When in Rome ...

In Which I Make a Deal

"Where is that girl?" Ciel muttered to himself as he sighed for the tenth time.

It was almost time for dinner and he couldn't find her anywhere.

He did feel a bit guilty for overworking her. She had done a fantastic job in his daily tasks. They had decreased dramatically within a week. The whole purpose was so that he could assess her and also take this time to do his own investigation on his company. He needed the free time that her help brought him to find the weeds and pull them out. They thought he was only a child playing a man's game. Ciel's hand slammed on the table; they were going to pay for the humiliation that trash had caused him.

"Ciel! Come on let's go! Dinner is ready!" a loud voice called out making Ciel jump in surprise.

His eyes widened more in surprise at the entrant of the room who was covered in flour and sweat. Her hair spilling out of the bun in disarray. She made quite a picture but her radiant smile made Ciel stop from blurting out a cold retort to her incessant nagging.

"What have you been doing? Lazing around and fooling around the kitchen while you could have been getting work done," He drawled.

"Shut up!" her rude words shocked Ciel as he looked at her in confusion.

"You will not ruin all the fun and hard work I had today. Now come on I've helped cook dinner today and I want you to try it so no complaining!" she replied as she grabbed his right hand and dragged him out of his seat and into the dining room.

This was the first time Ciel had direct contact with her. Her soft hands felt warm as he was dragged out of his dark thoughts into a bright room full of warmth and homely smell.

He looked perplexed at the simplicity of the spread of the dining room table. The refine China was removed and in place was some simple plates full of wonderful smelling goods he's never seen before.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Well to be honest I was feeling homesick so I raided your kitchen, the dining room, and your Butler into helping me create this. It's more for myself and I wanted to try something new. Come on your going to love this!" She promised as she sat on the right of the seat of the head of the table.

Ciel walked up to the table and slowly sat down still unsure of the settings.

"What is this?" Ciel asked as he sat on his chair staring at the food.

"Central Asian dumplings," Stella replied with a smile as she began to pile his plate up with food followed by her own.

Still feeling unsure about the food he stared at the girl who began to devour the food with gusto. He realized if there was one thing he knew about her it was her love for food. She was a messy eater to boot but her delightful face after each bite reassured him that it wasn't poisoned or anything.

His first bite melted in his mouth as he couldn't agree anymore on the fact of how good this was.

"It's good isn't it?" Stella asked.

Ciel quirked a small smile without responding back. But that was enough for Stella, she knew he liked it.

         

--

"Alright spill what's got you so down?" asked Stella as she plopped down by Ciel's side with an elbow braces on the desk.

With a deep sigh, Ciel pulled a folder and tossed it to Stella. She grasped the folder in hands in confusion before flipping it over and reading over the content.

"So what your getting at is that someone's stealing from you? And you're trying to find who it is? Where you're actually losing your mulla? Huh?" Stella said while flipping through the folder.

Shaking his head in defeat Ciel sighed for the fifteenth time that day thinking it was useless trying to even understand her.

"Well it's a good thing you have me then," states Stella which made Ciel look up at her with interest.

He raised a brow, "what do you mean? Are you telling me you know who's stealing from me?"

"No well not yet anyway," Stella mumbled.

"Well then I don't see why you would be of help," replied Ciel as he took the folder away from her.

"Dude, have a little faith in me," replied Stella.

She walked off before walking back with her bag on her shoulder. Dropping her maroon colored Henry Bendel Bag on the chair she pulled out a silver-like book from her bag much to Ciel's confusion.

She popped the book open and the screen blared bright making Ciel draw his brows in even further apprehension.

She began punching her fingers away on the black sleek board with trained ease and practice as if she's done it dozens of times.

"Here take a look at this," she said as she made the bright screen face Ciel.

His eyes trained on the bright white screen as bars of various colors neatly stacked stared back at him. He quickly read over the title pasted on the top left corner, "National Strategy's Investments Over the Course of Fifty years."

"I interned over the summer at a consultant company, my role being the research and data analyst," Stella explained, "I'm not a professional but statistics and analysis of large data is my thing. Figuring out what factors are driving the regression up or down is my specialty. I could probably easily figure out which departments are losing you money and what products are doing well with the public quickly and efficiently etc."

"You can really do that?"Ciel asked unsurely.

"Tell you what how about this, you give me a week and all the data that you have so I can input them into my computer and then I'll come back to you with my findings and we can go from there what you want to do with them. If you find that my service was useless I'll make you a deal and grant you one wish. anything you want as long as it is within my abilities and if your actually satisfied at the end of this deal. Well, we can figure out the rest later," Stella replied with a smirk as she pulled her laptop back shutting the screen without turning off the computer.

"Huh, you seem to be growing quite comfortable here, I have to say your confidence is quite refreshing. Well I can't help but be tempted to take you up on that offer," replied Ciel as he reached his hand out in agreement.

I clasped my right hand over his. The deal was done.

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