51 CH51: Work from home

"Rainy days should be spent at home

With a cup of tea and a good book."

- Bill Watterson

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Earlier this year, the world was suffering from a virus that originated from one of the Asian countries. Businesses went down, especially those from the tourism industry. Social distancing has been strictly reinforced. Panic buying has occurred everywhere with some of the countries being on a lockdown. It has been a difficult few months for many people and companies and this does not exclude Delilah's workplace.

Since Delilah was in-charge of training schedules in the company, most of her tasks were on-hold, due to the fact that most training centers were closed until further notice. And since there will be no more flights going out of the country, external training in other countries was also on-hold.

Delilah has been doing nothing for a couple of days, other than reviewing her report for more than ten times. She was so bored that she even has the time to help Aubree with her work. Until one day, Aubree texted her, just as she had arrived at home after work.

'Hey, Delilah. I was just thinking. Maybe you shouldn't come to work after today,' Aubree's message reads.

Delilah was putting down her work bag on the dining table with her phone in one hand, reading. She frowned as she read the message. What does she mean?

She quickly shot a reply to Aubree, saying, 'Yeah, I was thinking of taking a day off.'

'No, no. What I mean is that you should just work from home. Until further notice.'

Her eyes widened in surprise at Aubree's message. Delilah did think of wanting to work from home since she doesn't really know what to do at work. And that she was kind of worried about stepping out of the house with this virus going around. But she did not expect that Aubree was thinking the same thing.

'Wait, what about you?' Delilah asked in the message. 'Will you be working from home as well?'

'Nah, I'm still going to work.'

'Eh, how come?' Delilah frowned in confusion. Why would she still be going to the office while she works from home? She does feel a bit grateful and happy that she was able to work from home. But she felt that it wouldn't be fair if Aubree still goes to the office.

'No worries. I also told the other HR employees to work from home.'

'You still haven't answered my question. How come you're not working from home?'

Delilah knew that Aubree was a worrywart that she was willing to stay in the office, thinking that there might still be other people calling at the office. Then again, what's the purpose of the receptionist?

With that thought, she continued to ask Aubree. 'Is Bella on leave?'

'Nah, she's still here but I just want to make sure that everything in the office is alright.'

Delilah sighed. She can never persuade her. Aubree can be too stubborn, especially when she worries over a small thing, making a mountain out of a molehill.

'Fine fine,' she replied back. 'Just text me if there's anything happening or if you need any help.'

'Sure, sure. Go and have a nice time, working from home.'

So, the next morning, even though Delilah was working from home, she still woke up as usual. She made a quick breakfast of toasts and eggs before walking over to the living room, where she watched the morning news.

After watching the news, she went and grabbed her tablet and began to play some games. And once she got tired of playing games, she started to read webnovels such as 'Path of the Lilies' and 'Trust in Love'. She read the first one. It was a fantasy novel about a young girl who was known to the world as 'trash'. So, the story talks about her progression on how she fights against those who condemn and bully her. She loved this kind of plot as she loved to see how a weak character grew stronger. Delilah usually ended her reading by commenting, 'Ban Ye Ai Xia'. Ye Ai Xia was a character in 'Path of the Lilies'.

Once she was done reading the story, she began reading 'Trust in Love'. The story plot was about a girl who crossdressed as a boy in the modern world. It was kind of a romantic comedy and Delilah also enjoyed stories with crossdressing leads. Probably because she was interested in how they kept their secrets and whatnot. Other than the story plot, she also loved to read the comments where the other readers loved to claim one of the male characters as their own. So, she usually commented, saying that the characters were hers, instead. She liked to further frustrate the other readers by adding 'Dee' in the characters' names.

A couple of hours later, she was done reading her webnovels and started to feel bored. Her sister and nephew were still sleeping. Her father, brother and brother-in-law were already out to work. It seems like they don't have the benefit of working from home. Her brother-in-law worked at the bank, so it was no surprise as to why he can't work from home. But both her father and brother worked in an automotive company. She presumed that it was still alright for them to work at the office.

Her sister worked in a public school as a teacher and since all educational institutions were closed until further notice, her sister was also working from home. But she does go to the office once a week, just to hand her lesson plan and whatnot.

While waiting for her sister and nephew to wake up, she went to her room and grabbed her laptop. She then switched on her laptop and opened up her web messages. Seeing Aubree online, she began to blast her with messages such as, 'Hi, what are you doing?', 'Are you busy?', 'How's the office?', 'Is there anyone at the office?' and 'Aubree, I'm bored.'

Instead of replying to her messages, Aubree just sent a gif.

Delilah opened up the link and laughed out loud when she saw the gif. It was a moving image with a funny looking guy with the caption of 'Shut up, bish!'

'I'm seriously bored. Whatcha doing?' she texted again.

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Again, instead of replying to her messages, Aubree just sent a link, which reads, 'What to do when you are quarantined at home.'

Delilah laughed again. She then shot another text, saying, 'Bish, I'm not quarantined. I'm just working from home!'

Aubree sent a 'Haha' sticker and finally replied, 'I'm just texting with Sheila, updating her about our website. Not really. I'm bored too. The office is okay, I guess. Nothing exciting is happening here. And yeah, Bella is here. I'm not sure about the other department. But I'm here with Fawkes. He said he has some things to do at the office, hence why he's at the office as well. And good for you. Be more bored.'

Delilah chuckled when she realized that Aubree had answered all her questions in just one text box. 'Anything that I can do to help?' she asked.

'Nah, not really.'

Delilah sighed. She really was bored. After a few more messages, she switched off her laptop and walked out of her room.

As she was about to walk past her sister's room, she noticed the door was slightly ajar. And she could hear sounds of people talking and some buzzing sounds. Walking into the room, without knocking on the door, she saw her sister lying on her stomach on her bed, watching some drama on her phone. Her nephew was sitting beside her, playing a game on a mobile phone as well.

Grinning, she immediately lay down beside her nephew and purposely crowding him.

Kael looked over at her with a frown and quietly edged away, moving closer to his mother.

Delilah then continued to crowd him until he stood up and began to sit on the other side of his mother.

She grabbed his arm and wailed out, "Kael! Love me!"

"No! Go away!"

Delilah got up from the bed and began to crowd him again, much to his frustration. He then shouted again, "No! Go away!"

Knowing that he will continue to ignore her, Delilah grabbed one of his favourite plush toys and said in a sing-song voice, "Oh look! It's my baby!"

Looking up, Kael saw his aunt cuddling with his plush toy. He then placed his phone down and began to reach for the toy. Lifting the toy out of his reach, Delilah laughed at his face, which began to crumble and he then cried out loud.

He ran to his mother, who was still watching her drama and sobbed out, "Mama, mama! Aunt Dee stole my baby!"

"Hug me first!" Delilah said, opening her arms wide.

"No!"

"No hug means no baby!"

He began to cry harder.

With a sigh, Miya said to Kael, "Go and hug your aunt Dee."

Pouting, he walked over reluctantly and gave Delilah a hug. Moments later, she handed him the plush toy, which he quickly snatched and hid from her.

Once she was done teasing Kael, she lay down next to Miya and asked, "What's your plan?"

"I don't know. What's your plan?"

"I don't know. I'm bored."

Miya paused her drama and looked over at Delilah with a thoughtful frown. She then looked as if an idea had occurred to her. She immediately minimized her drama and went on her social media. After a few scrolls, she finally found what she has been looking for and showed it to Delilah. "Let's make this."

Delilah narrowed her eyes in suspicion at her sister. "Don't you mean, let ME make this?"

The picture Miya had shown her was a drink. Apparently, it was trending at the moment. And its name was Dolgano Coffee. It was a milk-based drink with a big, soft and foamy cream on top. But what Miya had suggested was to make it with a chocolate malt based (Milo), instead of coffee based, since she doesn't like to drink caffeine.

Miya shrugged. "You, me… what's the difference?"

Delilah frowned. "What, inDEEd?" she said sarcastically.

Miya then got up from her bed and said, "Alright. I'll go and buy the ingredients while you stay at home and take care of Kael. Don't forget to give him a bath and cook him some 'roti'."

Before Delilah could say anything, her sister had already gone into her bathroom and taken a shower.

Soon after, Miya was already on her way to the supermarket, leaving Delilah to babysit Kael.

She let him watch his morning cartoons before cooking him 'roti'. Once cooked, she placed his plate of 'roti' and a cup of water in front of him while he watched TV. He was a slow eater as he was easily distracted, laughing and not eating. So, while waiting for him to finish his meal, Delilah went to play her game on her mobile phone. Once in a while, she would scold him to eat.

An hour had passed by but Miya was still not back from her shopping trip. So, Delilah went to give Kael his bath.

When he was done with his bath, Miya finally came right on time. She then began to unload her grocery and arranged them in the kitchen.

Leaving Kael to watch his TV shows, Delilah went into the kitchen and told her sister to accompany him in the room. She then began her preparations for the dalgona milo.

Firstly, she poured a bit of the milo drink into a large bowl and added in sugar, hot water and some ovalette. She then grabbed a mixer and started to whisk it until it became foamy.

Once done, she grabbed an empty glass and put in some ice cubes and poured some fresh milk. She topped it off with the foam and it was done.

Looking at the 'masterpiece', she thought to herself that it wasn't that hard.

She easily made two more for her sister and nephew and carried them with a tray to the living room, where they were watching TV.

Kael was happy since he loved chocolate drinks, especially milo.

Miya snickered. "Easy, huh?"

Delilah scoffed. "Like taking candy from a baby." She then began to drink her dalgona milo. At first, it was sweet, due to the foam at the top. It was creamy, fluffy and smooth. But as she drank more, the milk helped lessen the sweetness and it became even more smooth. It tasted sweet and fresh, overall. The combination of cold milk and the chocolate malt was inDEEd a match in heaven.

She sighed blissfully. "A perfect drink when one misses going to a coffee shop," she commented to herself.