Ian walked inside the calm and quiet cafe where he had arranged to meet someone—who specifically is a friend of his, after quite a long time. He noticed the smell of the bread, which was amazingly fresh for his nostrils, and realized the cafe they chose was one of the best places they had ever agreed to meet someone.
Some waitresses wore their uniforms—which were brown t-shirts and pants, walking here and there in the cafe, taking orders, and working their arse off until their shift ends.
He walked in and passed people on his way.
“You’re late,” John said as soon as Ian sat in front of him.
“Took your role seriously for the first time. Feels good being the late one—as always,” Ian said and John smirked with a nod.
“Excuse me, sir, are you ready to order?” A waiter wearing the uniform with a pen and a paper questioned standing next to the table.
“Yeah, I’ll get a black coffee, with less sugar, and a baguette if available?” John answered yet, with another question.
“Yes, they are. What about you, sir?” The waiter who had the name ‘Sha Li’ questioned.
“Sha Li, can I get a cappuccino with baguette as well, maybe some cookies too, thanks,” Ian said and Sha Li walked away with a nod.
“So, how have you been, Ian? Heard you went to the hospital to donate money to the kids,” John said with a meaningful smile that reached his eyes.
His eyes showed how much of a wonderful job Ian and Bale cooperated. John had wanted to mention it via the phone while they agreed to meet up for a coffee, but he thought that it would be better to appreciate the good deed Ian did in person.
Ian nodded reciprocating the smile, “Yeah, to be honest, seeing the kids made my intestines drop to the ground. They are too nice to be in such a place. But I feel glad about what we did,” Ian muttered with a slight shrug.
“Yeah, Batman Begins was such a blockbuster, isn’t it? Heard the numbers just kept going up, good news, man, good news,” John said.
“Ah yes, when I checked in the morning before coming here, the profits made just from local screenings are 150 million dollars, it is going huge. People started to notice Batman and started to embrace the true superhero who he is,” Ian said and then he questioned, “What about you? How is it going with the business?”
“Yeah, although I was never a superhero fan, just like how I mentioned during the premiere, Batman made me a fan of the movie, and yes, the business is starting to do great these days. I feel like–”
“Excuse me, sir, here’s your order,” Sha Li said while keeping the two baguettes and the coffees on the table with cookies on the side.
“Thanks” “Thank you” Both Ian and John thanked the waiter who walked away as soon as he placed the order on the table.
“You were saying?” Will asked while taking a bite from the baguette.
“Yeah, so yesterday I secured a deal which was worth a million, I mean, you can guess by that how great things have been going—”
A loud thud suddenly erupted through the cafe, which broke its peace into tiny little pieces within a mini-second.
After seeing how the waiter who had just given the orders to Ian and John holding his cheek, and face which was red due to embarrassment—the situation was obvious. It was not a thud, but a slap.
“What did you just say, you mo-”
“I’m not getting PAID enough for this shit!” Sha Li yelled at the customer who just slapped him. “You have no right to slap me, lady!” He looked beyond mad and in pain.
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“You are getting paid to give me the right order right? And I need to talk to your manager! Is this how you have been trained to talk to a customer?!”
“I’m so sorry, excuse me, I’m the manager here, and if you could tell me…..” Another tall man with an apron came to stand in between them. “....What exactly happened?” He asked, lowering his voice to calm the situation.
“This man took my order wrong and had the audacity to call me stupid because I was fully aware of what the hell I ordered!” The short lady shouted without giving a thought to whoever is around them.
“Yes, and I did apologize for giving the wrong order, but you kept spatting on the food intentionally and it is unacceptable,” The waiter looked equally pissed at the lady’s behavior. “You even slapped me!”
“I see nothing I need to apologize for! I have been coming to the cafe for almost five years now! And if this is how you people are going to treat me, it’s better that I-”
“You’re fired. Change your clothes and leave the uniform for laundry,” The manager said with an emotionless face. “I’m truly sorry for the incon…”
Seeing that, Ian stood up from his chair immediately. Throughout the whole situation, it reminded Ian of how he had been treated during the beginning of his career in his past life. He was treated horribly, due to how powerful the other people were.
Seeing the guy, Sha Li walked away from the scene, and Ian walked after him.
“Got a minute?” Ian asked as soon as he was behind Sha Li.
“Hey, I don’t work here anymore, you probably saw it-”
“No, I want to offer you a job. I’m Ian Renner,” Ian said while extending his hand.
[...] “Did you seriously offer that guy a job?” John questioned while surprise was written on his face.
“I just said I did, no big deal,” Ian shrugged taking a sip from his cappuccino.
“I thought you became a cold-faced playboy who doesn’t care about people, I’m wrong once again it seems,” John was still surprised.
“I still have humanity left, John,” Ian said while shaking his head not being able to wrap his mind around how John thought about him.
“Yeah, I can see that,”
“Yeah well, nice show for a long evening. So, what happened with that girl you were talking about…” Ian continued with their evening.
With that, the evening passed by while they talked about the businesses, and everything going on in their lives. Ian personally enjoyed spending time with a friend because of how hard he had been working recently.
John, who met Ian at the premier, had mentioned how good it was seeing him after lots of hard work and he had admired how good the movie was. After a few days, when things settled down, Ian reached John on the phone and said to meet up to catch up with things.
-
Going home with a light heart, due to how he had discussed things with John and was feeling fine, he thought about what could be his next move. Ian had thousands of options to choose from, yet he wanted to think more about it—so nothing would go wrong.
Taking a hot shower, his mind went to numerous things that he could start on next. The shower took more time than the usual time, yet when he came out, he was left with some options and one main idea for his next step.
A book.
After releasing two movies in a row, Ian felt as if it was time to take a small break from movies and complete a book that could grab so much attention and help Ian with the image he was going for.
There were so many options for him to go with since after the Resident Evil book he realized that his memory library contained not just movies, but also all sorts of books, from the epilogue to the prologue—Ian wanted to make the audience read something that could be worth quite a while.
Finally, after doing a lot of thinking, Ian decided on a title among all the other choices he had. The book he chose was Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief.
He chose it because how Jackson's adventures had inspired many of the students from his previous world because they showed characters solving problems and succeeding not despite their learning differences but because of them. At the same time, the book doesn't gloss over the real frustrations and challenges that kids with ADHD and dyslexia face.
Nevertheless, Ian thought that if people could embrace how much of a good book it is, there are other possibilities of making a TV series or such—just like how a movie was created in the previous world which succeeded commercially yet managed to get mixed reviews.
Sitting in front of his laptop, at around 12.38 am, he started typing the outwork of the book he chose. Mainly first, he focused on the audience he writes it for, the genre, and then the core of what it would be.
He started typing….
Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher
Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.
If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life…
[...] Ian kept typing throughout the night till his fingers felt enough and his eyes started to get dizzy.