The Unveiled Rose

"I have no idea. It doesn't matter anyway." That was my answer to Zane's question. "Zane, he never truly treated me well in the past six years when he and I were together." I continued, "It was the worst this year. Yet, he claimed he loved me now that I've gotten away from him."

Nonchalantly, I came to the conclusion. "I don't need that kind of love."

Zane nodded. "Indeed. To make it up to someone after hurting them... Well, the right thing to do was to be nice to them from the very beginning."

Indeed. I agreed with him.

Zane took me to have barbeque since I was in a foul mood. He knew I needed to vent my frustrations.

We ordered lots of food with both spicy and non-spicy sauce. I was a little surprised at that.

Noticing my look of surprise, Zane grinned. "I can't handle spicy food, but I can order some less spicy food so we can dig in together."

"I suppose I should say thank you?" I chuckled, amused.

"You're welcome," he said, passing me the menu to see if I wanted to order more food.

I saw some of my favorite foods written on the menu. The restaurant offered pulled pork and fish and chips, too, but one look at the price made my heart leap into my throat. They cost 40 dollars. The thing was, the portion wasn't even huge.

I got paid a lot now. So, I could afford the food, but I still felt reluctant to order more.

Eventually, with my jaw clenched, I ordered another serving of pulled pork and fish and chips. After that, I handed Zane the menu.

"Is that really enough?" Zane asked, stoic.

"Yes!" I replied without thinking twice.

But he seemed to have read my mind because he said, "Lunch is on me today."

In a hushed voice, I said, "That doesn't mean I can spend all your money, though."

"Indeed," said Zane thoughtfully.

He added a few more dishes before he returned the menu to the waiter, who took it and headed to the kitchen.

Zane leaned in his seat in a relaxed manner and said, "Anna, you'll make more money in the future."

"Huh?" I was confused as to why he would bring that up so abruptly.

Zane took his time to explain. "Promoting your comic in the early stages doesn't cost as much as continuing the comic in the later stages. But you've made quite a lot of money in the early stages, so you should treat yourself better." To Zane, the food served in this restaurant was cheap.

I mulled his words over and said, "It's easier to be a spendthrift than to revert to being frugal. What if I got used to spending lavishly and accidentally spent all my savings? What would I do if that happened?"

I stared at Zane, wondering how he would respond.

He was on the verge of blurting that he had money anyway, but if he had said that, it'd seem too offputting. He swallowed his words and, instead, said, "Well, then, you could make more money, so much so that you would never be able to spend all of it." I lifted an eyebrow. "That's a great idea."

Later, the waiter brought us the food we ordered. It was as clear as day that Zane knew what I liked because the food he ordered was all my favorite.

I looked at him, to which he coolly said, "Let's dig in."

I placed the food that needed to be grilled the longest on the grill first, and Zane followed. The sauce the restaurant provided made the food smell really good.

I loved it all. I didn't even bother when Zane told me to slow down because I was so busy filling my mouth with the food.