Chapter 17 - 17

"I got this." Ian said as the waiter approached them, carrying their bill for the night.

"Ian, you haven't even started working and you're already spending your money." Jas said with a frown. "It's not practical to spend like this."

"Jas, I got a signing bonus." Ian said as he rolled his eyes, taking the bill from the waiter.

When Ian saw how much their meal cost, he was shocked.

"See, I told you, it's too expensive." Jas scolded as she tried to reach for the bill in Ian's hands.

"No, Jas, it isn't that." Ian said as he scratched his head.

"What's wrong, sir?" The waiter asked.

"I think you might have computed our orders wrong." Ian told the waiter as he showed the bill. "This is way too cheap for what we had tonight."

"What?" Jas asked as she gave Ian a funny look. 

"Take the steak for example, the price is at least 50% cheaper on the bill than on the menu. You might need to check your cash register, it might be broken." Ian explained, earning him a funny look from the waiter.

"Ian, you've got to be kidding right?" Jas asked as she successfully took the bill from Ian.

"I'm not Jas, just take a look at it." Ian said with a shrug.

As Jas read through the bill, Ian was able to tell by her expression that the price was indeed wrong. 

"Sir, of course your bill is cheaper." The waiter said with a smile. "Your name is on our preference list." 

"Preference list?" Ian asked.

"Yes, it's a selected number of people that are given discounts by the restaurant owner." The waiter explained.

"How? I don't eat at places like this." Ian told the waiter. "You might have gotten my name wrong or the name on the list is wrong."

"No sir, your name was personally added by Mr. Laurence this morning." The waiter said, taking Ian and Jas by surprise.

"Dude, I really don't understand." Ian said, as he was slowly getting more and more confused by what was going on.

"I thought you didn't know Raymund Laurence?" Jas asked as she handed the bill back to Ian.

"I don't." Ian said with a hiss. As he turned his attention back to the waiter.

"Look, I'm flattered but you should really check if you got the name right." Ian insisted. 

"Let me call over my manager to check." The waiter said as he turned and left.

Ian didn't want to take advantage of the mistake. He knew that Raymund Laurence was one of the people you never wanted to offend.

Add to that the fact that he would probably be working with the businessman in the future seeing as he was a close friend of the Reyes Family.

"What if we just took the discount?" Jas asked. "I mean it's not like you can just throw money around."

"Jas, I won't be throwing money around, we are just paying the correct amount for our meal." Ian explained. "Plus we don't want to cross Raymund Laurence."

"This wouldn't be crossing him." Jas said in an annoyed tone. "We were just paid the bill we were handed."

"Since when have you wanted to save money?" Ian asked with a laugh. "And yes it is. It will leave a bad impression if he finds out we took advantage of his mistake."

"Sir." The waiter called out as he walked back over with a woman. 

She was wearing a business suit and had her hair tied in a bun. She had a nameplate on the left side of her suit with her name, Ana, and her position, Floor Manager.

"Mr. Lim." The floor manager greeted them with a slight bow. "I was informed that you had a question about your bill? Rest assured that we have applied the appropriate discounts and aren't trying to cheat you."

"Wait, what, no." Ian said, confused with what the manager had told them. "I'm not asking for a discount, I am just very very confused. I shouldn't have a discount, I think you've gotten my name mixed up with someone else's"

"You are Mr. Ian Lim, correct?" The manager asked as she scrolled through the tablet in her hand.

Ian was surprised that they were using a tablet for information in the restaurant, it was new technology and quite expensive. 

Then again, this place was one of the most popular and most expensive restaurants around.

"Yes." Ian said with a nod.

"You work at?" The manager asked Ian.

"The Reyes Group, under the CEO's office, I was just hired today." Ian answered. He had no idea why they needed that information but he gave it anyway.

"Oh, right there is a mistake." The manager said with a frown.

"I told you there was a mistake." Ian said as he looked at Jas. 

Jas shook her head and rolled her eyes at him. She was annoyed that he was refusing a discount when he clearly had to save in every way possible.

"Yes sir. I'm really sorry about this." The manager said in a somewhat frantic tone. "There must have been a mix up at the cashier and they applied the wrong discount."

"It's alright." Ian said with a smile, relieved that he had asked for them to double check. He would not have wanted to be the man that tried to cheat Raymund Laurence. 

"I'm really sorry, sir." The manager said. "You may go now, you don't need to pay."

The manager's words shocked Ian and Jas so much that he wasn't able to speak for a few seconds.

"W- w- what?" Ian asked, he was sure the manager had told him he didn't need to pay, but that was impossible.

"Yes, sir." The manager said with a nod. "You are on the VIP list of Bamboo Room. You don't need to pay for anything and we will always have a table reserved for you."

"Okay, now I'm sure you got me wrong." Ian said, shaking his head.

"No, sir." The manager insisted. 

"What's going on here?" A deep voice called out from behind as a man around Ian's age approached them.