I’ll Teach You, Marianne.

Chapter 73 – Childhood Trauma

"Okay, spirit up, Anne!!!" squealed Anne excitedly.

After taking off her shirt and wearing only a pink t-shirt, Anne then arranged the flowers into the vases that had been prepared. Because the flowers came directly from the first supplier, the flowers arrived in Anne's hands in very good condition, not a single flower was withered. It took almost two hours for Anne to arrange the beautiful flowers into large vases filled with water, so that the flowers would not wither quickly. 

When it was five o'clock in the afternoon, Anne then took photos of the flowers one by one and she posted them on her social media accounts on behalf of her flower shop which she had created two days ago. After thirty minutes, when she had posted about ten kinds of flowers, suddenly there were 5 orders that came through a message at a special number that she listed to sell online. Anne swiftly served her first customers. After they had sent the money according to the price agreement made by Anne beforehand, Anne finally packed the orders that the customers would pick up directly. Because she didn't have a courier or an administrator, she finally had to work extra hard today, but Anne was happy to do it all. She felt so happy that on the first day, she already had customers. 

"Thank God for the blessings you give today," said Anne gratefully, when she saw the amount of money entered into her new account in the name of the Lotus Florist, which was the name of her flower shop. Just four hours after she served online purchases, Anne had already earned as much as 400 pounds and that was a lot of money for a flower shop that had just opened for the first time.

"It must be very tiring if I manage this shop alone. I think I have to find a courier and a cashier to look after this shop. If I open a shop after college, I think a lot of time is wasted," muttered Anne softly, staring at the beautiful flowers in front of her. Since she was in the shop, she hadn't touched her personal cell phone at all, because she was busy handling orders on her special flower shop cellphone.

Even though there were currently a lot of incoming calls from Aaron on her cell phone. Since Anne turned it into silent mode, Anne didn't know that Aaron had been waiting for her for almost two hours in front of her apartment unit. 

"Where are you, Anne? I'm tired and worried waiting for you," Aaron said quietly as he called Anne back for the umpteenth time.

"Come on, pick it up,  Anne, pick it up … where are you? It's almost ten at night, and I can't contact you." 

"Oh my God Anne, where are you?!!"

Aaron was seen pacing back and forth in front of Anne's apartment unit with his cell phone on his ear. Who knew how many times he had contacted Anne, but they were not answered by Anne. And this made Aaron worried. After the performance ended, Aaron and the other businessmen were involved in a question and answer session with UAL students after lunch until three in the afternoon. Not to mention the photo event with the students who were very noisy asking for a photo with him. Actually it wasn't just him who was overwhelmed by the girls at the arts campus. Jack also experienced the same thing. Only businessmen who brought their partners were safe from the attacks of the girls. 

"Pick up my phone, Anne, don't make me worry like this," Aaron said in despair.

"Are you angry, Anne? Is your problem so heavy that you finally had to leave the campus first?" 

"Aaron, you're stupid, it's your fault because you didn't just ask her to go after she cried. Anne must be in a lot of trouble. Why are you insensitive, Aaron? … Aarrggghhh fuck!!!" 

Aaron kept cursing and blaming himself for not knowing Anne's whereabouts. He was really very worried this time. When he was about to sit back in front of the apartment door, suddenly his cell phone rang. Aaron quickly picked up the incoming call, even though usually he never paid attention to an incoming call without a name. But this time he immediately picked it up without thinking because he thought it was Anne who was calling him. 

"An …"

"Aaron, where are you?" asked a man on the other end of the phone interrupting Aaron's words, who almost said Anne's name.

"Who is this?" Aaron asked back curtly, disappointed that it wasn't Anne who contacted him.

"It's Jack. Follow me to the address I just sent you," Jack replied on the other end of the phone hoarsely. 

"But I'm…"

Beep!

Aaron couldn't finish his words because Jack had hung up the phone.

"Fuck!! Why did this bastard Jack keep looking for me? I still don't know where Anne is. Arrgghhh … so annoying!!!"

Aaron shouted loudly as he hit the wall. He couldn't control himself when it came to Anne. Because he had been waiting for a long time without certainty, finally Aaron decided to go see Jack. Driving his car, Aaron went to the address that Jack had shared. 

Rosewood London.

In the VIP room booked for three nights by Patricia, Leon's personal secretary, Leon was seen standing on the balcony while enjoying his cigarette. His mind was still wandering, thinking about Marianne whom he had met today at UAL campus. A meeting that he never expected at all, the ex-wife whom he hated so much because he thought she was disgusting was now transformed into a girl from a beauty contest. Her hairstyle, dress style, makeup, and manner of speaking were all different and this made him nervous. 

"Honey, let's go to sleep. I'm sleepy," whispered Steffi quietly, suddenly coming to him, wrapping her arm around Leon's waist from behind.

"I'm not done smoking. You just go to sleep first, Steffi," Leon replied, quickly rejecting Steffi's invitation to sleep.

"This is my fertile period Leon, I want to have …"

"Don't discuss babies again with me, Steffi. Didn't we agree beforehand not to have children?!!" Leon scolded in a rising voice as he turned around and grabbed Steffi's hand so hard it made her grimace in pain.

"Yes, Leon, but I …"

"Where are your contraceptive pills?!" Leon asked, quickly interrupting Steffi's words.

"They're in my bag," replied Steffi hoarsely, holding back her tears.

Without a word, Leon then pulled Steffi into the room and pushed her on the bed. He then took Steffii's bag to find the contraceptive pills he had requested from his personal doctor.

"Hurry up and drink! You have to drink in front of my eyes from now on," Leon said quickly as he threw the bottle of contraceptive pills at Steffi.

"I understand," Steffi replied softly. She then opened the bottle and took out a pill and then drank it with the water he had just taken from the nightstand.

"Remember Steffi, if you want to be my wife, obey my wishes. I don't want to be messed around with crying babies. If you dare to get pregnant because you don't take your contraceptive pills, then I'll divorce you right away!!!" Leon said loudly, threatening Steffi. After saying that, Leon then grabbed his jacket and cell phone and then walked out, leaving Steffi alone in the hotel room.

Shortly after Leon left, there was a sad sobbing from Steffi. Two years serving Leon before finally getting married three months ago didn't really make her a complete Mrs. Ganke, because she hadn't succeeded in conceiving Leon's offspring.

"I want to be a complete Mrs. Ganke, Leon." 

As it was late at night, Anne finally decided to go home. She had been in the shop more than six hours since this afternoon, coming home early from campus. She had to postpone her intention to advertise for job vacancies because it was getting late. After tidying up her belongings to their original place, Anne then grabbed her bag and her main cell phone which was connected to electricity as it was being charged. It was clear that Anne was setting it into airplane mode as she was charging it, so that automatically no one would be able to call or send a message to her.

When Anne was locking her shop door, it could be seen that several other shop owners were also closing their shops, just like what Anne did. After making sure that the flower shop was properly locked, Anne then walked to her car which was parked in front of the shop. Actually without her car, Anne could go home to her apartment because the distance between the flower shop and her apartment was not too far away. But because this afternoon she was driving her car from campus, so she was forced to take the car to go home to her apartment. The night wind was blowing hard enough to make the leaves fly, indicating that it was going to rain soon and it made Anne increase the speed of her car a little. She didn't want to be outside when it rained.

After a five minutes drive, Anne finally arrived at her apartment safely. After properly parking her car, Anne then rushed into the building. This was because water droplets from the sky have started falling to touch the earth. 

"Fortunately I got home on time," said Anne gratefully when she managed to enter her dark room. 

Boom!

A lightning bolt crashed, causing a flash of bright light around her, including Anne's dark room. Soon there was a rumbling sound of thunder that followed. 

Anne, who was shocked, immediately knelt down while covering her ears. She really couldn't overcome her fear of lightning and thunder.

To be continued