This Saturday, Rimby and Gandy were both facing the busiest point in their work. Rimby had suddenly been assigned an overtime shift at the office until noon, while Gandy was still dealing with problems at his restaurant.
They both came home late that day. But it seemed Gandy was even later than Rimby, because his wife had already drifted off to dreamland.
Gandy was getting ready to head home. He checked his phone notifications for a moment, worried that his wife might have bombarded him with dozens of messages and calls.
But there wasn't a single notification.
"Looks like my darling wife is still busy too. I'd better go home first and take my turn welcoming her. Maybe it'll put her in a better mood for once," he muttered.
Just as he was about to leave the restaurant, the Restaurant Manager suddenly approached him, followed by all the staff.
Gandy stared at them in confusion. "Why am I being surrounded like this? What's going on?"
The Restaurant Manager smiled broadly and said, "On behalf of myself and all the staff, I'd like to thank you so much, Mr. Gandy. I thought today was going to be a disaster since yesterday's problem still hadn't been resolved. Thanks to you willingly guiding us all day, it's finally been taken care of. We're incredibly lucky to have you as our boss."
All the staff nodded together in agreement.
"Haha! What are you guys talking about? You're exaggerating. It's only natural for an owner to work hands-on as often as possible. Come on, let's not keep this going," Gandy chuckled.
"Well, Mr. Gandy, that's because even though you're the owner, you always give your all at every location," the Manager said.
"An owner is supposed to be like that, not just let everything run on autopilot. I'm not the kind of person who simply accepts something after it's been handed to me. Besides, this isn't the first time I've shown up, is it?" Gandy replied.
"Even so, Mr. Gandy, without you, we definitely couldn't have made it this far." The Restaurant Manager walked over to Gandy to shake his hand, followed by the rest of the staff.
Gandy could only resign himself to delaying his trip home. Though deep down, he was truly happy that his employees' sincerity never seemed to run out.
After that dramatic scene, Gandy hurried home. He was already longing terribly for his wife's affectionate hug.
The car had arrived in front of the house. Footsteps began approaching the front door. But they belonged to Gandy, not Rimby. Usually, as soon as Rimby heard the car, she would open the door for Gandy. But not today.
Gandy was puzzled for a moment, then immediately checked the garage. Sure enough, Rimby's car was already inside.
"Oh, she got home already? Why didn't she tell me anything?" Gandy thought.
Gandy quickly opened the front door and rushed inside. A panicked thought briefly crossed his mind, but fortunately, that wasn't the case.
He froze at the sight of his wife sleeping soundly on the long sofa.
"Good heavens, my darling wife. You already drifted off to dreamland," he murmured.
He approached his beloved with quiet, careful steps. His gaze fell on Rimby's phone, which was still playing a movie.
Gandy could only sigh. He knew Rimby's habits all too well when she ended up like this—it was always because she was completely exhausted.
"It must be because of that unexpected overtime shift," he thought as he looked around the house. "And on top of that, the housework was waiting for her. She could've just waited for me to take care of it. Such a hardworking girl."
Without warning, Gandy scooped Rimby up and carried her to the master bedroom.
He hadn't reached his destination when Rimby suddenly woke up, feeling as though her body were floating upward.
She was silent for a moment, then jolted in surprise. "Whoa!!" she cried, immediately clutching Gandy's shirt, afraid she would fall.
Gandy, unfazed, continued carrying Rimby to the bedroom. He smiled sweetly when he saw that she was awake.
"What time did you get home?" Rimby asked weakly, still not fully awake.
"Not long ago. Why'd you wake up? Just go back to sleep. It's late anyway. You might as well sleep for the night," Gandy replied.
"But there's something I want to talk to you about. I was actually planning to wait for you to come home. But I ended up getting so sleepy that I dozed off," Rimby said.
"It's okay, sweetheart~. You can talk after we freshen up and lie down in bed," Gandy answered gently.
Still carried along by her sleepiness, Rimby could only do as he said.
Before long, they were both clean and settled in bed. Yet Rimby still hadn't said a word to start the conversation.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Gandy asked curiously, turning to face Rimby.