The poor Billionaire novel (Ethan) novel Chapter 29
This was a great idea, so Horace walked into the cake shop. He was greeted with the sight of a familiar figure. He then called out, "Laila?"
The familiar figure was Laila, his one true friend. She turned around in confusion and looked at him. A smile appeared on her beautiful face immediately. "Why are you here, Horace?" she asked in surprise.
"Well, I came to buy dessert for my mother. She has never eaten one before." Horace was very open about his intentions. Laila was his good friend, so he had nothing to hide from her. Afterward, he asked, "What about you? What are you doing here?"
'Phew! I thought he had changed. It seems he's still a filial son!' Laila thought to herself after hearing his explanation.
Waving her thoughts aside, she replied, "Horace, my birthday is in a few days. I want to order a cake from here!"
"Eh?" Horace was stunned by her response. There were different prices stuck on each cake section in the display counter. The cheapest cake he saw was five hundred and ninety-nine dollars. He knew that Laila was from a poor family and she was very frugal with money. It was surprising that she wanted to spend such an amount on a single cake. For a moment, he wondered, 'Is Laila a trust-fund baby? Has she been pretending to be poor all this while?'
Noticing Horace's confusion, Laila quickly explained, "Horace, it's not what you think. My roommates want to celebrate it with me. They told me that the cake here is their favorite, so I came to check if I can afford one."
'Silly girl, why are you so innocent and cute? Can't you see that your roommates are trying to take advantage of you? They are just using your birthday as an excuse to eat something expensive.' Horace took a look at her and sighed inwardly. They were close friends from similar backgrounds, so he knew her well. She was so naive. Thus, people found it easy to deceive her. Horace was not that naive. Even though he didn't know her roommates, he knew that they had just offered to celebrate her birthday with her and directed her here because they wanted to satisfy their cravings at her expense. Like the naive girl that Laila was, she really came here to check the cakes out.
"Laila, didn't you lend me some money yesterday? Do you still have money to buy a cake?" Just like Laila knew him well before he had a new identity, he also knew her well. He knew that she was struggling to make ends meet.
A sad glint flickered in Laila's eyes. She answered truthfully, "Horace, I don't have much. Remember that you returned the one hundred dollars I donated. So, I came here to check if any of the cakes here costs that amount."
There were no other customers in the cake shop at this time. They had been speaking in low voices, but the silence made it possible for the shop attendants to hear their conversation clearly.
The moment Laila finished speaking, one of the shop attendants burst into a mocking laughter. She remarked, "Did you just say one hundred dollars? You want to use that amount to buy a cake from the Vloni Bakery? Are you kidding me? Ha-ha! This is the funniest joke I've heard this year. You should consider a career in comedy. Well, for your information, we don't have any cake worth one hundred dollars. Please leave!"
"What?" The tall shop attendant's harshness took Laila aback. As a calm person, she nodded and said, "Okay, I'll leave now."
Just as she was about to leave, Horace grabbed her hand and pulled her back. He then said to the mean attendant disapprovingly, "Is this how you treat your customers here? Weren't you trained before you began to work here? What's the point of ridiculing her? You could have made your point without being so rude. Besides, who says she can't afford it?"
Horace glared at the rude attendant before turning to look at the other one, who looked lovely and friendly. He ordered calmly, "Please, take out the most expensive cakes here. I want to choose one of them."
"Horace, don't waste your money like that. The cakes here are too expensive. I can just go to another shop and pick one that fits my budget." Laila was moved by his kind gesture, but she didn't want him to waste his money. She tugged at his shirt with her free hand and tried to dissuade him softly.
"No, Laila. We are not going anywhere else. We will buy the cake from here. And I will celebrate your birthday with you." Laila was dear to his heart, so he couldn't watch her get humiliated and walk out of here with no cake. He felt pity for her when he saw that she was timid and ashamed.
"Well... Ermm... Horace, please listen to me. I should be the one giving you more money. You need it more than I do. In fact, I don't need to celebrate my birthday. I will explain things to my roommates. I believe they would see reasons with me." Somehow, his adamancy was making Laila so nervous that she couldn't speak fluently.
"Ha-ha!" The tall attendant was unrepentant. She suddenly laughed when she saw that Laila was trying to dissuade Horace. She said condescendingly, "The two of you are poor! Even if you give me all the money you have... You won't be able to afford the cheapest cake in this shop. Our cakes are not for church mice like you. You can't afford it, so you are not our customers!"
"Did you just call us church mice? Humph! Even if we are poor, we are still human beings like you. Simple courtesy demands that you treat anyone that comes into your shop politely. Being poor is not a good reason for you to be so rude and mean!" After saying that, Horace turned to look at the lovely attendant and asked, "Hey, why aren't you showing us the most expensive cakes in the shop? Do you also think we are too poor to afford any of them?"
"Davina, don't be afraid. They are just two poor losers. It's so obvious that they can't afford any cake here!" the tall attendant said to her lovely colleague. She then continued, "Poor people always have silly tricks up their sleeves. The two of them might be trying to pull a fast one on us. But their plan will not work!"
After the lovely attendant, Davina Foster, heard her colleague's words, she nodded in agreement and didn't attend to Horace and Laila.
"Are you really not going to attend to us?" Horace shook his head in disappointment as he took out a bundle of dollar bills from his bulgy pocket. He threw it on the counter of the cake shop, and said to the tall attendant, "Here is ten thousand dollars in cash. Now open your damn eyes wide and see if I can afford the most expensive cake in your shop or not."
The Vloni Bakery was known for its good and expensive cakes, but it was not one of the elite cake shops. The prices of cakes here were substantially lower than the big cake shops. The most expensive cake here cost only eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars. Horace had dropped ten thousand dollars on the counter, so it was more than enough.
The tall attendant raised her eyebrows in shock when she saw the bundle of money. She stared at the money and exclaimed, "How is this possible?"
'How come an impoverished loser has ten thousand dollars?' In confusion, she looked at Horace's clothes.
Seeing that they didn't move an inch, Horace took out another bundle of money from his pocket and threw it on the counter. He said, "If the first bundle of money is not enough, here is another bundle!"
'What? Who is this guy? Why does he have so much money despite being so poorly dressed?' The tall attendant stared at the bundles of money on the counter in complete puzzlement.
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