ENDS

18- Protect

An explanation to Hunter's mom's behavior in the previous chapter:

Mrs McConnell was a woman who spent virtually almost half of her life training her son(Hunter), only to wake up one morning to hear that he was a bully and a rapist.
No normal parent would believe such information immediately. Iris's parents worked for her, she had a part ownership with the school Iris had attended, yet not once did the news of her son bullying Iris come to her hearing.
She wasn't trying to call Iris a liar but she's trying to get reasons why she should lose confidence in her own son ( typical reason why she was so questionable about Iris's own parents. No parent would have done what they did if Iris was truly going through pain)

  This explanation may not be enough to some of you but I'm simply trying to clear out any air of Mrs McConnell looking like she's tryna blame someone else for her sons behavior.

Now that it's been said..

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Hunter's p.o.v.

I parked in front on El Diablo restaurant, internally wishing that I had another option than to be here.

  After staring at the building with its neon lights illuminating the entire block, I shut my eyes and rested my head on the steering wheel. Taking deep breaths and making a silent prayer that I wasn't walking into a murder mission.

  My phone chimes in my pocket, distracting me from the few seconds of silence that I was slowly beginning to enjoy.

Table reservation number 12

I didn't need to unlock my phone to know who the message was from.

  Unknowingly, a groan escapes my lips and I hop out of the car. Moving with a rigid stance till I reached the entrance.

It's now or never

I stepped in and passed a smile to the attractive waitress at my left, which she returned easily before speaking up.

" Welcome to El Diablo, let me show you to a table " she greeted and gestured with her arms

" I have a reservation, number twelve "

" oh" her features fell like she was a bit disappointed. Probably she knew I had a lady waiting " right this was way then"

  She began walking farther into the room till we got to a stair, leading to the second floor. We climbed awfully too fast for my liking but I was a bit glad. The faster things went, the earlier I could leave.

  The moment we got to the top of the stairs, the waitress walked a few feet forward and pointed out the table. But she didn't need to because I caught a glimpse of Diane, already seated in a silver sequence gown sipping on a glass of wine.

I mouthed a thank you to the escort and walked towards the table, and as if sensing my presence, Diane turned her head to my direction and a wry smile fell on her lips.

  No doubt, a scowl found its way to my face but I needed to hear what she had to say before getting pissed off at least.

" I really don't have much time-" I began but she cut me off

" I was beginning to think that you wouldn't show up. And shame on you Hunter, you can't even please a girl by freshening up after work before coming for a date?" She said mockingly, clearly pointing out the fact that I had an evidently frustrating day.

" Who says I'm looking to please you? And secondly this is not a date okay? It's an official business meeting, so go ahead with the business " I fired and waited for her to speak.