"My dad is still convinced that I'm going to take over the store," Rix chuckled. "He upped the salary offer."

"Did you cave?" Mira laughed.

"Hell no! Imagine me in a hardware store. Owning the hardware store. I'd be miserable, you know that."

"Everyone has a price," Mira laughed. "Anyway, I'm going in now."

"Call me as soon as it's over, I'm in the mood to share in someone else's pity party," Rix said. "I'm sure you'll take it like a diva, though. Go in there and be your fierce self."

"Thanks for the pep talk, chat later."

"Byeeeeee."

Mira stopped outside the building and paused for a moment, amazed at how pedestrian it looked now, in the day, compared to the other night when it felt so mysterious and shrouded in illusion.

Now it was simply a house, at the end of a path. No subtle hint of smoke in the air, red lights off, there were cracks in the wall around the door. She smiled. This was far less intimidating.

She strolled up to the door and knocked.

It swung open a moment later. A middle aged lady stood in the doorway: shoulder length blonde and black hair, tattoos up the right side of her neck, a ring in her eyebrow and one in the opposite nostril.

"Can I help?" She asked.

"Hi, I'm Mira, I'm here to meet Jayde."

"Oh, that's me, come on in." She closed the door behind Mira.

Mira's eyes gazed around. In the daylight, the illusion was shattered: it was just a room, with some tables and chairs; a bit dark but otherwise unremarkable.

"Have a seat," Jayde gestured to a table in the center of the room. As Mira made her way there, she passed a waiters station with three waiters polishing cutlery. She smiled at the pedestrian nature of that: the colleagues, talking, laughing polishing forks. How intimidated she had been before.

"Can I offer you a coffee?" Jayde asked.

"A cappuccino would be lovely, please," Mira smiled.

"I'm convinced we have the best cappuccino in the country," Jayde said, looking over Mira's head. "Ross?" She called. "Would you please bring us some cappuccinos when you come around?"

"Yep," came a call from behind Mira.

"You look younger than I thought," Jayde said. "Your writing style is very mature."

"Thanks," Mira smiled. This felt to her a strange way to begin a reprimand for her review. Maybe this was about something else.

"Anyway, I am the owner of this place," she said. "I met Ryder when he was a young pipsqueak peeling potatoes. Most tenacious guy I have ever met."

Ryder... who was Ryder? As Mira was about to ask, a cappuccino was placed before her and a young man took a seat beside her.

"I'm Ross," he said, holding out a hand. "I'm the manager."

"Mira," she smiled, shaking his hand.

"I hope you asked Landon to take out that green earring," Jayde said to Ross. "It looks ridiculous."

Ross chuckled. "His boyfriend gave it to him. He's coming here for dinner tonight, so he asked to wear it just this once. Thought that would be okay, but there will be a penalty." Ross winked.

Mira's cappuccino came with a sachet of honey on the side. She added it to the coffee as the other two did and stirred. The scent of vanilla and honey and ... something she couldn't place.

A young man arrived at the table and plopped into the seat across from Mira. A dark curl of hair rested on his forehead, dark eyes lifted to meet hers. The chef. He didn't smile, he just observed her. Mira glanced away, then back again. His eyes rested on her still. Her cheeks flushed.

"This is Ryder," Jayde said. "Don't worry, he's always this talkative. Ryder, this is Mira."

He smirks. "I remember her."

Mira's stomach plummeted.

"You know her?" Ross asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I don't." He took a sip of coffee.

Ross glanced at Mira. "We don't know each other. I've just been to eat here. Obviously, I mean. I guess that what Ryder means."

Ryder frowned and turned to Jayde. "Why this girl?"

"Why not? She's qualified, she's clearly got a following and I liked her pictures."

He lowered his voice. "She's not really our brand." Mira could almost see the sneer.

"She'll do just fine," Jayde tutted. "Mira," she said, "the bottom line is that we would like to offer you a job."

Oh.

"We will require you to sign a non-disclosure and to be your sole income stream for the term of a year, pending review of that period should we work well together."

Ryder slumped back and rolled his eyes. Mira felt like fumes were beneath her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something -

"She'll be trained, I'm assuming?" Ross asked.

"Yes. By Alessandra."

Ryder's eyes flickered up and settled on Jayde. She glared at him. "You two will be working closely together so please try to be nice," she said, raising her eyebrows pointedly.

He paused a moment, before asking, "Can I go now?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, go back to your kitchen."

Without another word or glance, he stood and stalked away.

"Don't let him get to you, he's just like this. Tortured artist, we think," Ross said with a sigh. "You get used to him."

Jayde slid a document across the table. "These are the terms I'd like you to read through. Essentially we run our brand a specific way, and based on that we will require non-disclosure, as well as a non-compete."

"Oh," Mira said, glancing at the document.

"We would like you to run our marketing, including social media. Your following is a big draw card for us, so we would like you to use your personal blog and social media accounts too."

Is this selling out?

"We are offering a fixed salary, as you will see on the second document set, our offer letter is in there with all the stipulations. Take it home, have a read through. Please get back to me in 72 hours. My direct number is on there."

Mira's head was spinning. There were so many documents.

Jayde chuckled. "It's a lot. If you have questions you can call me. I think the offer is fair. Let me know." She scooted her chair backwards. "As for now, if you'll excuse me, I have another meeting."

"Oh, yes, sure," Mira said, gathering the documents in her arms. "I'll get back to you."

"Hope you have a tolerance for grumpy," Ross grinned, "because that was Ryder on a good day. But we'll be nice," he gestured to Jayde. "Mostly."

Mira was released back into the sunshine, the grey door closing behind her, all the noise and busy-ness quietened. She glanced down at all the papers. 

'They offered me a job,' she texted Catalina and Rix. 'Wine tonight, need advice. Come over at 6.'