I'm Not Daria
The girl Mario likes

Devan dropped me off on the front steps and before I could even open my seatbelt, he was already by my side, opening the car door for me which I found very strange. He was acting like a real man. That's almost unbelievable.

He then left in the same car, claiming there was business to be done. He did not comment rudely on how I was useless at all.

I'm done being a rich woman who's unemployed. There's something to do now, and that's college. I'll start my classes on the same day as Anna, we'll be busy most mornings and afternoons after lunch. We didn't want anyone to know about this, so we'd do it in our respective rooms with locked doors. Everyone will be busy with their own work

I decided to check on Mario before starting and apologized to him about the previous events and on behalf of Devan but he wasn't there, so I'll do it later when I meet him after college.

Throughout the morning and afternoon, after lunch I was in a room with various books around me and making notes.

At about four in the afternoon, I finally closed the laptop and stretched my hands. It feels good to do something familiar.

I went down the stairs to find a small snack to satisfy my growling empty stomach, and also to apologize to Mario.

Upon entering the kitchen, Amara was there cleaning.

"Hey, where's Mario?"

Amara looked up while rubbing the kitchen table "He's in his room, napping. He should be up by now."

"Oh, where's the room?

Amara gave me directions to Mario's room. I didn't know that the chef had his own room here, maybe because I almost always saw Mario in the kitchen, I started to believe that he lived there.

I knocked on the door and opened it. He looked surprised to see me.

"Daria, what are you doing here?"

"I want to apologize to you."

"For what?" He asked with a completely confused face. That means he didn't hold a grudge against me because of this morning. It's a relief, as well as frustrating to see how sad he was when we left and he was too forgiving.

"For this morning. I'm so sorry I left you because Devan invited me to breakfast and didn't eat what you made. I'm really sorry."

His consciousness started to appear and he shook his head in panic. "You don't have to apologize. It's nothing. You can decide what you want to eat and what you don't."

"Thank you for understanding. But apparently Devan doesn't know that I can decide for myself. I'm sorry for his behavior. He's so rude to you and you don't deserve it."

Mario shrugged his shoulders. "It's okay."

"How about we sit somewhere and talk for a while?"

Mario seemed to be pondering my offer. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay with Devan?"

"of course. Why should he care about this?"

Mario closed the door to his room. From my view inside, the room was not large, perhaps only slightly larger than my old apartment room.

We started walking. "What happened this morning?"

"All because Devan is back to being his old self" I said. "He needs to learn manners".

"It looks like he's begging you to come with him. I can't blame him. You're someone who's free to go with anyone." He declared and walked a little closer towards me for our arms to touch but that never happened.

"They're fine. Where were you all morning and evening?"

"Oh, just in my room"

"Do what?" He asked and then his eyes widened. "Does that sound like an exaggeration? I'm sorry."

I'm laughing a little. "That's not excessive. You should stop overanalyzing everything you do and say. And I didn't do anything, just laze around." I can't trust anyone else with my secret The less people who know about me, the better

"Aren't you in college?"

"I'll sign up next year."

He's nodding. We finally arrived at a park that looked more beautiful than the last time we saw it. We sat on a nearby bench.remembered not bringing any snacks Oh, all right. I have to take him after Mario gets back to work.

"Mario, do you have a boyfriend?" I asked as a conversation starter

"No."

"Why is a guy like you still single?"

"Well, I noticed this one girl". He looked down and saw her cheeks flushed

"really? Who's the lucky girl?"

Mario stares. "I won't tell you."

"Why not?" I pushed his shoulder. "Tell me! What's name?"

He shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you, but if you have to know something, not long ago she left me to go with another man."

"really? Wow, why do you like people like him?"

"Hey, she's really nice and pretty. She was my best friend, I wasn't too sure about how I felt about her, but when she left with another man, it hurt a little"

I feel weird. Why do I feel like he's talking about me ? Surely he has no feelings for me? I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you"

"I know," Mario smiled. "I just want him to know that he's the reason I'm looking forward to cooking, more than ever."

"How's it?"

"Before he came into my life, I didn't like cooking, but he made me fall in love with cooking. I used to just think of it as a source of income and try to perfect my cooking, but since he went to great lengths to learn more about it, I no longer considered it a mere source of money. I was quite excited about it but as time faded, he restored my spirit without doing much

"That's great. Uh, I want to help you cook dinner tonight."

Mario nodded

.....

Daria oon ga sensitized so cewe😂