The Transfer ✔️

Chapter Nine - Importance

Evelyn moves with an air of superiority. The workers keep their heads down despite her movements, their hands using blades for reasons I haven't seen in a while. Talking doesn't fill the air, the bustling sound of movement and cracks of the knifes against the boards do instead. It's starkly different to the grunting and exhausted pants that echo across the defense sector and I'm not sure if I like it yet.

Evelyn motions for me to join her by the pans that sit bubbling on the range. She patiently stirs one whilst adjusting the heat on another. I stand by her side, feeling the heat emanating from it.

"This one," She points to the pan at the far right. "Needs to be watched to make sure it doesn't split. This one over here cannot boil. This one is fine as were going to freeze it for later but don't mix it up with the one beside because one's vegetarian and one isn't."

I nod numbly, repeating the instructions in my head until I feel like they've settled. "Got it."

"You better." She smirks before leaving me with an innocent smile planted across her face as she walks away.

I roll my eyes and turn back to the pans. Stirring dutifully, my four pans are in control for the whole time I stand there. I'm not sure how long, but I sense that Evelyn is testing my patience so I don't turn to check the clock once.  She eventually reaches my side again and takes over whilst I stand there with nothing to do. She turns the heat off and transfers some of the pans content into containers.

"Still don't see how Tupperware is more important that staying alive."I shrug, filling the silence.

She turns to me with a smile. "This is your warm-up. Go take your break and then come back and we'll put you on prep. After that, you can help me with organizing what we're going to serve."

"Exciting." I say, my face straight without the evidence of joy.

In fact, the only emotion I'm feeling is smugness. The delight that I'm going to prove someone wrong is my main motivation for the day which is frankly a waste of time, in my opinion. I need to improve on my boxing defense and I'm not going to get to do that if I'm stuck here stirring a pot.

I push open the doors and walk back out into the canteen where all of the food people sit and have their breaks. The cool air is an unexpected welcome relief on my face. I find and table and sit down, shutting my eyes to release any frustration.

"Haven't proved her wrong yet, then?" A man asks and I open one eye to see him sitting down beside me.

Shorter and slimmer than Leonardo, his hair is messy and curly, splaying across his forehead like black ink. He's thinner than I'm used to seeing, since I spend all of my time in defense with guys who like to see who can lift the heaviest weight, but I can tell that he's lean.

"She's hard to prove wrong." I shrug, my mind slowly clicking into place.

"Don't I know." He sighs. "I'm Robert."

I click my fingers with recognition. Ruby mentioned that Robert is Evelyns ex-boyfriend and suddenly a lot of pieces click into place. "Ah, you're Robert."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Not a bad thing," I shrug. "More of a protective thing, got to look out for my girls."

"Shit. She hates me, doesn't she?" He questions.

I shake my head. "Doesn't hate you. From what I can judge, she hates what you did – whatever that is."

"I didn't prioritize her. I got caught up doing everything for everyone else that I ended up treating her like shit. I feel bad for it every day."