A steak knife whizzed past my face and got stuck in the door I had just opened. As my eyes turned to look at the gleaning object, it swung with a twang sound. As my eyes turned to take in the scene in front of me, they were met with the surreal scene of a room full of grown men punching each other, as other guests escaped and stumbled out of the front door. A few of my wait-staff were cowering in the corners with bloody noses and bruised cheeks. A man landed on the table in front of me, flattening it and splintering the legs. The commotion was ear-numbing with crazed people shouting and screaming curses at each other.
As I started walking towards the centre of the restaurant, someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me down behind the bar. I fell to the ground wincing as my knee crashed against the edge of the bar. It was Alex, my bartender and best friend, who was now huddled behind the bar counter and keeping me from getting out of there. Wriggling my wrist out of Alex's grip, I moved to stand up but was pulled down harshly again, causing me to crash into Alex and both of us tumbling into an awkward mess of tangled limbs, the same moment as a bottle made contact with the top of the bar and rained glass over us. Untangling ourselves, we pushed our backs against the bar, I shouted as we tried to catch our breath, "What's happening Alex?"
"It's those gangs, I told you they would be trouble. You said it was good business sense to allow them in here, now they are destroying YOUR restaurant," Alex screamed back.
Pausing for a moment to process what he said, I asked "How do we stop them?"
"I don't know, and I don't care. I didn't sign up for this, Sam. I QUIT!" Alex yelled in my face before another bottle shattered above us and he instinctively protectively covered me.
How was I going to handle this - two of the biggest mafia's people were at war and right in the middle of my restaurant. The restaurant I had dreamed of setting up since I was 10 years old.
Alex was now trying to see if we had a clear path to escape to the kitchen. I instead choose to give up and reached for the first bottle I could find. Opening the bottle of rum, I took a big swig from it and cringed as the liquor burned my throat. Then I shoved the bottle to Alex who looked at me incredulously. I shrugged as the sound of the police sirens starting growing louder.
"That's probably Chief Hammond, coming here to tell me again that my restaurant is the cause of this," I scoffed and then broke into a fit of giggles as I collapsed laughing grabbing my stomach as Alex stared at me probably wondering if I had finally lost my mind.