She's My Sleeping Pill

"Do you mind if we talk in the kitchen? I'm planning to bake some cookies for Jade." Jillyanna told Cayenne as she stood up, readying to leave the living room.

"It's fine." Cayenne, just like Jillyanna, stood up from her seat and followed the woman to the kitchen. The kitchen was really spacious and there were many appliances around. There were many fresh fruits on the table and there were ingredients prepared for baking already. "Do you always bake?"

"Not always but this is kind of our relaxing hobby. Jade likes baking, too."

"You shouldn't have asked her to leave so she can bake with you."

Jillyanna picked up the chocolate and broke it into several pieces before answering Cayenne. "I don't want to keep exposing her to the world of adults. You know, Jade is very smart and she could easily pick up things and concerns from her surroundings. I don't want my child to mature so early. I want her to enjoy her life as a child as much as possible."

"I see. I really wish to have a child of my own but, it's not the right time yet." Cayenne mentioned without putting the blame on her husband.

Although without doing so, Jillyanna still knew who didn't want to have a child yet – it's Stefan. "By the way, about your mother's relatives, I'm sure you knew it by now. How are you holding up so far?"

Cayenne told Jillyanna her plans. She couldn't accept such fact and she didn't want to talk to them not even seeing them. As long as they wouldn't appear right in front of her, she would pretend that she knew nothing. "I've been thinking about my mother's family ever since I was a child. I always ask her so many things but now that I have found the answers, I hate it. I don't like a single thing about the whole truth."

"I could understand your point." Jillyanna responded while she mixed the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl. "For over a decade, I've been wondering why my father left us. At some point, I thought that he's got a mistress and started a new family but I was wrong.  My father died when I was five years old and none of us knew about it aside from his trusted attorney. My mother and I waited for him. We waited and waited, waited and waited until my mother passed away when I was twelve. When I learned the truth of why my father left, I didn't like any single thing about it."

The two of them talked about their painful past and shared their sentiments. Cayenne was just watching Jillyanna at first and along the way, she started helping her to make things faster and she enjoyed it, too.

Stefan was also working on his end while keeping his ears on his wife and Jillyanna's conversation.

'Knock! Knock! Knock!'

Elena came slowly opened the door and got inside the office. "Sir, the meeting will start in about fifteen minutes, everyone's inside the conference room already."

"Okay. I'll be right there." Stefan closed the documents he was working on and picked up the laptop and his phone. Seeing that he only picked the laptop showing of his wife's current location and whereabouts, Elena helped him get the laptop for his work.

Following closely behind him, she carried the laptop as the walked towards the conference room. Chris was also following behind her to see and evaluate her work for the time being. She has to be prepared for all kinds of menial tasks as a secretary.

"You did a good job." Chris commented and even gave her a thumbs up. "You bring his laptop to the meeting if he's busy carrying the more important things. You know what I meant when I say more important things?"

"Yes. Anything related to the lady boss should be the top priority." Elena answered.

"That's correct." Chris winked at her which made the girl smile happily. She liked Chris and she knew that he's got a girlfriend already. And she's already over with her feelings for him but she was still sad to see him leave. Even so, his little gestures still make her happy. She's happy because there wasn't any awkwardness between them.

The three of them got inside the conference room and Stefan sat on his chair. Elena placed the laptop in front of him while Stefan placed his personal laptop on the side, making sure that he can see where his wife went to every single time he turned his side to the side.

"What's with the two laptops?" One of the shareholder's secretary whispered.

"I don't know. This is the first time I've seen him bring two laptops here." Another person whispered.

They couldn't see what was on the other laptop but they could hear the two voices coming out from it. After listening to it for a minute, they finally recognized that it was their lady boss talking to Mrs. Madrigal.

Stefan connected his Bluetooth earphone to stop everyone from eavesdropping to the conversation. He was the only one allowed to listen to his wife.

"I can't believe you'd be this possessive." One of the older men inside the room commented with a throaty chuckle. They knew of his reputation as a womanizer. It was really surprising for him to act this way.

"If you find someone you couldn't live without, you would treasure her more than anything in this world. I'm sure Mr. Rudy can understand my sentiment."

"Of course. After all, I've been married to my wife for several decade now and I have never once thought of letting her go."

"Yeah. And that's one mistake I made." Stefan blurted. "Anyway, let's start the meeting. It's not good to talk about our love life when there are single ladies and gentlemen here."

'You've talked enough. Stop flaunting your love please.' One of the single ladies thought inwardly while looking at the two men in the room.

Elena handed them the files and soon enough the meeting started while Stefan listened to his wife. Since he wasn't paying attention, it was Chris and Elena who took note of the questions and concerns coming from the shareholders.

Cayenne finished making the dough with Jillyanna and they were currently cutting shapes out of eat for the cookies not to be plain. 

"We're not trying to judge your mother's family but, in any case, if ever they give you a hard time, you can always count on us. We won't just stand and watch you face your troubles." Jillyanna told Cayenne to make her feel at ease. Stefan who was listening felt even more at ease that Cayenne has a friend who cares for her.

It's really ironic. She's been friends with Arthur but he chose to hurt her and she didn't even realize that Arthur harbored some other emotions towards her. She's been friends with Seiji Sy but she didn't even know anything about him. His personality changes as well when he's meeting with Cayenne or when she's meeting with other people. Cayenne still didn't know how cold and ruthless that person can be. She also claimed that she has a close friend named Marian but she has no idea where is this person right now. In the past years, when she was having a hard time, none of these three people stayed by her side.

And then, here comes Jillyanna. The two of them accidentally met over a year ago during a festival. She gave Cayenne a letter without any assurance that Cayenne would keep it. After a year has passed, their paths crossed again because of Stefan. They became even closer for no reason and her words weigh more than Stefan's words.

Really. Friendship cannot be measured with time just like love. It will just come right in front of you. If it works then, it works despite the time you've been with that person. If it won't work then, it won't work no matter how long you've known each other.

The meeting continued and Stefan took the questions that Elena and Chris took note for him. One after another, he answered these questions and clarified lots of things to them. His answers were short and concise. He didn't need to use any flowery words to entice the shareholders to agree with the project he has.

In the middle of the meeting, Stefan received a message from Shein and it was about the thing he asked regarding the Mason family. There wasn't really a need to do this thing but he wanted to know the root cause of the problem that he's having in his company.

Small losses are still counted as loss and he didn't like losing to anyone; much more losing money because of carelessness. He just downloaded the file and resumed with the meeting. He picked up his phone and sent a message to Chris.

'Bring Joel and Jason from the finance department in my office after thirty minutes.'

'On it.'

Chris replied and stood up to leave the room. He knew that Stefan's going to be dealing another mess. It's not really a frequent occurrence in his company because they have very strict requirement but sometimes, jealousy and envy can really blackened someone's heart.