CHAPTER FOUR

Chloe hummed happily as she waited for the cook to put together her customer's order. There was nothing she loved more than being at the restaurant. In a weird way, the restaurant was her happy place, and being there gave her far more joy than staying in her empty apartment. Even though she was a loner, it wasn't every time that she relished staying alone in her apartment. She gathered up the customer's order and took it to him, where he was sitting down at one of the tables and waiting patiently for her. She liked this particular man because he was very courteous and he tipped quite well.

"How are you today, Chloe? Thanks for the meal." He said.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Robert. I'm fine, thank you, and you?" Chloe replied, while smiling warmly at him. It was quite rare to see polite customers like this one, and while she had developed tough skin and was very good at ignoring rude customers, it still felt nice to be treated like a human being and have her service appreciated.

"I'm good, I guess." Mr. Robert said, picking up his spoon. Chloe was about to turn to leave when she heard an all too familiar male voice.

"Hey, asshole. That's my girl you're flirting with." It was Lucas's indignant voice. Chloe looked up in horror to see him advancing on them, glaring menacingly at the customer while he did so. He soon got to the table and fixed a glare on the man as he stood looking down at him. Mr. Robert, who had to be in his fifties at the very least raised his politely surprised and questioning gaze to meet Lucas's irate one. Chloe quickly stammered apologies to the man, all the while hoping desperately that the ground would open up and swallow her.

"Lucas. What the fuck are you doing?" She hissed at him furiously, trying not to make a scene.

"It's okay. I'm not offended." Mr. Robert said, waving off her apologies. He used his finger to push at the glasses on the top of his nose and continued eating his food, ignoring Lucas totally. Lucas, however, refused to be ignored. He moved closer to Mr. Robert who was calmly eating his food as though he did not have a care in the world.

"What exactly is cool about the fact that you're flirting with another man's girlfriend? You should be ashamed of yourself. After all, you're old enough to be her father or even her grandfather." Lucas said, clearly not liking the fact that the man had dismissed him as though he was a pesky fly.

Chloe stared at him in horror, her hands itching to slap his annoying face into oblivion. It was bad enough that he was talking to a customer rudely, but to worsen the situation, he was doing it at the top of his voice, and heads were beginning to turn in their direction.

"Lucas, please," Chloe said desperately, hoping to quiet him down. She knew him very well and knew that attempting to yell at him at that moment would only make him misbehave further. By the looks of him, Mr. Robert was already becoming angry and out of the corner of her eye, Chloe saw her manager making his way over to the table. Mortified and furious beyond words, she held Lucas's arm firmly in her hand and all but dragged him outside to vent her anger.

"You have no right whatsoever to embarrass me like that in front of my colleagues and customers." She spewed indignantly at him once they were outside the restaurant. It was not the first time he had stirred up trouble at her workplace for her, and she could not condone his disgusting behavior any longer.

"What do you mean, embarrass? Oh, so you mean I'm now an embarrassment to you? Anyway, I'll just ignore you for now. The pressing thing here is the fact that you need to quit that job. I'm not comfortable with the number of men that you flirt with on a regular basis here. You have a boyfriend, for chrissakes, so you should show some respect." He told her, his face red, either from the cold or from his unfounded anger. Chloe did not know which one it was, and she did not care.

"Excuse me? I'm your girlfriend, not your wife, and even if I were your wife, I would not allow you to boss me around that way. I'm my own woman, and you're not the boss of me. Besides, I wasn't flirting with him. It is called taking an order. I was taking his order, in case you're blind."

Lucas's eyes narrowed at her words, and his face got even redder than it already was until he was looking like a beet. "You will not talk to me that way. You will talk to me with more respect." He ground out through clenched teeth and took her arm, his grip hard enough to hurt and leave marks. "Common, we are leaving." He commanded in a tone that brooked no argument.

However, Chloe was having none of it, and she dragged her arm away from his hand or at least tried to do so. He had an iron grip on her arm, and he wasn't letting go. She wondered if she should yell loudly or kick him hard in the balls to make him let go of her hand. Before she could decide on which one to do, she heard a female voice and they both spun to face the person talking.