The Zealous Employee
The next morning.
Even though I had gone to bed fairly late the night before, my eyes opened early. I carefully tucked the blankets around the still-sleeping boys, quietly picked up my jump rope, and stepped out onto the terrace. The November dawn wind slipped straight through the gaps in my clothes.
“…….”
Tak.
I turned right around and went back inside. Mornings were just too cold now. Looks like I would need to find some indoor exercise I could do for the next few months. Maybe I should buy another ladder barrel like the one at the studio and set it up at home. That way I could hop on whenever I had a free moment, loosen up and train at the same time, and adjust the intensity so it never put too much strain on my body. Vanessa was right—pilates really was the best workout.
My opinion had completely flipped from the first time I tried it. I decisively abandoned the morning workout. Jumping rope inside the house just felt wrong somehow.
A quick shower with hot water left me feeling light. Today’s shower was a little special, too—I had immediately put the gift I received yesterday to use. The gift boxes Cassandra and Dimitri had given their wedding attendants were packed with all sorts of shower products, perfume, and basic skincare. It was a rare chance to try high-end brands I would never have bought with my own money.
Until now I had only ever used toner and lotion, so I had to stop and search the difference between serum, ampule, and essence. Oh, and I learned for the first time that you put cream on after lotion.
After that surprisingly educational shower, I woke the kids.
“Reni, time to get up. We have to go to preschool.”
“……Mm.”
He answered in his sleep but could not quite open his eyes, so I scooped him into my arms and patted his back. He had been outside late last night and had woken once when we finally went to bed; mornings were bound to be hard.
On days like this, warm morning sunlight and fresh air usually worked wonders to wake them. But now it was too cold to take them out onto the terrace first thing… I would have to think of something else.
With no better option, I carried him around the living room. The air was cooler than in the bedroom, and the little guy hunched his shoulders.
“Cold…”
“Yeah, it’s cold. But once Reni gets up and starts moving, your body will warm up and you won’t feel it as much.”
“Mmm…”
Still grumbling about having to get up, he clung tighter. Then, out of nowhere, he buried his nose against my neck, took a deep breath, and mumbled,
“Daddy, Daddy smells yummy.”
“Is that so? Daddy used the body wash I got as a present yesterday. This one’s apple mint.”
“……Heehee.”
I had no idea which part of that was funny, but Reni, eyes still barely open, gave a little bounce of laughter in my arms.
“If my baby likes this scent, should Daddy keep using it?”
“Mm.”
He nuzzled my neck again. The tickle made me laugh, and only then did he rub his sleepy eyes and finally wake up for real.
After a warm wash of his face and a hot breakfast, Reni headed off to preschool full of energy.
“……Mwah-ba!”
On the way back from dropping his big brother off, Luca woke up and started the day with a lively morning babble.
“Yeah, good morning, Luca.”
“……Kyaaaah!”
As I parked and lifted him out, he went wide-eyed and let out a dolphin squeal.
“Yeah? Is it because it’s cold?”
It looked less like he was shrinking from the chill and more like something had fascinated him.
“Ah-bu-appa!”
“Was that you calling Daddy just now, or were you just yelling?”
With the baby flailing his arms and legs, soaking in the early-winter morning with his whole body, I headed into the studio for work.
“Good morning!”
“Yeah, good morning… Wait. Rachel, what are you doing here?”
I had assumed Greg would be alone, since Cassandra had left on a four-day honeymoon. But Rachel was already there. She had even claimed a desk like she had been working here since day one.
“I was going stir-crazy just sitting at home, so I came to check out the desk I’ll be using.”
I was pretty sure she hadn’t even been resigned that long…
She made it sound like she had casually stopped by to look around her new workplace, but the moment I sat down she slid an estimate across to me. It was a computer quote she had put together based on the work logs she had been getting from Greg and Cassandra.
“I won’t be doing any editing, so I don’t need a high-spec machine, but the other three of you will probably need at least this level of performance.”
“Ah… okay.”
The estimate she handed over carefully listed the pros and cons of each piece of equipment, the available discounts, everything neatly organized.
“And yesterday I took over the email account from Cassandra…”
Unbelievable. Talking about work at the wedding—while one of them was the bride, no less. But knowing exactly what those two were like, I just let it slide.
Anyway, I had originally planned to handle outside communication myself while Cassandra was gone, but somehow Rachel had ended up doing it.
“Some parenting influencer saw the video that went up on Vanessa’s channel and reached out. They want to do a collab stream. Here’s a summary of the email.”
“Right, right.”
Rachel looked like she had been working here from the very beginning—that was how smoothly she handled everything. She had clearly gone through the inbox and instantly figured out how things ran around here.
Strictly speaking her job was accounting. But for a small start-up, having someone who could jump in and contribute everywhere was a blessing. Still, taking on too much wasn’t necessarily a good thing either. When I mentioned it, Rachel nodded readily.
“Of course once Cassandra is back we’ll go back to dividing the work. It’s not like there’s that much to do here anyway, and it’s good if we can cover for each other in a pinch. And…”
“And?”
She hesitated a second, then continued.
“Greg told me yesterday that you offered to make my wedding dress.”
Ah. Was that why she felt pressured enough to come in today?
I was about to say I had already been thinking of it as a wedding gift and she didn’t need to feel any burden. Rachel was faster.
“First of all, thank you so much. And so it might help even a little with the work, I put together some reference sample images, the kinds of fabrics that can be used for the dress, price ranges, and where to buy them. Oh, and the comparison chart is just something I made while looking things over—you don’t have to worry about it.”
A flood of images and carefully calculated comparison tables filled the monitor.
“I also brought data where I calculated my expected post-birth measurements using the average weight-change patterns of pregnant women over the past two years. Will that help?”
“……Yeah. Yes.”
“Cassandra mentioned you were going to combine the designs of two or three dresses I like.”
Click, click.
“So I’ve marked the designs I already had in mind here. Honestly at first I wanted a mermaid style. But after giving birth it probably won’t be easy to keep my figure, so something like this with a fuller skirt…”
“Right, I see, yes…”
For a while I just sat there, half-hypnotized, listening to Rachel’s wedding-dress presentation. It was hard to believe she had put all of this together overnight—but then again, she had always been this kind of person.
Click, click.
She opened and closed a few more files, then took her hand off the mouse.
“That’s everything for now. If you need any more materials or help along the way, just say so right away—don’t hesitate. As for the deadline, finishing by March next year should be plenty of time. What do you think?”
“Yes. I’ll do my best.”
Even assigning the work and setting the deadline—perfect. I answered out of old habit before I could stop myself. Rachel nodded and continued.
“Thank you again. So that’s the wedding dress. Now, I’ve gone through the JL Studio ledger files for the past three months and there are a few items I’d like you to check. Apart from the large expenses that were already shared with me…”
“Yes… yes…”
In an instant I felt like I had time-traveled back to my old company, and I spent the entire morning shift in that state. Greg looked a little tense too; his usual easygoing expression and posture were gone, and he was typing with brisk, efficient focus.
It was… something. The studio felt like it was finally running more properly, which was good, but…
With the break room we used to escape to gone, we had no choice but to sit bolt upright and work. The atmosphere simply didn’t allow any lounging around.
“……Lunchtime!”
At some point Greg glanced at the clock and called out in a voice full of quiet relief.
“Is it?”
Rachel checked her own watch and looked at me.
“Is lunch break one hour?”
I suddenly realized I had better answer carefully. Once we set this, there would be no taking it back. Greg seemed to have the same thought—his eyes were fixed on me with urgent intensity.
But I couldn’t exactly say, “We just eat whatever’s on the menu that day at a leisurely pace, there’s no set time, and everyone comes back when they feel like it.”
I pressed a hand to my pounding chest, tried to project the dignity of a boss, and answered.
“Lunch is two hours.”
Rachel’s eyes went wide.
“Wait—two whole hours?”
…Maybe I should have said an hour and a half!
But I fought not to show any panic and continued.
“Unlike a regular company, our studio is a place where creativity matters. I wanted there to be time during lunch to rest a bit, read a book, listen to music… give the brain a break and get some cultural stimulation.”
Of course that was only half true. Greg and Cassandra had zero interest in books, and we usually just chatted about this and that until we felt rested enough to gather around the computers again. Still, everyone worked hard…
Rachel looked over at the books lined up on the studio shelves.
“……Oh, there really is a wide variety.”
“Right? If you look at the file I shared earlier you’ll see it, but thanks to the promotional videos we do for Brown House Publishing and the work we get from editor Evan Brown personally, new books pile up every month.”
Rachel nodded as if she understood. The moment she stepped out to the restroom, Greg and I let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
“……What’s with you, boss? Why are you sighing?”
“……Hiring your former boss as an employee really isn’t easy.”
“Don’t be like that. I still have to live under her for the rest of my life.”
I shook my head and brought Luca out of the playroom, settling him into a chair at the table.
“Mama.”
“Yeah, Daddy’s gonna make mama for you now.”
I tied on an apron and was still deciding what to cook when Rachel came out of the restroom, eyes on her phone.
“An email just came in—editor Evan Brown says he opened an online bookstore. Would you like to take a look?”
“…….”
Why are you checking email even in the bathroom?