other hand, is mine. Which is why I didn't expect someone to be lying down here at this time. Can you see why I would have run you over?"

"Oh God," she jumped, starting to walk back to the bridge, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Her actions made him chuckle, and again she felt her lungs malfunction. The sound made Chopin seem like child's play.

"It's okay, really. As long as you know now," his eyes sparkled as he watched her walk backward. Chris could only think to herself how he seemed to make everything interesting, how he looked like you could recite to him the periodic table of elements and he would still have that shimmer in his gaze.

"Again, I'm really sorry for the inconvenience, sorry for getting in the way of your work."

"It's alright," he grinned, "I hope you can find that peace you had here on the other side of the bridge too."

She gulped. His words were so simple, but man, did they feel like he was not only speaking to her at surface level, he was reaching into parts of her she hid from the world.

And he didn't even know her name.

Here I go publishing something even though I'm not done with Diamond yet! Oh my goodness, my updates will be so bad but I'm going to try my best to finish updating Diamond before properly updating this so please be on the lookout!

How do you find this story idea though? What do you think?

LOVE YOU ALL