Wed or Dead

XXXI

On the next day, Eliana had the brand new car waiting in the driveway. It was beautiful. In the same colour as her poor, abandoned Honda. Of course, the brand was different as well.

"I'm not going anywhere with this! What if I crash it? It's too expensive"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Okay," he said unfazed. "Giovanni can continue being your driver"

"Really couldn't you get a normal car? How is this normal? People will stare at me whenever I go" Eliana asked in frustration.

"Let them stare" Rafael didn't see a problem.

Eliana got really annoyed. 

She looked at him angrily and then she slowly moved closer. She placed a deep kiss on the collar of his white shirt. Her bright, red lipstick that she freshly reapplied before leaving the house left a very visible marking. 

"Don't change your clothes, let them stare" she whispered huskily in a seductive voice. Then, still angry at him, she then turned around quickly. She was sure that some of the strands of her hair brushed his face, but she didn't care. 

She got into her new car and closed the door not too gently. 

She sent one last deadly look in Rafael's direction and she noticed something. 

That motherfucker was smiling!

No, no, no that was not her intention. She wanted to embarrass him just like he embarrassed her by buying her this shiny, very noticeable car. Her plan? Failed. 

♦ ️ ♦ ️ ♦ ️

Eliana had the night shift today although she wasn't a fan of them. Her shop was in an area where the crime rates were high, and in addition, customers who came in the early morning hours were often drunk, sometimes rude even violent.

Unfortunately. It was around five am when someone showed up, but she had yet to deal with a  problematic customer. That night, it was calm, but it was calm before the storm, unfortunately. 

A bell rang as a new customer entered the empty store. 

His face was familiar to Eliana he was the problematic one. Aggressive after drinking and today clearly was not his day. He set a glass bottle of vodka loudly on the counter and pulled out a handful of pennies from his pocket.

"Morning," he grumped out. 

"Good morning," I replied politely and started counting."Fifty cents is missing" Eliana said after counting the coins.

"I will bring them next time," the client waved his hand and was about to pick up the alcohol when I took it from the counter and put it away.

"I'm sorry but I can't sell you this if you can't pay full price" enough. This is the third time in a week that this has happened. He never returns the money.

"I already said I will pay you back tomorrow, you don't have to be so stingy"

"You can come and buy it tomorrow then. Preferably when you're sober"

"Who do you think you're talking to? I bet that ring of yours costs more than all items combined in the tips store and you're going to make a fuss about 50 cents?" He asked aggressively and looked at the engagement ring Rafael gave to her. There was greed in his eyes.  Eliana quickly took her hand from the counter to hide it.

"Sir, you need to leave otherwise I will have to call the police"

"For what reason ?! I want to speak with your manager"

"My manager is not here right now. Come back tomorrow," Eliana tried to reason with him politely but firmly.

"You can't treat your customers like that" He slurred and his leg took an unnecessary step back to return to the previous position, and I almost winced feeling his stinking breath on her face.

"That's enough" Eliana muttered and she picked up her phone. He grabbed the phone from her hand forcefully and threw it over the wall. Eliana froze in place.

She knew that somewhere in the car in the parking lot there was a security guard who would help her.

But before she could scream for help the aggressive customer said: "I'm out of this fucking place, they should fire you for being such a fucking bitch," 

Then he spat on the floor. Yuck.

After he left Eliana mopped his saliva off the floor and foolishly thoughts that was it for the day. But unfortunately, when one crisis ended, another appeared. 

"How is the apartment flooded? The whole floor? Okay, I'll be right there " 

Her neighbour called. She called Mike to ask if he could come an hour earlier for his shift and he did.

*** 

Eliana left the store and in a hurry, she ran to her car. She drove away, as she was driving her phone started ringing. 

"Hello?"

"You want to tell me something?" Rafael asked. 

"No?"

"You're not at work. Why?"

"I had to leave earlier"

"And you didn't inform your bodyguard who is now sitting in the car under the empty shop"

"Shit. I'm sorry?"

"We'll talk about it at home," he hung up

Eliana shivered at the sound of his voice. Okay, she was in trouble.

She stopped the car in front of the tenement building, in which she rented a small flat for her and Casey. She had a lot of bad memories connected to this place. When she was on her own, forced to take care of herself and another person all on her own, it was truly a stressful time. 

She left her fancy car and moved towards the front door of the building. She went upstairs and as she was standing in front of the door to her apartment something hit the back of her head. 

Then there was only darkness.

🌹🌹🌹

Guys, I hope you enjoyed this one ❤️