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Her legs bobbed up and down, the itch between her thighs left unattended as her eyes narrowed at the bank statement in her hands. It was not satisfying, neither did it look good.

Maria could not get over the fact that one of her employees, the manager to be precise, had been stealing funds from her business for the past month. Her business was crumbling and she was watching it because there was nothing she could do. Just the week before, some of the investors had pulled out their assets and the ones left were reluctant on being associated with the business at all. It was almost like her lucky charm had expired.

So, it all started on the first Monday of the new year. She came to work that day in a black classy suit and expensive heels to finish off the look. The sun had nothing on her sparkling smile and Maria could've sworn a few guys winked at her from the corners of her eyes. As she entered her office, the panicked look of her assistant came into view and she almost tutted in annoyance. The girl was always worried about one thing or the other.

"Bad news," Clara announced and Maria almost doubled over at her wobbling voice. Surely it couldn't be that bad.

"What? Your fish died?" She said softly as she sauntered to her desk and placed her handbag. She wasn't one to worry over little things. With enough patience and hard work, it will all work out for good- she believed.

"Bad reviews, and a lot of them," Clara screeched, her hands flailing around.

"Definitely has nothing to do with me. My restaurant is a five-star business, prominent people enjoy visiting this place," Maria affirmed with a slight cock of her brows.

“The restaurant’s website is blowing up with bad reviews and negative comments. We had about 4 influencers who visited the restaurant last week and they posted on their socials on how bad our food and services are!” Clara said, this time bringing the laptop to Maria’s desk.

“It was so sudden it caught our social media handler off guard. It’s so weird cause we’ve had many prominent figures visit us in the past and only had nice things to say about our services,” Clara added.

The worse part was the restaurant’s social media handles were tagged on every influencer's post that had over 100k views. On the bright side, there was a lot of engagement on their pages as their Instagram following increased by 50%. The power of social media was something else. Since the past week, there hadn’t been any new visitors to the restaurant.

True to Clara's words, It was weird that the bad reviews were coming in all of a sudden. She didn’t quite understand what was going on and thinking about it was causing her a migraine.

“Set up a meeting with our social media handler to see how we can change the narrative, and reach out to only our influential regular customers for now. We don’t have enough money to do much fixing at the moment.”

Forward to two months down the line and her restaurant had lost many of its valuable customers, not to mention her stupid manager who had been stealing funds from the business for the past month. The pesky idiot had relocated to another country just last week and his number couldn't be reached.

Maria sighed and closed the bank statement, choosing not to let worry eat at her as it would do no one any good. Clara stood in front of her with a sympathetic smile, her personal assistant was more like a good friend now.

"I'll be taking my leave now. Please rest well." Clara said before turning to grab her belongings.

Maria's restaurant had started three years ago, easily gaining the attention of the public and the wealthy men in the society. Soon after it was launched, it was classified as a five-star restaurant, the reviews were superb and they kept trooping in one after the other. Maria and her best friend, Athina, ran the business and while she was the brains of the business, Athina definitely was the spirit of the business.

Athina was the beauty too, considering she could pull businessmen and investors with that bold and sultry look of hers. More than half of the businessmen that came to spend lavishly and leave good reviews were here for Athina. Maria chuckled as she remembered how her best friend would shake her head and facepalm each time another man would desperately ask for her number and address.

"Men are so easy," Athina would say.

However, since Athina got married the December of the previous year, Maria found it hard to cope. Athina was her lucky bracelet and with her being so far away, Maria couldn't handle everything on her own.

A silver strand fell on her face as she sighed once more before picking up her phone to place a call to her mother.

"Hello dear, how are you doing?" Her mother's voice cut through the silence of the office and like a jolt, Maria's eyes filled with tears. She was so overwhelmed with everything that was going on and usually her mom would be her safe spot but not now. She couldn't tell her family the truth this time around because she was basically the breadwinner of the family being the first child. They would panic and her father would consider going back into the labor market regardless of his health.

"I'm good, mom. How is everyone at home?" Maria asked instead, masking her wobbling voice with a happy one although the tears still shone in her eyes.

"We're doing fine. When will you come home to see us? Ever since you got your place you never came home. Your siblings miss you so much."

"I'm sorry mum. I'll come home this weekend to see everyone. I've just been so busy with work and everything," Maria sighed, hoping her Mom wouldn't see through her.

"Okay, I hope you're eating properly?"

"Yes, mom. Now take care, I'll call you later. Goodnight." She quickly ended the call and looked through her contact list for Athina's number.

Hearing her mother's voice was all the confirmation she needed to know that she could not let this business slip from her hands. She had a whole family depending on her, supporting her and rooting for her and she could not disappoint them. Maria believed that if she could tell Athina everything that had been happening, they would be able to think up a solution.

Just as she was about to press the dial key, she paused to look at the time, it was 8 pm. Out of respect, she decided to call Athina the next day instead of disturbing her so early into the night. With her determination set in stone, she reached for her car keys and packed her belongings, it was time to retire for the night.

A faint smile framed her lips as Athina's wedding replayed in her head. Her best friend was married into quite a weird and extravagant family. The Martakis family.

Of all the male's Maria met that day, just one was quite interesting.