The midday sun shone down brightly, casting a harsh light that reflected off the polished glass of the restaurant entrance. I stood there, feeling the weight of the stares from passers-by. Ashley, ever the light-hearted one, nudged me with an elbow and chuckled, pointing out the old woman with the scowl etched into her face. She snapped a picture of us with her ancient phone before fumbling to call the police.
"Daylight robbery," Ashley muttered with a grin. "We must look pretty intimidating, huh?"
I glanced at him, appreciating the slight tension breaker before focusing back on the task at hand. My attire was as much armor as it was fashion: black combat pants, black turtleneck, silver chain, and my Glock resting comfortably in its thigh strap. Ashley's ensemble mirrored mine, though with his own unique flair. Together, we looked like a formidable pair.
Ignoring the old lady, we stepped into the restaurant. The interior was a striking contrast to our dark attire: soft pale violet walls complemented by darker, professional furniture. The air was cool and smelled faintly of expensive cologne and clean leather.
At the far end of the north wall stood a receptionist, already glaring at us with undisguised disdain. Ashley, ever the charmer, approached with a smile.
"Hi, good day to you. My name is Ashley, and my boss and I have a reservation under the name..." He paused, glancing at me.
"A&V," I supplied, my voice betraying my growing impatience.
"Yes, that one," Ashley confirmed, still smiling.
The receptionist didn't even bother checking her list. "I'm going to have to turn you down. Please leave immediately or I'll be forced to have security escort you out," she said, her tone dripping with contempt.
Ashley's smile never faltered, but his eyes grew cold. "And why would you do that? You didn't even check if our reservation was valid or not. That's not very professional, is it? My boss is a very forgiving and patient person, but I am not. So I would advise you to do what you are supposed to before I lose whatever patience I have left and either put a bullet through your head or have you AND the idiot that hired you fired."
She hesitated for a second before briefly glancing behind me and her face split into a smirk.
"Mr. Greene there seem to be some troublemakers here and they've refused to leave" she yelled lightly with an arrogant look in her eyes.
"Trouble makers? Sharon, I've told you time and again that all customers are welcome here unless they refuse to abide by our rules." came a familiar voice from behind me, making my lip twitch.
"These ill-dressed men are refusing to leave after threatening me"
"Good afternoon gentlemen what might be the problem?"
Ashley did a full spin like a child running to their mother after not seeing her for a full day and hugged the middle-aged man standing a head shorter than me.
"Edward, how lovely it is to meet you here. It's been a while since we last got up to anything naughty" Ashley said with a flirtatious smile while brushing his fingers through his hair. Edward sighed, already tired of Ashley's nonsense
"People might misunderstand you if they hear that without context, I've told you before to stop saying nonsense" he replied with a sigh and Ashley's response to that was a pout of defiance.
"How are you, Uncle Edward?" I asked with an outstretched arm for a handshake but he gently pried Ashley away from his body and pulled me in for a hug instead, lightly nosing my chest before pulling me down to dig his nose into the covered flesh of my neck, irritated by the fabric, he pulled it aside and scented me there like a father did their pups. Once satisfied he let go and gently pulled my shirt back to cover my neck properly before doing the same to Ashley.
"I've told you to stop calling me uncle. Call me Father instead or just Edward"
I smiled in response to that, he hates it when I address him as my uncle but I also couldn't bring myself to call him my father.
Edward was quite attractive for his age, tall with a lean muscular build he got from his years in service. He retired early to start up his dream of owning a chain of world-class restaurants around the globe and he's achieving it little by little.
"Eddy, this rude receptionist of yours, quite a poor decision you made on hiring her might I add, is terrible for business. We have a very important meeting with some high-profile potential partners here and your terrible choice of a receptionist has cost us ten minutes already. You of all people know that in the business world, every minute counts and every minute wasted is money down the drain" Ashley picked up from where we'd left off to exchange pleasantries. "And every penny lost means we won't be getting into any shenanigans later and a frustrated Ashley means an equally frustrated, unsatisfied angry Eddy that'll scare me away. We don't want that right?"
I felt amusement instead of pity for Edward, he had encouraged Ashley from the start anyway.
"Sharon, what did you do?"
"She refused to check if our reservation was legit or not and threatened us, Eddy baby, I was so scared I almost wet myself, pun intended" Ashley answered before the now scared receptionist could speak for herself.
"Sharon, I hope for your sake this isn't true"
There was a beat of silence. Her eyes widened, and a flicker of fear crossed her face. She quickly checked her list and, finding our reservation, plastered on a fake smile.
"Of course, Mr. Ashley. Mr. Vasili. Right this way."
"That won't do. I'm sorry Sharon but I can't have you treat my pups like that and get away with it. I'll be placing you on a temporary suspension"
"Baby, no, I want her gone" Ashley interjected looking mischievous.
"Please, Mr. Ashley, I'm terribly sorry for my behavior earlier, I swear it won't be happening again" Sharon begged with fear in her eyes but Ashley ignored her playing with Edwards's upper buttons
"Sir, please speak to him, he said you're his boss so he will listen to you, please. I need this job I can't afford to lose it"
"You should've thought of that before being rude to customers regardless of how they're dressed. Courtesy demands it of any employee to be polite to clients unless the aggressor refuses to concede their mistakes and keeps looking for trouble. The best I can do is to put in a word for you to be retained as a cleaner, nothing more" She hung her head loosely, sniffed, and collapsed on her seat"