(Start of Week 23. Theo's Balance: $35,292.00)

  Week 23 - Monday

  Sleep offered little respite. Theo woke Monday morning feeling gritty and unrested, the fury from Sunday night’s discovery of the review bombing having simmered into a cold, hard knot in his gut. Sabotage. Someone had actively tried to cripple his business just as it was taking flight. The betrayal by Tammy was one thing. Opportunistic theft driven by desperation, perhaps. This felt different. Malicious. Calculated.

  He lay in bed for a moment, staring at the water-stained ceiling, forcing down the urge to immediately start digging into potential culprits. Patience, he told himself, though the word felt foreign, ill-fitting. Deal with the immediate fires first. Stabilize. Gather intel. Then act.

  First priority: damage control and stabilizing morale. Second priority: identifying the enemy. Third priority: making them pay.

  He swung out of bed, the exhaustion momentarily masked by a surge of grim determination. Before even heading to the shop, he pulled out his phone, fingers tapping out a message to Sarah.

  Theo: Hey Sarah. Ran into an unexpected… online issue… this weekend. Could really use your expert opinion when you have a moment. Any chance you could swing by the shop later tonight or maybe sometime tomorrow? No rush, but would appreciate your take.

  He kept it vague, avoiding details that might cause her undue worry or pull her away from her own work pressures prematurely. He just needed her expertise lined up.

  Her reply came quickly.

  Sarah: Oh no! Online issue? Sounds ominous lol. Tonight's tricky, slammed with work stuff. How about tomorrow afternoon again? Around 4? Can definitely make time then. Hope it’s nothing too serious!

  Theo: Tomorrow at 4 works perfectly. Thanks, Sarah. Appreciate it.

  One problem potentially delegated. Now for the shop floor.

  He arrived at Maria’s Charcoal Chicken to find Henry and Olivia already prepping, the atmosphere slightly subdued but focused. The previous week’s chaos, the theft, the sabotage discovery, hung unspoken in the air.

  "Morning," Theo greeted them, forcing a neutral tone he didn't feel. "Let's aim for one-fifty prep today. See how the start of the week holds up after… everything."

  Henry nodded, already loading chickens onto the rotisserie spits (+1 enhanced consistency ensuring even spacing almost wasn't needed with Henry's care, but Theo appreciated the redundancy). "Sounds good, boss. Hey," he added, brightening slightly, "supplier delivered the first batch of Mars bars and the good vanilla ice cream this morning! Ready for dessert launch whenever you give the word." He gestured towards a newly organized section of the dry storage area.

  "Good work securing those, Henry," Theo acknowledged. The dessert idea felt like a small point of positive momentum amidst the recent negativity. "Let's get through today, see how traffic looks after those fake reviews. But yeah, let's plan to officially add them to the menu this week. People were asking all weekend." He saw Henry's shoulders straighten with pride at the validation. Good, Theo thought. Keep him motivated.

  Olivia, meanwhile, was diligently wiping down the front counter, but Theo noticed her occasionally glancing at her phone, brow furrowed. As Theo passed, she looked up.

  "Hey Theo," she began hesitantly, "I was looking at those awful reviews from Sunday night… the ones talking about rats and stuff? Total lies, obviously. But I was wondering… is there a way to report them? Like, tell Google or Yelp they're fake?" She scrolled through a page on her phone. "Their help sections are super confusing, but maybe Sarah would know when she comes?"

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Theo felt a flicker of appreciation for Olivia’s proactive thinking. "Good initiative, Olivia. Yeah, it's usually a nightmare dealing with those platforms, but definitely worth asking Sarah. She knows how to navigate that stuff." He paused, looking at both his employees. They looked tired, maybe a little demoralized by the weekend's events, but they were here, working hard. "Listen," he said, his voice firm but quiet. "Last week was rough. The theft… this review bombing… it's bullshit. But it doesn't change the fact that we're making incredible food here." He gestured towards the perfectly roasting chickens, the humming fryer. "We know the truth. Our repeat customers know the truth. We just need to push through this."

  His words seemed to land. Henry nodded determinedly. Olivia offered a small, resilient smile. "Yeah! Team Chicken!" she declared, maybe a little too brightly, but Theo appreciated the sentiment.

  They prepped the 150 sets. The day unfolded with a tense undercurrent. Every time the bell jangled, Theo found himself bracing slightly, wondering if it was a genuine customer or someone coming to complain based on the fake reviews. But the feared drop-off didn't fully materialize. Business was definitely slower than the peak weekend days, but steadier than expected. They sold 123 chicken and chip sets. Respectable.

  And surprisingly, Henry’s dessert experiment, now officially (if quietly) offered when customers asked, proved instantly popular. They sold 50 deep-fried Mars bars and ice cream balls at $8 a pop – an easy $400 in high-margin revenue. Maybe Henry’s onto something big here, Theo conceded internally.

  He noticed both Henry and Olivia working with extra diligence all day, double-checking orders, wiping down surfaces constantly, engaging customers with extra warmth. It felt like they were consciously trying to counteract the negativity, to make up for Tammy's betrayal through their own efforts. It didn't go unnoticed. The cynical part of Theo remained wary, but another part felt a grudging respect. Maybe not everyone is out for themselves, the thought flickered, before being quickly suppressed by years of ingrained distrust. Or maybe they just really like their jobs and the bonuses. Either way, their dedication was valuable.

  As they closed, they had leftovers again. "Make some friends," Theo instructed, handing Henry and Olivia containers. They spent twenty minutes distributing the perfectly cooked chicken and chips to the nearby late-night workers, another small deposit in the bank of local goodwill.

  Week 23 - Tuesday

  Tuesday morning. They prepped 150 sets again, falling into a rhythm. Olivia was rapidly mastering the front counter and packing station, her cheerful demeanour infectious. Henry handled the fryers and assisted Theo with the rotisserie and prep, his movements increasingly confident. The sting of Tammy’s theft was fading slightly, replaced by the smooth functioning of this new, smaller team. Olivia’s positive energy was a definite upgrade over Tammy’s quiet intensity and barely concealed dissatisfaction.

  Around lunchtime, Theo’s phone pinged.

  Sarah: Hey! Still good for 4pm today? Just making sure before I escape the Meta madness!

  Theo: Yep, 4pm works. See you then.

  He spent the afternoon running the lunch service with Henry and Olivia, his mind partly on the upcoming meeting with Sarah, partly on the lingering question of who was behind the review bombing. The need for information, for certainty, gnawed at him.

  At precisely 4 PM, Sarah walked in, looking harassed but offering a determined smile. "Okay, reporting for chicken consulting duty!" she announced.

  Henry and Olivia, clearly recognizing her from her previous visit and likely briefed by Theo about her marketing prowess, immediately chimed in. "Hey Sarah!" Henry greeted her warmly. "Boss, why don't you guys head out?" Olivia added brightly. "Take Sarah somewhere to talk properly? We can hold the fort down for an hour, it's usually quiet around now anyway."

  Theo hesitated for only a second. He trusted Henry and Olivia more after the past few days, and getting Sarah's focused attention away from the shop environment seemed wise. And honestly? He needed a break himself. The thought of coffee, surprisingly, didn't trigger the same aversion as last week. Maybe the positive momentum, the focus on problem-solving, had overridden the negative association.

  "Alright," Theo found himself saying. "Good idea. An hour, max. Keep your phones handy." He turned to Sarah. "There's a decent café nearby I heard about, 'The Three Beans'? My treat this time."

  They settled into a booth at the cafe, a quiet spot with comfortable seating and the rich aroma of properly roasted coffee. Theo ordered a cappuccino, Sarah a latte. The familiar ritual felt almost normal.

  "Okay," Sarah said, pulling out her tablet as soon as their drinks arrived. "Tell me about the 'online issue'. What happened?"

  Theo recounted the events succinctly – Tammy’s theft on Friday night, followed by the coordinated flood of fake one-star reviews hitting Sunday. He showed her the reviews on his phone.

  Sarah scrolled through them, her expression shifting from sympathy about the theft to professional outrage at the reviews. "Ugh. Classic review bomb. Nasty stuff. Okay," she went into detective mode, "two main ways to handle this."