Days After You's

Chapter 19 - Bamboo Resto

If anyone asks me how I never know if my wife has a restaurant business, I don't know myself. As long as I never realize it, I don't think so cute. For sure I still did not really believe what I was hearing until the moment I witnessed it with my own eyes.

Standing before me was a fairly simple building made of bamboo. At the front there are several tables and chairs filled with visitors and around it there are coconut trees and green grass that surrounds. The building is located quite deep from the highway and is inversely proportional to other skyscrapers around it.

I cringe. Why have I never realized this place before? A place that is quite unique among the hustle and bustle of this city should be impossible for me to pass by.

"I've never heard of this place before" I said as I climbed up the small staircase in front.

"Luiz hasn't been here?" Ask Stella. I shook my head and he chuckled, "Oh that's okay. The concept of this place is not fine dining that targets visitors from elite circles like Luiz so it's only natural that you don't know. It's more casual dining, the menu is also diverse there are oriental and western."

Hearing Stella refer to me as an elite class, it seems I want to say that she is from the same class as me, but given her nature and appearance are quite different from the people I used to meet, I broke that intention.

"Welcome to—oh Miss Stella," One of the uniformed employees who served as a visitor's greeters smiled more widely.

"Hello, Jia. If you remember this is my husband, Luiz," Stella said, raising both hands towards me.

"Oh of course remember, Miss. Hello, Mr. Luiz," the employee named Jia bowed softly, "Your wedding party used to be very festive, me and the others will never forget ever being invited there."

Oh I didn't realize that some of the guests were Stella's employees and not her distant relatives.

"Hello...Jia."

Jia's smile spread as she carried me and Stella through the room through several tables and chairs filled by some visitors such as family or friends. I noticed the interior inside and felt quite amazed by the design.

"Ah," my steps came to a halt in front of a medium-sized mading that was displayed a few feet away from me.

"What's wrong, Luiz—Oh is the place where visitors write reviews during a visit here," Stella chuckled, "It was his idea but some visitors used it to confide in and send messages to strangers they liked while visiting here."

"Oh..."

"Let's sit down."

Stella and I sat down at one of the tables at the end of the room, and greeted the waiters who came to see Stella who stopped by.

"Why didn't you ever tell me about this place?" I asked, because sure enough, it's been a year since I and he lived together as husband and wife but I just know now.

"I think you've known from the beginning Luiz. You never asked, so I thought you'd know from my father or your father."

Ah, the chat that didn't finish that time. Stella's father must have intended to tell her about this but someone cut us off before she got to that part and I foolishly decided to conclude for myself that Stella had no job without asking again the slightest.

"I don't think your father would let you work or do anything heavy? He said he told you to stop working first. It's only natural that I assume you're doing nothing but doing activities at home. This place definitely needs a lot of effort to build it right."

This Bamboo Resto restaurant, maybe a fairly simple place when compared to other places to eat in this city which is mostly high-end. But the name of building a business, no matter how its shape must not be an easy thing.

"Oh.so about all that, I mean about dad, this place, and how he allowed me the story was pretty long. You'll get bored if I tell you."

"Tell me. I want to know."

I don't understand why Stella thought she would bore me with her story this time when I've heard almost the whole other story without complaining in the slightest all along. This time it will certainly not be much different and I was already curious this time.

A waiter came to write our order, so Stella and I paused the chat and ordered some food before resuming.

"Well, if you want to hear Luiz" Stella said after the waiter left, "Since then, I've been spoiled enough by both of my parents. Dad never allowed me to do hard work and mom only taught me housewives jobs like cooking and light cleaning. They always say that in the end the fact that women will only be housewives or wives who serve husbands, so there is no need to teach me anything else."

Uh. It turns out that my guess about his parents' upbringing was right. They had no great achievements for their daughters other than marriage.

"But you can learn a lot on your own. You don't need them to keep teaching you anything" I said.

Stella nodded, "The problem is that I don't have many acquaintances or access if it's not through my father just yet. The whole cell phone and computer was controlled by my father first. As I tried to enter the application into one of the universities, I was also caught off guard by father."

I didn't expect the story to be this depressed. I can't imagine being restrained by my parents until it's like that.

Stella, who recounted the past, could still smile as she continued, "But I managed to beg my father to let me work in his friend's book cafe for some time. Anyway I'm also bored at home so the commute from cafe to house time was quite fun."

"Do you like to read books?"

Stella shook her head, "Not really. But the place is funny so I like it there."

Stella is still Stella. I smiled faintly.

Stella braked her words as soon as she realized our order had arrived. His eyes sparkled and he almost forgot to tell a story.

"So what happened next?" I asked so we stayed the two of us on the table.

"Hah—Oh! Yes, that story. Um...So I told Kat a lot. Including the time I started worrying about my future. Mom and dad are getting older, even though I know everything they do because they love me, I can't continue to depend on them. I'm not worried that mom and dad will lack something in their old age with all their possessions, but I'm afraid that I'm going to be a woman who can only rely on relatives when they're gone."

"Go...you mean die?"

Stella nodded, then hurriedly explained, "But I'm not begging for it. I always wished they had lived long. I'm just worried..."

"I understand."

"This means. Even though Dad said I didn't have to worry about getting married later, I always knew that I wasn't as pretty and smart as my cousins or the children of my friends, so I never imagined that I would be able to attract the opposite sex from your level. Even Luiz had to be forced by your father and grandfather to marry me, right?"

"Stella—"

Stella chuckled and shook her hands, "I don't intend to make you look bad or feel sorry for Luiz. It's just a fact I've already received from myself. I'm not so pretty and smart, but there's no problem with that. I still have other advantages."

Now I feel bad for all my opinions about his appearance in the early days of meeting first. He was just trying to be who he was.

"Ah, go to the story. Because I only have advantages in the field of cooking. I'm planning to open a restaurant. This eating house. I didn't know about business so Kat helped me with all the business and the ordinances of finding a place, an architect and other capital. At first this place also belonged to Kat, but she wanted to pursue her career as a travel blogger for one of the prestigious magazines in City D and let go of all her parts to me. He taught me that, but in the end I kept looking for a manager to take care of him because it was all too confusing."

"So that's why you're so close to Kat."

"Yes. He also introduced me to one of the owners of a social tuna foundation in the city when me and two aunts who helped me cook could no longer afford to serve the growing customer. Jia and the others came from that foundation."

When I thought Stella couldn't be a better person, she told me all this.

"Then about your father? When did he find out about this place?"

"Oh dad knew when this was all over and I started going out a lot more to come here. At that time I lied by saying that I just stopped by Kat's restaurant to help out a little. And because I thought the restaurant wasn't big and the job wasn't that much, he let me. But of course, it didn't last long. I couldn't bear to keep lying and ended up confessing to dad after a month had passed. He was angry but that time I used all my abilities to ask for his permission, to show my determination for this restaurant. Long story short, it took him four months to successfully make him crumble."

I don't know what to say other than I'm pretty proud of Stella. I know she's been helped a lot by Kat, but her idea and strong desire not to give up on her father is something she can throw a thumb at.

"Luiz, I told you the story was long and boring" Stella said when I didn't respond.

I smiled a little, "I was just thinking. That's not boring."

Stella took sate lilit on her plate, "What do you think?"

"How come you came here and I never came to my senses? You sure you don't want to hide this from me?"

Stella's eyes widened, "No Luiz. It never will. Maybe you never realized because I don't go here every day, only twice a week at most and I always come back before your office time. I also never go on weekends because I have to cook for you at home."

"You should have brought me here once in a while. Why wait a year to do this?"

Stella chuckled as she scratched her cheek, "Ah, that's because the food here is all from the same recipe from me, I don't think it's necessary. I'll stay home cooking for you."

Also true. But I still feel sad because I know this now.

"But Luiz, if I recall, you've seen me come home a little late but never asked where I was from."

"That's because I thought you were from Naomi and Kevin's place."

"Oh sometimes I'm from there but sometimes I just stop by for a while at their place and continue here to see Jia and the others."

"Oh..."

"Luiz don't be sad" Stella patted my hand, "I'll bring you here more often in the future."

Nnnnope. It's not. Don't treat me as a child.

I nodded, "All right."

I realized that I had misjudged Stella with one eye. I only saw him from what was seen in my eyes and it was all his flaws. Until now she has shown that she is a kind, hardworking, and empathetic woman to those around her.

I think I like Stella quite a bit, not in a special sense of course, but I like her, say, as someone who can be a friend.