exotic | k.th

3 ‣ teaser

The days pass by and your days continue as normal, except this new captain of police is taking way too many trips to just sit at table twelve all night.
You know he's there for you, he makes that quite obvious, but you make sure to find your ways of avoiding him.

"No. We've talked about this, San." You say, definitively. He walks with you around the tables you clean, straightening out his expensive silk shirt here and there. "How many times do I have to say no?" You ask, glancing up at him.

"Come on, Aru." Sandoval insists, for the two-hundredth time this week. "He's not the only guy who's asked—"

"With all due respect, I don't care." You stop wiping down the table and look him in the eye. "I don't care how many of these disgusting little creeps ask you to put me up on that pole, I'm not doing it. I'm not."

"This last one isn't a creep, though." Sandoval motions back to the crowd. You scoff and go back to wiping the surface in front of you. "Oh, come on. Why are you so against this? What's so wrong with it, from your point of view?" Sandoval furrows his brows, crossing his arms over his chest. "You wouldn't be doing anything wrong."

"It's not that." You mutter, spraying the table with some more cleaning solution and running your rag over it. "I don't have anything against dancing. I think it's cool, I just—no. I can't."

"I didn't hear a single legitimate reason in that entire reply, Haru." Sandoval taps his foot, impatiently. "Not one."

"So what? Are you going to fire me because I won't go dance?" You ask, not looking up from your work. Truthfully, this conversation has gotten really old. Every time it gets harder to subside your annoyance. "Look. I'm sorry, Sandoval, but if it comes down to that, I'm finding another job."

"No. That won't be necessary." Sandoval shakes his head, giving up on you. "I was just trying to help you out, Haru. Money wise. I know your sister's treatment must be expensive, but if you don't want to dance, I won't make you."

You stop wiping the table and look up at him, his words having a bit of an impact on you. Any mention of your sister has an impact on you. "I-I appreciate it, San, I really do—but I can't dance like that in front of these people. It's just—I can't. I can barely hand them a beer."

"I understand." Sandoval nods, disappointedly walking away before you can say anything more.

You let out a heavy sigh as you plant both of your palms on the table and try to get all of your thoughts together. It's hard with the blasting music and noisy blabber of drunk men surrounding you. Now more than ever, you just want peace and quiet to compose the jungle that is your mind.

You finish up the tables you're currently cleaning and move on to other empty ones that'd been left a mess by whoever was in them prior to you showing up. Since Gia actually showed up to work on time today, she's the one taking care of most of the orders while you and Keri focus on cleaning. The place isn't busy enough to require both of you to help her, at least, not yet.

Once you finish cleaning up those disgusting tables and leave them nice and disinfected again, you go over to accompany Deena because you see nothing else you actually want to do. Keri approaches you as you help Deena wipe down the counter. "Guess who's here?" She asks with a grin, "I think you're gonna be very happy."

"Happy? What are you talking about? Who's here?" You ask, turning to face her. "No one who steps in this place can make me 'happy.'"

"What do you mean? It's Cap." Keri grins, nudging you. "At table twelve, like he always is, asking for you again."

"Oh shit," You immediately look around, slightly ducking as if that'll hide you from his view. Little do you know he already saw you. "Tell him I'm not working today!" You widen your eyes at Keri and take her arm. "Please."