I can feel eyes on me as I head to the next table to collect orders and fight the urge to turn around and ask that I not be made the subject of conversation. This is usually my safe space. My boss likes me, and my supervisor may well be my best friend. You couldn’t ask for a better working environment. Still, knowing that they’re all in here, in one spot, has me sweating rainstorms and shaking slightly on the inside.
There’s no way of knowing when they’ll strike or what they’ll do and I’m not stupid enough to think that Maverick will actually do anything to stop them, though I am hopeful enough to pray that given our business relationship he will.
I try to keep a straight face as I place the plates on the table and start counting backwards from ten when Jessica, desperately clinging to Maverick’s arm, calls me a peasant.
I glance down at Maverick who is busy tapping away at his phone with his ear-pods in, ignoring not just me, but Jessica as well.
“Enjoy your meal.” For the sake of professionalism, I manage to smile before turning to walk away.
“Wait!” Suzanna calls out and I cringe at just how close I was to getting away from them.
“This is not what I ordered.” She points at her salad - the only salad on the fast food menu with absolutely no variations.
“How so?” I ask with a heavy sigh.
“I said no mayo and I asked you to dice the chicken not give me chicken strips.”
“That’s not mayo, that’s dressing and it’s on the side, so you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want it. As I explained before, we don’t serve diced chicken. We have chicken strips. That’s what the menu says, that’s what I said, and it’s what you agreed to.”
“Are you calling me a liar?!” She practically shouts the words at me, and a sudden hush falls over the entire room as heads whip around to stare in my direction.
“No. I’m not calling you a liar. I am trying to understand what we got wrong so we can get it rectified.”
“Oh, so you’re calling me an idiot then?” she huffs standing up and emptying her water glass onto my face.
I can feel my fingers tighten around the serving tray as I fight back tears and the instinctive urge to sail it into her forehead, again, all in the name of professionalism.
“Beth, are you okay?” Tyler rushes to my side with a wad of napkins. I take them from him with cold, tense hands.
“I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.” Tyler addresses the table and I hear, rather than see the scoffs.
“And who the hell do you think you are?” Ethan asks rudely.
“I’m the guy kicking you people out of here.” Tyler hitches momentarily at the word ‘people’ and I know him enough to know that that is not what he wanted to say.
“Listen buddy,” Maverick growls at him, “just go back into the kitchen, and take your waitress with you. Replace her with another one and we can just pretend this didn’t happen and we won’t have this place closed down.”
Unbelievable.
“I’m not very sure you heard me,” Tyler’s jaw clenches but he still manages to mask the hostility flaring in his nostrils. “I’m asking you and your friends to leave.”
“Loo-” Maverick starts, but Tyler cuts him off.
“Now.”
“I thought the customer was always right,” Jessica chimes in, still latching onto Maverick like a sloth on a tree and something about it unsettles me.
“This isn’t the 1960s. We do not treat our people like crap, and we do not serve customers who do. What just happened here is unacceptable in this establishment and if you don’t leave, I will have to call the police and file charges for assault.”
My brain jumps automatically at the mention of ‘charges’ and the words are out of my mouth before I even have a moment to think them through let alone yank them back into the waste basket of my mind.
“No Tyler, really I’m fine. There’s no need for all that. No charges.”
Maverick cocks a perfectly trimmed eyebrow at me.
He stands slowly, towering over Tyler by about an inch, but Tyler remains unphased by the obvious challenge, and steps closer to meet him instead.
I can feel my fingers growing increasingly twitchy. I’ve seen Tyler take thugs down easily, but I’ve also seen Maverick do the unthinkable without lifting a finger and I will not have Tyler or this place be the collateral damage of a Maverick sized shit storm because of me.
I hold onto Tyler’s arm and pull him away far enough to stand between them.
“Look at me,” I whisper and he reluctantly glances down. I shake my head at him, “Don’t do this. They’re not worth it.”
“Listen to the waitress buddy.”
“Shut up Maverick,” I snap, whipping around to face him. “You haven’t paid for anything. So please, don’t create a scene. Just leave.”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Jessica snaps, jumping up to his defense, but my eyes never leave his nor does he even glance back at her.
He has to know how bad of an idea this is. He doesn’t need me to tell him this. Is his ego really so fragile that he’d be willing to risk state and my money for it? I seriously hope not.
“Go,” I grunt and I see his pupils dilate fractionally before he rolls his eyes and beckons to his friends to move out.
My shoulders sag and I feel the balloon pop in my chest, relieving pressure as they start walking towards the door.
“Are you okay?” Tyler asks, holding onto my shoulder, his ocean blue eyes washing over me with the kind of compassion I could never dream of getting from Maverick in this lifetime.
“I’m okay.” I squeeze the hand still resting on my shoulder and gaze up towards the door in time to see Maverick look away and walk out, taking all his chaotic air with him.
19
There’s a Titan striking an anvil in my head as I speed down the freeway. Just who the hell did that bloke think he was, talking to me like that?
And why did little Miss Beth feel emboldened to talk down to me on his behalf?
I floor the pedal as my teeth grind harder together. I screech to a halt at the traffic lights as it goes from amber to the color painting the insides of my eyes, slowly red-washing the night as my temper continues to peak. I barely break in time to stop us from being slammed across the highway by a deep blue minivan speeding in from the left intersection.
“Maverick!” Jessica yelps.
“Shut up Jessica,” I snap and she whimpers into submission.
She fidgets in the seat beside me and I barely glance at her as I try to figure out a way to make them pay for what just happened.
Beth needs to learn that no one defies me like that and just gets away with it. I will make her suffer for her presumptuous insolence and I will ruin that shit-face bloke she seems so fond of in the process - without it counting as me terrorizing her, of course. Who the hell does he think he is putting his hands on her, touching her back and her neck, coming to her defense like he’s some kind of modern day hero?
Again, red is all I see. It’s not that I give a damn about Beth. It’s just that… It’s just that… I mean… we’re married for fuck’s sake. Does she have no idea what the hell it’ll look like if people do find out and remember the night she was all over that bastard of a waiter?