"I'm not going to take a woman's clothing and send her naked to the street, you goon," Layla scolded him, torn between amusement and anger.
"You can give her your restaurant's uniform to wear."
"I won't. I want money, right now. You have five seconds to suggest a real way to pay us before these two rough you up. I'm a busy person, I can't indulge you with any more of my time," Layla decided to put an end to this farce. Real clients couldn't meet her without an important reason if they weren't regulars, let alone a thief who wanted to dine and dash.
"Fine, here," Glottis surrendered, "Take the keys to my car, it's the latest Lumina Z-Ray 3500 model, it is worth at least a thousand of those meals. I will come back and pay for the food tomorrow, and you can give me my keys back."
"How do I know you are not lying? A man with such a car does not need to steal food," she frowned. The keys seemed the real deal, but her knowledge about cars was too limited to tell.
"Young Miss, I have seen this car in the parking lot earlier, it's probably true," one of the thugs said, his eyes shining in excitement upon seeing the glimmer on the keys.
"Fine, you two go with him and confirm it's the real deal. If it's not, beat him on the spot until he pukes every single leaf and vegetable he had eaten here," she instructed the two men before turning back to Glottis, "And you, if you don't come to pay in thirty days, I will put your car on an auction, not before driving it myself for the experience," she smiled sweetly.
"Sure thing, but you can also have a ride on it with me even if I pay," he shrugged. "Let's go," he offered Sheela a hand chivalrously.
"No thanks," she pushed his hand away, "keep your chivalry for Miss Layla," Sheela pouted and got up by herself, following him only because she wanted a ride home.
"I meant to open the door for her after helping you stand up," he explained that he could do both.
"Pig."
"Have fun flirting, I'm going back to my office," Layla shook her head and left first, not waiting for Glottis to open the door.
'Hm, just about right,' Glottis smirked as he watched her rear move with every step. His theory was confirmed yet again. His attention was pulled back to his situation when he felt a big hand on his shoulder.
"Let's go," one of the two goons pointed at the door, "We need to see the car."
"Haha, aren't you excited?" Glottis patted his back and held the door open for the other three to exit, gesturing theatrically for them to go out first.
Jack couldn't hold back his smile this time. He was a car enthusiast who lacked the money for cars. For his own vehicle, he used the chassis of a cheaper car and upgraded its parts with a better engine, wheels, tires, and other stuff he gathered around or saved until he could buy them.
"It is a good car," he admitted.
"But we still have to do our job," his friend reminded him. While Dick also could not deny the fact that his heart raced at the thought of driving in such a car, he could control himself better than his workmate.
"Don't worry, we will do our job, I'm sure this young man is not lying about it," Jack set the problem aside. "Hey, Missy, what color is this man's car?"
"French Navy," she replied without hesitation.
"What the fuck is that?"
"Blue…" she sighed. "You can't do a woman's nails."
"Why would I? Anyway, see, Dick? She got the color right, it is probably theirs!"
"Good job, Detective," Dick said.
The four reached the vehicle soon enough, its sleek metal seemed to hypnotize its beholders, at least, that's the effect it achieved when it came to Jack.
"Whoa, check that out!" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as they got closer. "That's not something you see every day. Look at the lines on that beauty, and that color just pops! You can just tell it's got power under the hood. Man, to get behind the wheel of something like that must be a dream!" His voice trailed off, a mix of awe and a touch of envy in his gaze as he admired the car.
"Well, you know, it doesn't have to be a dream for you two. You can have a ride right now if you promise to let me go afterward. I give you my word I will come back later and pay for the meal, so you won't have any problem at work either," Glottis placed his two arms around the two's shoulders, pulling them a bit down with him as three friends would do.
"I apologize, Young Master," Dick declined, "But no can do. I have work to do, we have to keep it professional."
He changed his way of addressing Glottis because of the car. Only young masters had such a car at Glottis' age.
"Hey, Dick, come here for a second," Jack called his friend and the two took a few steps back to have some privacy.
"No, don't even think that. We are not going to accept this offer. Do you want to make Miss Layla angry?" Dick immediately objected before his friend could talk.
"Why not? You can tell he is rich and has no problem paying his debts, it must be some kind of a technical problem! If he pays, we will never get to sit behind that wheel of this babe," he sent one greedy glance at the car.
"Because if Layla gets angry, we might lose our jobs, and without money, we will not get to sit behind any babe!"
"Oh, come on, we are cultivators, we can find another job."
"We are just in the first stage, we are not that amazing."
"Fine, we are not taking the offer…"
The two got back and ensured that the key worked, opening the car and looking at it from inside to smell the leather and admire the interior.
"You like what you see, don't you? Do you accept my offer then?" Glottis asked.
"We apologize, Young Master, but we cannot betray the trust of our employer," Jack sighed and closed the door. "We will be taking the keys with us, the car will wait for you here. Goodbye."
The two bodyguards walked away, leaving the two love birds all on their own in the underground parking lot.
"Why are you smiling? You might lose your car… Whatever, I will call a taxi, I can at least pay for that," Sheela's downcast was apparent. She also liked the car and felt it was a shame she couldn't enjoy it a little more.
"What are you talking about? We are going home now." Glottis patted her head as though she was an innocent child. He sent his hand to his pocket and took out a spare key.
"Are you coming?" He smirked at her as he opened the door and entered the driver's seat.
"Oh, you cheated them!" She giggled and happily hopped on. "You ruined the date, but at least I got to travel in an expensive car and buy a dress from Miss Rita," she beamed while thinking of her gains as she reclined her chair, almost laying on her back.
"Be a little adventurous and have fun, when else will you have the chance to dine and dash after eating 1,500 dollars' worth of food?" He laughed and sent his hand to her thigh.
"Probably never." She grabbed his hand and placed it back on the gear selector. "Wait, are you not going to pay them back?" Realization struck her when the meaning of his words finally sunk.
"Of course not, I barely had a single bite of food, and I'm still hungry."
"But they still cooked that food for us!"
"Fine, I will pay if you share the tab with me. I won't be stingy and count what we each ordered - we will do half-half, alright?" Glottis grinned as they went uphill, back to a world with sunlight.
"Ahm, it's fine. I can live with myself. I love myself, I'm an honest person, we must not forget who we are," she recited with her eyes closed. "I forgive myself," she nodded.
The young master by her side only listened, amused by her hypocrisy. 'I must give it to her, she does deserve to be ranked highly in that cult,' he thought.
Just then, two men who waited for the traffic lights to change caught his attention. He let his window slide down with a push of a button and shouted at them with a smug face.
"Hey, Dick and Harry, tell her that I always carry a spare key with me when she asks you to explain!" He shouted, making the two bodyguards gape at him as he drove away with a loud scream from his engine as he hit the gas.
"It's Jack!"
The two watched the car disappear on the horizon before looking at each other.
"We should've taken his offer," Jack said in a depressed tone.
"I mean, we still have his original car keys, it still worth something, right? He has to come back and get them, nobody would leave such an obvious risk for theft in the hands of strangers," Dick tried to encourage his friend.
---
"Young Master, what if they use those keys to steal your car? Or sell the keys to a thief?" Sheela asked on their way home.
"If someone dares steal a car from the Sonora family, they should enjoy it to the fullest before being traced by our cultivators," he shrugged.