342 Things we can Only Do

"What good will it be for him to call me?"

"Come on! You really don't know?!" Nyelle can't believe how dense her friend can be and the instances she has to be.

"I don't! So why don't you stop stalling and tell me right now!" Yve's patience is running out as she's dying to know what she can do.

"Well, just make him happy and tell him all the good things that he's missing here. It'll give him the motivation he needed to speed things out over there and hurry back." Nyelle gives an overlay on the idea.

"I see but I only have the investment venture which he originally planned as the good news. It won't be enough."

"Then, what are you waiting for?! Focus on your school and office projects!"

"Nyelle! You're a life saver!" Yve shouts as her inspiration to work hard slowly replaces the anxiety she feels for Vince. Nyelle smiles in relief for her dearest friend.

"So what do you want to do, first?"

"Hmm… let's prepare some cookies for Edward and the team. They'll be working pretty late and supporting them is the only thing I can do for them."

"Okay. Then let's go to the kitchen!"

"But first, you need to change your clothes into comfortable ones. I can lend you if you like." Yve offers to Nyelle after examining her friend's beautiful dress.

"I'm not foolish to reject the offer." Nyelle smiles making Yve giggle a bit much to the former's relief.

'Being here for you and helping you smile and do the things you must do are the things I can do to help Edward and the team. We need to get a grip of ourselves, Yve.' It's a message that Nyelle has spoken deep within herself.

The duo walks to the kitchen and prepares the ingredients as she has decided to make chocolate chip cookies for them to be paired with brewed coffee using the coffee beans they have at home. Nyelle lays out all the ingredients Yve will need while getting her own ingredients for the pizza bread she's planning to give to the team as well.

Yve whisks the flour, baking soda and a teaspoon of salt in a large bowl and once the dry ingredients mix fully, she places them aside. Next, she beats the butter and sugars in another large bowl and mixes them until light and fluffy using a handheld mixer. This part needs utmost care as one also needs to add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract as well. Nyelle is there to assist her with it. Finally the flour mixture is added and the mixing continues. To make it chocolate chip dough, the chocolate chips are added. When the chips are seemingly distributed, Yve starts scooping the dough and rolls them into balls with her slightly wet hands on top of baking sheet.

Another tricky procedure is when you place the cookies in an oven for baking. The longer the cooking time, the crunchier the cookies become. Since Yve wants to serve it with coffee, she bakes each batch for 15 minutes. The oven in the house is quite big so it can have three trays at the same time. To ensure that the cookies are soft in the center, she would re-arrange the trays from upper to lower racks every five minutes.

While Yve gets busy with her cookies inside the over, Nyelle starts making her pizza bread.

"Nyelle, what are making?" Yve curiously asks seeing her friend slice some green pepper, tomatoes, onions and other vegetables.

"A pizza bread."

"Oh, are you planning to give some to Edward?"

"Hmm… We're on the same boat. I can't help him with anything else except prepare food and a comfortable place for him to rest." Nyelle smiles bitterly and continues with the steps to make her pizza bread.

Taking into heart all the things that Nyelle has just shared, she fully realizes that they're really on the same boat with the man they chose to love. The two ladies continue with their cooking as Edward and the rest of the Team have their video conference.

Meanwhile, Vince, in his black leather pants and coat with his gun well hidden inside, is currently sitting in front of a very long table with the different executives of CONFERENCE. His chair is that of a king's throne truly fit for his position as the leader of the group.

"Primo…" One of the executives whispered softly but Vince simply ignores it.

His anger is beyond words and his cool and understanding demeanor is nowhere to be found. Few minutes prior to him receiving the news, he was still excited to hear his wife's good news. He even secretly prepared a bottle of wine with two glasses to celebrate the success. But everything fell when the suspected traitors decided to make a move. With Team Alpha back at the base protecting his mother and wife and Team Bravo in their respective territory destroying Steve's expansion prospect, he had no other high-level ace groups to give instructions to so his presence became urgency.

"I believe you already know the reason I'm here." Vince looks at them and pressures each one of them to speak with information that will be useful against the traitors.

"…" The executives thought that Vince couldn't pressure them more until today. Their Boss is a monster and death surely awaits those foolish traitors.

"Just because I haven't been visiting the headquarters for a couple of months, you think lesser of me? I know what has been going on."

"…" As the tension gets worse inside the room, each of the men and women inside swallow invisible lumps on their throat or wipe the sweat forming on their foreheads.

"You are all entitled to have your own thoughts and even plan a coup d'etat but I thought all of you are wise enough not to put those ideas into actions. I'm not weak and senile yet to allow any of you to win."

"…"

"Furthermore, I treated all of you like family. I thought our relationship is deeper than this."

"Primo…. I, have something to say." One of the executives couldn't take it anymore.

"A brave soul… Please do tell me." Vince encourages the young girl about the same age as Yve's classmates.