The Girl struggled vainly against the tight restrictive binding that was... pretty comfortable, actually. No wonder everybody looked so relaxed.
At least then, not compared to right now.
“Do you see now how much of a disturbance you are?” the Proprietor yelled, further upsetting the already upset Guests, and waking up a few who hadn’t been disturbed yet. “This house already hates you. Don’t give me more of a reason to throw you out.”
The binding was intended to intimidate the Girl, but she found herself being more calm and level-headed than usual. “If you don’t want me here, you could always refund me.”
“But you haven’t paid!”
Her head lolled. “It doesn’t matter if I’ve slept here for five minutes. What matters is I’m taking advantage of your generosity.”
“Don’t you throw my words back at me!”
“Besides, I was recommended by the Inn across the street.”
“Were you now? In that case, I’ll refund you if you go back.”
“No, I feel much more comfortable here.”
“How about you leave without paying, and you can keep the wrapping”, the Proprietor bargained.
“I’m still not feeling it.”
“You leave, and I don’t feed you to the furnace underneath the floorboards.”
“Try it. My smell will permeate and haunt your hotel for all eternity.”
The Proprietor looked at the teeming mass of wailing upside-down heads, then back at the Girl. “Do I have your assurance that you’ll never traverse these corridors ever again?”
“I swear upon my curse,” she slurred. She meant to say ‘word’, but ‘curse’ worked better in this instance. The Proprietor took this agreement in hand and was all too happy to help, guiding her half-sleepwalking form towards the front entrance. The Girl clarified her position. “As soon as I’m paid, I’ll be out of your sight.”
“Paid? According to my deal, you only agreed never to come inside here ever again.”
In her inebriated haze, she realized too late that the negotiations weren’t accumulative. She was shaken out of her bindings through the front door when she tried one last desperate gambit. “Wait! It’s not too late! In fact... you could double your rates by having me camp out at one of your rival places”, she suggested, the idea just coming to her.
The Proprietor looked at her with narrow eyes. “What are you talking about?” And slammed the door in her face.
Fine. If he was going to play dumb, she could parlay her business plan elsewhere. She could charge hotels NOT sleep there at night. One whiff, and they’d be shunting her around to their competitor’s places.
In fact, she knew just the man to sell her sales pitch to.
The Patron was making his rounds, organizing cutlery and cloths around the tables, making sure everything would be ship-shape for incoming customers. The intent was to have everything ready and clean for the upcoming morning, but at this hour, they were still taking care of its late-night customers who refused to leave until they were done.
Even though the Café was closed, it was still technically open for business as long as somebody was left eating. And right now, there were people who were leisurely eating their meal, having stayed overnight, waiting until the time would come that their repast would be considered being under the breakfast menu, despite the fact that they had started at lunch. These weren’t your typical slow eaters, they savoured every morsel, chewing every bite ten times before swallowing, whether it was already mashed or soup.
This method of slow eating was guaranteed to keep their weight under a controlled level no matter how much they ate. All the cooked food had gone cold by now, which necessitated constant heating up, and rushing their dishes back to the kitchen to warm them up. By the time they got around to taking a bite, the food had gotten cold again. In addition, they’d ordered the combo platter, and were still working on the second course.
Even with this strategy, they would still have to pay for the amount of food they’d consumed, no matter what time it was, negating their bargain-hunting. The Patron was patiently waiting for them to finish when an unexpected visitor showed up, who he regarded with an unsurprised expression.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you again.”
The Girl showed up in front of the Café early, wanting to pay off her debt in a hurry while she was still able. She was desperate to be released from the chained ankle bracelet that kept her from moving around the City as much as she’d like, and wanted to get this business over and done with.
The two of them tensely looked at each other through the wire-mesh doors keeping new visitors from coming in, and also preventing anybody from going out. Despite not serving anybody at the moment, the Patron had the enviable talent of appearing busy without actually doing anything.
“You were off the grid for so long I thought you’d ran away.”
“I ran into some difficulty. But as you can see, I’m back now.”
“That’s good. But you should know, when you went missing, a penalty of 0.001% was added to your fine. Every second.” He made some rapid calculations. “As of this moment, your debt total is currently in the millions.”
She briefly glanced at the vast reams of math that had amounted to this outstanding figure. Even if the currency had been devalued to the point of bulk, it was still too much. “All this from one unpaid meal?”
“The money you owed me could’ve gone on to invest in wider expansions, broadening my horizons and expanding my base of operations. Loss of investment means loss of profit.”
The Girl took out what meagre hotel cash she had and pointed to an item on the menu. “I could buy a sandwich, and you’d get the same amount of money.”
“That’s money then, compared to money now.”
“This sum is ridiculous! I can’t possibly pay back this amount! I couldn’t find any employment in the tiny restrictive circle you kept me in! My only chance was in the Forest of - ”
“Wait, you were in the Forest??” The Patron looked her up and down, noticing subtle details that had escaped his notice. “That changes things”, and he did another series of rapid calculations. “There. According to the new boundaries, you only owe me a few thousand instead of millions.”
“Oh, thanks a bunch!” she sarcastically replied. “That’s still money I don’t have!”
“Those aren’t leaves you’ve got in your hand there”, he pointed out.
“I earned this through my own sweat and tears!” she yelled, conveniently forgetting how she came across the money in the first place. “And it doesn’t even come close to what I owe you! I still haven’t been paid!”
The Patron looked momentarily surprised. “You found a job?”
“As an assembly-line assistant.”, she said with some misplaced pride.
“Going from the Forest to the Factory? That’s quite the decline.”
“Well, it’s all I could find. Oh yeah, that’s right, something just occurred to me - I could help you out by hanging around places of your competitors, so people would - ”
“It won’t work,” the Patron said, cutting her off.
“What?? Why not??”
“Take a look”, the Patron said, pointing in the direction she’d been. “Already, the Inn you slept in has posed a challenge to future guests to try to sleep in their stinkiest room at a discount price. Likewise, the Proprietor has raised his rates, guaranteeing his guests that the rooms will be smell-free.”
“How did you - ”
“In this line of business, you learn how to deal with challenges. Whenever a change comes, we have to roll with the punches and use it to our advantage. Also, knowing how the competition is doing is an important trait.”
“So, what’s wrong with - ”
“It’s a good idea, but spreading your stink around wouldn’t convince customers to eat here. They’d either be put off by the smells from nearby places, or consider it a mild deterrent. If they want to eat at their favorite spot, nothing short of aggressive advertising will get through.” The Patron pressed the bottom lip between his fingers as he gathered his thoughts, before raising a finger. “Tell you what. I’ll accept the meagre amount you’ve collected thus far, and in return, I’ll widen your search area, so you can have a better chance at finding better avenues of profit. When you get paid, I’ll spread your area further. Also, If you can convince me of a better business deal that’s worth my time, I’ll set you free.”
“Is that all?”
“As long as you stay within the boundaries, you should be fine. Oh, and wherever you go, spread these flyers about this place. The more, the better.” And he handed over a large stack of menus.
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