Never Judge

Miguel woke up the next day feeling horrible. He was hoping to at least embarrass Jason Evangelista prior to his show, but Cedric had forbidden him. Last night, due to his frustration he had walked out on his friend and drank a lot in the guesthouse. He managed to climb into Veronica's room and onto the couch.

He noticed that Veronica was still sound asleep, he knew his wife wasn't a morning person so he didn't bother waking her up. He went over to her and kissed her on the forehead before going down to cook breakfast. Whenever Miguel was frustrated he went to the kitchen and cooked, and today was no different. He ordered the maids away and cooked for everyone in the Mountain View house.

"Something smells amazing!" Ayanna said as she got to the kitchen.

"I'm cooking breakfast." Miguel said without turning around.

"Nicole said you cook when you're bothered about something, let me guess, Veronica on your mind?" Ayanna asked.

"Nope, Cedric pissed me off." Miguel said as he continued to cook.

"Ha, my brother. Well nothing we can do there. I'll wake Veronica up." Ayanna said as she left laughing.

"Still pissed at me?" Cedric asked as he rubbed his eyes. The smell of Miguel's cooking had managed to catch his attention as he came down. Everyone said Miguel was an excellent chef and Cedric couldn't wait to taste his cooking.

"You! You! Out! You don't get breakfast." Miguel shouted at Cedric.

"It's my house, and I paid for the stuff you cooked. Plus you're still living in my guest house. You can't send me away Miguel." Cedric said with a chuckle.

Miguel couldn't really say anything in response so he gave up and served everyone breakfast. Cedric was surprised that Miguel's cooking was actually amazing. He thought everyone was just overselling the miracle doctor's cooking, but Miguel truly had a gift in cooking.

After getting treated to an amazing breakfast, Cedric went to the office. Today he would attempt to get Jason Evangelista to help him out. His first problem was getting close to the man. Their past interactions had not been the best so Cedric knew that he had quite the challenge ahead. 

By some stroke of chance a project involving Elisia Malls just landed on Cedric's desk that day, and as part of his study on it he would need to speak with one of the designers. He took advantage of this opportunity and went to Elisia Mall's floor.

At the design department he approached the department secretary. 

"Hi, I'm looking for Mr. Jason Evangelista." Cedric greeted with a smile that made the secretary blush. Ever since he discovered he had that effect on women he wasn't afraid to use his charm to get what he needed.

The assistant led him to Jason's desk. When Jason saw Cedric visiting him he had a puzzled look on his face. Cedric expected this reaction from Jason since they didn't get along so well last time.

"Thanks." Cedric said with a wink to the secretary who smiled back.

"Aren't you married? Why are you flirting with our team secretary?" Jason asked as he leaned back in his seat.

"I was just being nice." Cedric said with a shrug. It didn't hurt if Jason thought he had something on Cedric that he could use. So Cedric let Jason think he was flirting with the secretary.

"What do you want? We didn't get along last time, so we aren't friends." Jason said as he went back to his work.

"Well, there is a project that I'm assessing for Elisia Malls." Cedric said as he placed the file on Jason's desk. Jason picked up the file and scanned through it, Cedric knew it was something that would interest Jason since it was on the redesign of some areas in the Elisia Malls. Any designer would want to have that project since it included a showcase of the designer's work as well as a plaque in each mall with their name on it.

"Interesting." Jason said as he tried to hide that he wanted the project.

"I have a list of designers that I'm supposed to look through and approve." Cedric teased as he showed Jason the list. "Of course I could just recommend one." Cedric said with a grin.

"What do you want?" Jason asked.

"I do you a favor now, you do me a favor later on." Cedric told Jason. "Plus I really think we got off on the wrong foot." Cedric said with a shrug.

"You're very suspicious Cedric." Jason said as he assessed the man in front of him. "Why are you still working here when your wife has already bought Island's Inc.? And how could she afford to buy such a company?"

Cedric pretended that the question annoyed him. "My career is not determined by my wife." Cedric said coldly.

"I'm guessing she has a wealthy patron. Let me tell you this, I knew that Veronica when she was still a student. Those girls use their name and their sugar daddies to get things, that's why Veronica married that miracle doctor, cause he's loaded. I'm sure your wife picked something up from them." Jason was clearly trying to imply that Adrianna had become a mistress to a richman. Cedric wanted to punch Jason for the things he was saying about the girls, but he had to use this man first and then let Miguel deal with him. 

"Look, we both have our own reasons for being here and I know we both aren't happy. So why not make the best out of it at those rich people's cost." Cedric was trying to imply that his position at the Reyes Group was forced, the more Jason felt that Cedric was trapped like him the more Jason was likely to trust him.

"Alright. I owe you for this one." Jason finally agreed after considering Cedric's offer.

"Why don't we grab lunch later? I know a place." Cedric said with a grin.

Jason nodded and just like that Cedric had managed to gain Jason's trust and move a step closer to truly being at the core of the syndicate. Cedric would later tell Martin and the others and they were thoroughly impressed. Martin boasted about how everyone but him was hesitant in bringing Cedric in when Cedric had become a crucial member of their group.