Layla
“Miss, excuse me!” a voice yelled two tables down from where I currently was. Sighing under my breath, I turned and shot a smile at the customer.
“Yes? How can I help you?” I asked, acting polite when all I wanted to do was yell. It was eleven o’clock and I was ready to go home.
“I ordered medium rare for my steak and it is well done.” The man held up his plate and stared at it like it was a live octopus or something. He wasn’t even my table, I thought bitterly.
“Oh, I am sorry, sir. I will go and get you another steak properly made,” I said, grabbing the plate.
“Yes, you will and I will not be paying for it either,” the man said rather rudely. I just nodded while biting my tongue. I walked to the kitchen and asked the cook to make me another steak and made sure it was rare. Five minutes later the bell rang and I grabbed the steak. After dropping it back off at the rude man’s table, I made my rounds again seeing if anyone needed anything. Just when I thought I had a few minutes of freedom, Kayleen, the hostess, called my name.
“Layla, I hate to do this to you but Kim can’t come in today. I need you to take her shift,” Kayleen said, her eyes pleading for me to say yes.
“What’s her shift?” I asked, sighing.
“Eleven to four.” I inwardly groaned. Great, just great.
“Yeah, fine, I will,” I said even though I knew I would regret it.
“Thank you, Layla, you are the best! Her tables are two, four, six, fourteen, and seventeen today.” Nodding at her, I wrote them down my little notepad and got back to work.
Four hours had passed and I was so ready to go home. My feet hurt and my head was pounding. Taking a deep breath, I picked up my tray full of food and left the kitchen, heading to my table. Just as I set the food down and was heading back, I felt a big hand grab my ass. Whirling around, I saw a man at one of the tables smirking at me. I narrowed my eyes at him. He wasn’t too bad looking with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a strong jawline, but there was something about his smile that wasn’t right.
“Excuse me,” I bit out and turned back around. Inside, I was fuming.
“Little lady, where are you going?” the man called out. I ignored him and kept walking. I didn’t get too far until a hand wrapped around my wrist. The man spun me around and pulled me right up against him. “You can’t walk away from me, pretty little lady.”
“Let me go,” I hissed, feeling people starting to stare at us. I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I tried pulling away from him but he had a good grip on me.
“You can’t go walking around in those sexy little shorts and not expect someone to notice.” These kinds of moments really made me hate my job. I felt like I was a stripper at some club instead of at an expensive restaurant. With the guy’s hold on me tightening, I could feel myself starting to panic. I did the only thing that came to my mind even though I knew I would get in trouble for it. I brought my knee up and kneed the man in the groin. His hold instantly loosened as he fell to the ground holding his junk. I took a step back feeling myself shaking slightly.
“Don’t ever touch me!” I hissed loudly at the guy. As I opened my mouth to say something else, a loud voice boomed over everyone’s sudden chatter. I gulped and turned around seeing my boss, Joseph, standing there and glaring at me. Shit, I thought. When my boss jerked his head, I knew he wanted me to follow him to his office. Putting my head down, I weaved my way through the tables and to his office. Out of all the days to be here, Joseph had to come in. He held the door open for me and I slid inside and took a seat in a chair.
“Ms. Kingston, or can I call you Layla?” Joseph asked, sitting down across from me behind his desk.
“Layla is fine,” I almost stuttered out.
“Layla, what you did back there was unprofessional. We do not hurt our customers.” I opened my mouth to protest but he lifted his hand to stop me. “I don’t care what he did; you should not have kneed him. Now one of two things can happen right now,” he said, looking straight at me. I watched as his eyes traveled down from my face to my chest, and if the desk weren’t there, they’d probably go even lower. He flicked his eyes back up to my face and leaned back in his chair.
“You need this job pretty bad, don’t you?” He intertwined his hands in front of him.
“Y-yes sir,” I stuttered out.
“Well, in order for me to let you stay here after hurting a special customer, I’m going to need you to do something.” The longer he stared at me, the more uncomfortable I felt. Something didn’t feel right about this. “You see…I am a lonely man and every once in a while, I need someone to take care of me.” He drew out the word “care.” I instantly knew where this was going from the hungry look in his eyes.
“Are you asking me to sleep with you?” I asked, curling my hands into fists in my lap. This man really wanted me to sleep with him to keep my job?
“I wouldn’t say it that way; it’s more of an agreement to help one another out.” The way he said it was like he was proposing a deal to a big investor. Suddenly, a wave of anger washed over me. I quickly stood up, feeling my face turning red with anger.
“Listen to me, Joseph.” I spit out his name “I will not sleep with you to save my job. I don’t need it that bad. I am done with this place. I don’t need some disgusting, fat, old, perv trying to make me sleep with him just because I was defending myself from being touched. I quit!” I yelled at him. Turning on my heel, I stormed out of his office and toward the workers’ lockers to grab my stuff.
My body was shaking from how angry I was. Ripping open my locker, I grabbed my bag and slammed it shut. Too mad to say goodbye to my friends here, I walked out the door glad to be done with this place. The further I walked, the more my eyes started to water and before I knew it, I had tears rolling down my cheeks. With shaky hands, I reached for my phone. For some reason, I called the person I least expected to call. I tried to stop my crying as my phone rung but they wouldn’t stop.
“Hello?” answered a familiar deep voice.
“A-Ashton…I need you.”
***
Ashton
I got up the next morning and headed to work slightly later than normal. The whole ride there I kept thinking of Layla and what I was going to do when I saw her next. I was seriously tempted to drop by her work today and talk to her, but I knew that would just piss her off even more by doing that. Since when have you cared about other people besides yourself? Ignoring my thoughts, I walked onto the level where my office was.
“Good morning, Mr. Miller,” a feminine voice said to my right. Standing next to me was a small blonde woman who I think worked in marketing, but I had no idea.
“Good morning,” I greeted her. She was wearing a very tight pencil shirt and an almost see-through white blouse with a bright pink bra underneath. Her face was caked in makeup, making her look like a stripper or something. Normally I would flirt and sleep with her before ignoring her, but ever since I met Layla I couldn’t look at another woman without comparing them to Layla, and none seemed to match up. Walking past her, I headed to my office.
“Morning, Judy,” I said, smiling at my receptionist. Judy had been my receptionist since I came on board with the company. She was in her late fifties and had a few strands of gray in her hair. She was almost like a mother to me, making sure I was on time for everything and always keeping me in line.
“Good morning, Ashton.” She was also the only person I let call me Ashton at the office. “How are you?”
“I am doing good. How are you? How is Bill?” I asked. Bill was her husband and they had been married for forty years. They met in high school and married soon after graduating.
“I am good, as is Bill.” She smiled up at me. “Oh, you have a board meeting in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, thank you, Judy.” I smiled back and headed inside my office. My office was pretty big and had an incredible view of downtown New York. The view was even better at nighttime when the whole city was lit up.
The day flew by pretty fast and soon enough, it was three o’clock. I had meetings all day and each one was something different. I finally sat down at my desk and rubbed my forehead. I could feel a headache forming. I looked down and checked my phone wondering why I hadn’t heard from Layla today. All day I kept glancing at my phone, making sure I didn’t miss anything from her. Maybe she is really mad at me. Just as I picked up my phone to send her a text, my phone started buzzing in my hand. Seeing Layla’s name pop up, I answered it.
“Hello?” I answered. I heard sniffling through the phone and immediately straightened up.
“A-Ashton…I need you,” Layla whispered. Instantly I was up and out of my chair, grabbing my suit jacket.
“Baby, where are you?” I asked, not liking the sound of her crying.
“Outside of w-work.”
“I’m on my way.” I hung up and left my office. “Judy, I need you to cancel anything else for the rest of the day,” I said over my shoulder as I walked to the elevator. After I pressed the button multiple times, the doors finally opened. Not giving a chance for anyone else to get on, I pressed the close button and waited as it carried me down to the lobby. On the way down, I called Clark and told him to meet me downstairs in two minutes. Once the doors were open, I walked briskly to the front doors and saw Clark waiting there. Sliding inside of the car, I practically shouted at him.
“To The River Cafe and hurry.” Clark nodded and drove to Layla’s work. I ignored the annoying voice in my head telling me I was stupid for rushing for to see if Layla was okay. Before I knew it, Clark came to a stop in front of The River Cafe. I jumped out and looked around trying to find Layla. I turned to my right and saw a little bit ahead of me was a hunched-over figure. It moved and I saw a flash of brown hair. Next thing I knew, my legs were carrying me over to Layla quickly.
“Layla,” I shouted as I drew nearer. Just as I was a foot away from her, she ran over to me and practically jumped into my arms. Her arms wrapped around my neck as mine went to her waist. I felt her body shaking as she started crying, making my neck wet. “Shhhh.” I rubbed her back. I have never in my life comforted a crying woman, but with Layla, it seemed to come easy to me. “It’s okay, love.”
As we stood there for a little while, I felt her tears coming to a stop. With her arms still wrapped around my neck, I swung her up into my arms and carried her bridal style to the car. Clark stepped out and opened the door for me. It was awkward getting into the car with her in my arms, but I made do. Laying her in my lap, I mouthed to Clark to take us to my apartment. When I gently rubbed her back, I felt her body relax. As we crossed the bridge into downtown, we hit traffic but that was okay with me. The longer Layla was in my lap the more I felt complete, a foreign feeling to me. I looked down at her and saw she was asleep. Seeing her looking so peaceful pulled at my heart strings. She looked so innocent and delicate as she lay in my arms. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her hair looked like she had pulled it, but to me, she looked even more beautiful.
I moved away a loose strand of hair that fell from her ponytail. What happened to make her cry? I wondered. Whatever or whomever it was, I will make sure they pay. No one will ever make Layla cry. The longer I looked down at her, the more I became certain that I would not let any harm come to Layla.