From Sneers to Cheers: Anthea’s Ascent (Anthea )

It finally dawned on Mae and Alicia that they had been outwitted by Anthea they had always dismissed as a loser!

"Mae, how much cash did you give her last night?" Alicia asked, her voice tinged with disbelief.

Mae frowned and replied, “Around a hundred bucks, I think. What about you?”

Alicia went pale with anger, “I gave her all the cash in my wallet.” She had at least three to four hundred dollars in there! Thinking back, Alicia wished she could slap her foolish past self.

A little while later, Anthea and Lauren came over with the dishes Rebecca and her friends had supposedly ordered. “Careful, folks, here’s your order,” they announced.

Mae was livid. As she glanced at the lobsters and kebabs brought to the table, her lips curled into a sly smile, and she suddenly challenged, “Hold up! We didn’t order any of this. Are you sure you haven’t made a mistake?” Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Lauren checked the order sheet and responded, “These are indeed the dishes you ordered.”

Alicia caught on to Mae’s scheme and quickly chimed in, “There are only three of us. How could we eat all this? Clearly, your waitress messed up our order! This isn’t what we wanted!”

Despite its modest size, the rotisserie boasted a full array of seafood, including luxurious items like lobsters and crabs, usually reserved for the occasional splurge. Now, with Mae and Alicia insisting that Anthea had ordered wrong, it was implied that Anthea should foot the bill.

Before making a scene, Mae had made sure they were in a blind spot, out of reach from any surveillance cameras.

Alicia stood up abruptly, fury etched across her face, “Where’s your manager? Call them over! I want to see how they train their staff, serving customers the wrong dishes! This is no service. It’s coercion! I’m calling the cops!”

Lauren, who had never encountered such a situation before in her time at the rotisserie, quickly tried to appease them with a nervous smile, “Please, don’t be upset. The waitress is new here. I’ll get our manager right away.”

Rebecca stood up, trying to diffuse the tension with a smile. “Mae and Alicia, don’t be so upset. I’m sure Anthea didn’t do it on purpose. She’s just trying to make a living. It’s not easy. Let’s just let it go, okay? Do it for me.”

Mae's voice oozed with sarcasm as she said, "Well, since you're pitching in, Rebecca, I suppose I can let it slide just this once. But I have a catch! We're talking about food worth a couple hundred bucks here. I can't just write that off."

With that, Mae turned to Anthea, “Bend down to apologize, and we’ll call it even.”

Anthea set the tray down on the table firmly and looked at Rebecca and Mae, a faint smile playing on her lips, her eyes reflecting the warm glow of the lights. “Do you want to play? I'm all in.”

There was something extraordinary about Anthea in that moment, a radiance that was blinding. Standing next to her, Rebecca and Mae, in their designer outfits, seemed to pale in comparison.

That strange feeling settled once again. Rebecca clenched her hand hidden in her sleeve.

Mae narrowed her eyes, “If you’re so ungrateful, then we have no choice but to involve your manager!”

At this point, Anthea was nothing but a lowlife in their eyes!

Without power or influence, what could she do?

“Anthea, maybe you should just apologize and let this go?” Lauren whispered, tugging at Anthea’s sleeve to advise her.

Without any evidence to prove that they were the ones who had ordered the food, Anthea was at a disadvantage.

Anthea looked down at Lauren and said calmly, “Lauren, would you please call Harriet over?”