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He’s nothing like my Zack, youthful despite his years, stronger for his experience and maturity.
“I was just talking to my friend,” I murmur, hating the way he looks at me, that leer that always forces my gaze away.
“Oh.”
He narrows his eyes as though trying to solve a difficult problem. It’s his favorite way of staring at me, as though he can’t believe how lazy I am. At least in his eyes.
I think I put a heck of a lot of effort into this place, but any time I don’t do exactly as he says, he decides to make it a point to yell at me.
“Are you on a break?” he says a moment later.
Zack sits up and glares at him. I move between them, as though any second Zack is going to launch himself at Clive.
“No, I was just—”
Clive takes a big step forward, his lip somehow peeling back even more over his upper lip. Sometimes I wonder if he’s developed some sort of condition from all that leering, not that I’d ever mention that to him. “You were just giving away free coffee and talking on my time? For Christ’s sake, girl, can’t you follow simple—”
“Leave.” Zack stands up to his full height, towering at six and a half feet tall, making Clive look like a little kid as he swaggers over to him and looms there like a force of nature. “Did you hear me, little man? I said fucking leave.”
Clive gapes up at me. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him afraid, the fear capturing his expression like a ghostly hand is coiled around his throat.
“This is my diner,” he whimpers.
Zack waves a hand, causing Clive to leap back as though he thinks Zack is going to strike him. “Then fuck off and stand over there while we collect our things. You’ve got no goddamn right talking to her like that. I know men like you. You get off on bossing women around. You think it makes you tough. You think it means you matter. Well, it fucking doesn’t. So get out of my face before I forget about my number one rule.”
“What rule?” Clive says.
It’s difficult to make out his words beneath his shivering tone, his cruelty hidden beneath the fear causing his breath to come quickly.
“Never beat up a bastard who can’t defend himself… if I can help it. But you’re making me think about changing my mind. What’s it going to be?”
Clive’s mouth hangs open for a long moment. He stares at me as though I’m going to say something to Zack, to somehow fix the situation for him.
Is he nuts?
It’s taking all my effort not to punch the air in victory at seeing him brought low like this. He’s made my life miserable ever since I started working here, and right now the thought of staying out of some misguided sense of duty seems ridiculous to me.
Finally, he turns and stalks away. “You’re fired,” he whines, once he’s behind the counter with his phone in his hand, holding it in front of him like it could protect him if Zack decided to take this further.
Zack stands with his hands hanging at his sides like dangerous weapons, his whole torso heaving as he stares at Clive.
“Come on.” I place my hand on his arm, feeling the rage-filled heat even through the fabric of his clothes. “It’s over, Zack.”
“Fucking talking to you like that,” Zack growls, throwing Clive one last withering glare before he turns and starts collecting his things.
I hug my arms across myself, my thoughts turning to my colleague, Lyla, and how Clive will probably call her up and ruin her day off.
“What is it?” Zack asks when we’re standing in the parking lot, reflected in the sleek surface of his shiny sedan.
I study us for a moment, stunned at the sight of me next to him. I look so out of place, short and curvy and not at all like the sort of woman I’d imagine Zack being with if I saw him on the street.
But when he turns to me and I see the supportiveness in his eyes, beaming from every inch of him, I push that feeling away.
“Lyla,” I murmur. “She’s got her kids today and I just know Clive is going to take this out on her.”
Zack sighs, clenching his jaws. “Does she like this job?”
I let out a puff of air. “She’s been looking for a new job ever since she started. But you know how it is. She’s stuck on the hamster wheel. She hasn’t got enough breathing room to look for anything else.”
Zack nods toward the car. “Let’s go, then.”
“Where?”
He smirks. “Where do you think? I’m not going to have you beating yourself up with guilt over this. And there’s no damn way I’m letting you work for that prick. If he behaved like that in front of company, what the hell is he like in private?”
