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Fabian drove home with his car radio blasting rock music before it switched to the news. He was about to change the station when he heard them mention Veronica's name.
He slowed down the vehicle to focus on what was being announced. It seemed the police had somehow found out about her being beaten by a thug. She never even mentioned the fact that someone had killed the man and taken her to the hospital while she'd been unconscious.
His grip on the steering wheel tightened as his knuckles gradually turned white.
What if the person who'd saved her--which was likely a male had done something to her?
Maybe it was his fault for not chasing after her when she'd left him with the flowers that day.
He slammed his forehead on the steering wheel causing the car to honk a little bit.
He shut his eyes without lifting his face since he'd gotten stuck in traffic. "This is great, just great", he grumbled. "My break would be up soon".
Although he'd expected to end up running back late, that didn't account for the traffic he was facing. He'd just felt Veronica would be hungry and would have used her as an excuse to be over an hour late.
He lifted his face to stare at the road with a groan since the car behind had been honking continuously.
He blinked several times before heading back to work. After the day was done, he headed home still fighting the urge to check up on Veronica. They didn't live that close anyway, and it would hurt more if she still didn't want to open up after driving all the way.
After calling one or two people who claimed to be busy with life, he decided to head to the club alone to ease his stress. Back in university, he got invited to most of the parties since his friends were cool and girls would flock around them like flies. He'd changed so much to fit in and never regretted it, although keeping up the sweet boy act got difficult at times.
He didn't like easy girls, and neither did he like those who played too hard to get.
His alcohol tolerance was quite high, so he didn't hold back while drinking at his table. A lady in a bikini sat next to him when he was almost wasted, clinging to his left arm. "Hello there handsome, name's Freyja", she said in a slurry tone pressing her exposed chest closer to him. "I've been watching you for some time now and I'm not sure I've seen you around before".
"Mmm", he hiccuped barely understanding the words she'd been uttering.
Seeing how drunk he was, a devious smirk formed on her lips. "Do you wanna have sex?", she went directly to the point. "It won't cost much, handsome".
"Freyja!". A blonde woman fully suited walked to their table with narrowed eyes. It took just one glance to tell how wasted Fabian was and Freyja quickly jumped up before bowing.
"Sorry ma", she scurried away before the blonde lady could scold her anymore.
The woman sat next to Fabian on the soft cushion--but not as close as her employee. "Forgive my girls, they can be a bit too forward at times".
Fabian stared at her for a moment noting that she'd been properly dressed apart from her exposed cleavage where her shirt wasn't buttoned up and he gulped. 'She's like a G-cup'. He couldn't believe he'd been thinking about such but at least leering at another woman helped him take his mind off someone...
As for the blondie's face, she was certainly attractive, from her small nose to her full lips, plastic-looking lips.
"I'm Ash", she outstretched an arm towards him. "And you are?".
Fabian looked at her hand for a few seconds before shaking it. "Fabian Mandel", her hand was soft and smooth against his skin which made him sober up a little before letting go. "Are you the owner?".
She nodded with a smile. "Yes. I'm guessing you're not a frequenter then?".
He hiccuped before apologizing. "Yeah, this is my second time here and the first without my pals".
"Well, this is one of my newer branches", she stared into his unfocused eyes. 'This guy's pretty adorable, and he looks quite young. Maybe a rich man's son?', her eyes narrowed scanning his clothes. 'I don't recall any Mandel family ranking among the top ten in the country, but maybe he's from one of those second-rate wealthy families'. She glanced at the bottles of liquor he'd consumed alone, 'A bottle cost over five hundred and he already ordered five so casually, out of which he'd drank three and a quarter'.
"Okay", he leaned back to rest comfortably before mumbling to himself. "Ughh...I hope I can get home before midnight", his eyes fluttered shut at the feel of a slight headache coming over him.
"So...where are you from? You have quite the accent", she took up one of his half-full glasses and began to slowly spin its contents. "Not the typical Augsburgian's".
"Ughh, I hate being reminded of that", he sighed forcing both eyes open to stare off into oblivion as the music grew louder. "My parents moved around a lot, so I grew up in Scotland", he paused to hiccup", although my dad is German. We lived in seven different countries after that. It was horrible!", he slammed the table which almost sent one of the emptied alcohol bottles falling.
Ash quickly caught it before setting it up straight. 'A common folk can't afford to travel that much'. She smiled at the thought. "Yeah, I can't imagine changing schools that much either", she finally gulped down the contents from the glass she'd been playing with.
"Right! You get it!", he snapped his fingers. "Everyone else thinks it's nice having to move so much!", he laughed before reaching for another bottle but she stopped his hand.
'I'd rather you don't pass out', she thought before speaking out. "I thought you still have to get home tonight? Where exactly do you stay anyway?".
Fabian's neck tilted slightly at the question, "Is Ash short for Ashley? Ashford? Ashanti?".
Her left brow twitched although her smile never wavered. "It's Ashley, but I'd prefer you call me-", she trailed off when his head fell to rest on her shoulder. "Fabian?", her fist clenched then relaxed on realizing he'd passed out without telling her his address.
Now she wasn't sure if it was better to leave him there to get robbed or take him somewhere safe and attract favors. 'Fuck!'.