Delicate Beauty (Mateo love story)

Chapter Two *Edited*

The alarm blares throughout the small apartment, it wakes a very tired Angelica from her deep slumber. A scowl rests on her soft features as she grumbles under her breath about the 'stupid thing'. She yawns and spares a glance at the time before deciding to head for a much-needed shower. She has a good hour before she was due to start her first shift at the salon, so once she is dressed and ready for the day ahead, she heads down to the Solana to meet with her father.

The walk is short but pleasant. She receives many looks from the people of Benidorm due to her brightly coloured dress shining in the sunlight. She could see her father stood behind the reception desk as she enters the doors of the Solana, she smiles as she watches him rummage for something in one of the few drawers.

"Everything okay?" he lifts his gaze to meet hers.

"Oh pet, I'm just trying to find the guest list. How are you?" she nods smiling. "I'm fine."

She glances subtly towards the salon "I better go pet before the guests kill each other, but I'll catch up with you on my dinner break" he embraces her softly as she nods. She watches him leave before focusing her gaze back on the salon ahead of her, it looked empty but open. It made her wonder why Kenneth was so desperate for a new employee.

"Your staring at it, why?"

Her attention is ripped from the salon and now focused on the man standing beside her, he now stood staring at the salon. She frowns "Just wondering why it's so empty at 11am, should be packed by now."

Mateo chuckles as he turns to stand in front of her "I'm sure you will bring them plenty of male customers" he smirks down at her as she rolls her eyes. "God, I hope not" her words leave her mouth without a thought earning a look of confusion from Mateo.

"Why you no like men?" his voice is sincere as he meets her gaze.

She sighs as the image of Darren's face enters her head; her mood falters immediately. "I never said that. I just don't particularly like attention when I'm not looking for it" she pats him on the shoulder before bidding a farewell and heading to the salon. She sighs softly knowing full well that she had left quickly in an attempt to avoid bringing up Darren or her past. She didn't want to keep looking back nor did she want to feel like she had to explain herself.

She knocks softly as she opens the salon door, Liam sits in one of the chairs at the desk with a look of pure boredom on his face causing Angelica to frown. "Still no business?" Liam smiles at her. "not yet, and Kenneth is passed out in the storage closet" Angelica smirks as Liam proceeds to roll his eyes in annoyance.

"Sounds like he had a damn good night" she giggles as the door opens.

An elderly lady wheels in on a mobility scooter, her skin resembling the skin of an umper lumper from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Her skin was wrinkled all over, it made Angelica involuntarily shiver as the woman scowls at the two of them. She glares daggers at a nervous Liam who simply stands and waits for whatever words this woman was about to spit at him.

"That father of yours, whatever he is supposed to bloody be, needs a right good kicking up his fat arse!" her voice is hoarse, clearly from too much smoking. Liam frowns as he opens his mouth to speak, although no words had the chance to be spoken before the elderly umper lumper spoke up once again.

"Thinks he runs the bloody place, if he thinks I'm going to let him get away with this then he has another bloody thing coming!"

Angelica feels her anger bubbling as the woman continues to speak rudely about her father, she takes a moment to compose herself before speaking up. "Excuse me, but what has he done that gives you the right to speak about him like that?" her voice is challenging and confident as she stares down at the woman, earning a look of shock and disgust in return.

"Oh, shut up princess! this doesn't concern you so mind your business! Stupid woman!"

The woman focuses her gaze back on Liam who squirms uncomfortably. Angelica growls as she once again speaks up, louder this time and more forceful. "Who are you to call me stupid?! You're the one making silly comments about someone who goes out of their way to serve old, wrinkled oranges like yourself! He works like crazy to keep disrespectful people like you happy and content on your holidays and in return he gets complaints and rude comments!" her anger bubbles as she stares at the woman.

Outside in the lobby, Mateo and Leslie, upon hearing the commotion, shared a look of concern before heading quickly to the salon. "Angel!" Angelica turns to face Leslie, the use of her nickname making her frown as it only reminded her of how good of a person her father really was. Mateo could clearly see the woman before him, he saw the anger and sadness that swirled in her beautiful eyes, he could sense that she needed to have a moment away from the commotion. He slowly approaches her with cautious steps, her gaze was still on the elderly woman, it was clear that she was still angry.

Madge simply stares back as she flew more insults into the air, she questioned who Angelica was and promised that she would have her fired by the end of the week, not that she would have luck in that department as Kenneth needed her. Angelica takes deep breathes in a small effort to control her growing anger. She looks down as she feels a hand take hold of her own, her gaze slowly travels up to meet Mateos chocolate ones.

He offers her a soft smile "come on, I'll pour you a drink" she sighs with a nod.

She allows him to lead her out, "For the record old lady, Leslie is my father, and a good one at that. He is kind and loving, he does all he can for this Solana. So, you can kiss my behind because the only stupid woman here is you. Have a nice day, won't you?" the sarcasm drips off her last few words as she leaves the salon with a smirk resting on her lips. She had won this battle and for now that was enough. Her attention falls to the handsome bartender still holding her hand as he leads her to the bar.

Lord, give her strength.