A Bite of Love

1. A Fresh Life

The cafe, Chu Lian, was located near the subway station and with the huge green plants at both sides of the door, looking like a portal to another world, away from the stress of the busy city life. Appreciating the idea, Ou Yang pushed the custom-made oak door and stepped in.

There were around ten tables from oak, matching with the door, and green plants were hanging from the walls. The comfortable-looking chairs had yellow pillows which matched with the yellow small pots on the tables. Under the sunlight coming from the huge windows, the cafe looked very cosy and beautiful.

"Who knew you had such a hidden artistry in you?" Ou Yang teased Li Rang as soon as he saw his friend's figure approaching him behind the counter.

Li Rang puffed and pushed his slightly long bangs aside, "I have lots of cards in my sleeves," he joined the teasing before giving Ou Yang a warm hug, "welcome to Chu Lian, partner."

"Thank you, partner," Ou Yang returned the hug, a tiny bit of remorse tugged on his heart as he hid the fact that he wasn't broke at all, but for the sake of his new life, he had to be silent.

After drinking their coffee and catching up a little bit, Li Rang showed Ou Yang around and introduced the only waiter he had when he came. An De Lu was a college student, so he was a part-timer. He had a nice smile and a friendly attitude which made Ou Yang warm up to him immediately.

Due to the fact that Ou Yang was from the Gastronomy department as well, the old friends divided the cakes on the menu into two and after learning what was where, Ou Yang was ready to go.

As it was Monday, the cafe was active early in the morning for take-away orders. Pitying his friend on his first day, Li Rang asked Ou Yang to bake the cakes he was responsible for and the latter accepted gladly.

Although it had been a while baking outside his own kitchen, Ou Yang adapted it fast and in two hours, he handled four cakes. Then he switched positions with Li Rang and took his place behind the counter. Thanks to An De Lu's experience, there was no problem with the service or with the orders. When the initial timidness passed, Ou Yang found himself enjoying it a lot.

The smell of coffee, the colors of the desserts, the lovely plants, the love-filled couples...

Ou Yang hadn't had such peace for a long while... Well, until late afternoon when a group of four entered.

"Isn't Li Rang here?" one of the women asked politely, pushing her long brown hair behind her shoulder with her red manicured fingers. She was the most beautiful woman Ou Yang saw that day.

Ou Yang opened his mouth to reply, but Li Rang beat him.

"Hey, Ge Lin," he waved his hand and joined Ou Yang behind the counter. "She is my close friend, Ge Lin. She owns a dating agency across the street and these are her team; Tian Hua, Zhang Hua and Mu Ran," he introduced them one by one to Ou Yang.

Tian Hua and Zhang Hua were twins with oval faces and big brown eyes, they both had short black bob hairs and were wearing matching blue dresses. Ou Yang found the similarity creepy, so he focused his attention on the only man in the group, Mu Ran. Although Ou Yang was tall, Mu Ran looked half a head taller than him. Maybe it looked like that because the man was very slender with long limbs, but it didn't help with Ou Yang's irritation. He was also fair in complexion, and had monolid-almond eyes and thin lips. His dark brown hair was reaching to his shoulders and made a nice contrast with the bordeaux two piece suit he was wearing.

Nope, Ou Yang didn't like him any. He was allergic to the handsome man as he didn't like women's attention to be diverted from himself.

"And he is?" Ge Lin's question brought Ou Yang's irritated soul back.

"Ah, I am Ou Yang, Li Rang's new employee," he said, omitting the fact that he was his partner, and reached his hand forward for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you," Ge Lin gave him a cute smile and shook his hand with her soft hand, awakening the casanova inside Ou Yang.

"We too," the twins replied and grabbed his both hands, shaking vigorously as if they were competing to dislocate his arms.

"Me too," Mu Ran replied with a mechanical smile and shook his hand as well, finishing the introduction ceremony.

"Ge Lin and her team come here daily as they conduct the dates here, so you need to charge them half the price whatever they or their clients order, okay?"

Ou Yang was happy with the thought of seeing Ge Lin daily, so he said "how can I charge such a lovely lady?"

The women chuckled while Mu Ran rolled his eyes, mouthing 'playboy'.

"Oh, one more thing," Li Rang interrupted his flirtation, "leave my friend alone, she has a boyfriend."

"Aww," Ou Yang pretended as if he was hit on his heart, "maybe she would change her mind after seeing me," he said with a wink.

"Unbelievable," Mu Ran couldn't hold in anymore and walked to an empty table before he puked.

Chuckling, the trio followed his suit and took their places around a round table. Trying to block Ou Yang's advances, Li Rang served the table.

The rest of the day was normal and when they closed the cafe at nine pm, Ou Yang thought such a life was actually really nice.

After all, autumn was the best season to make a change...