Alessandro |18+|

05

I scoffed to myself – how dare he leave me feeling uneasy when he wasn't even here.

But he got me food...

That's how easy it was to win me over.

Climbing into the covers, I leaned over and switched my lamp off. It surprisingly didn't take long for me to fall into a dreamless sleep.

•••

"Keep the change," A man, who seemed to be at least in his late thirties winked at me.

He handed me the bill, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was checking me out. I stopped myself from cringing – knowing that I should have been used to the inappropriate looks from the patrons by now.

I offered a polite smile, masking my discomfort.

"Thank you. Enjoy your day." I turned away from, gripping the pen and bill. I gasped when a calloused hand wrapped around my arm, effectively stopping me.

A shiver of disgust racked through me as the stranger smirked, eyeing me from the booth he was sitting in. I ripped my arm out of his hold, furrowing my brows and that's when his smirk dropped. A menacing and dangerous look replaced it.

"Come on." He glanced at the nametag on my chest. "Aria. Pretty name. Let's meet after your shift." There was lust in his eyes – that much was evident. And the way he interlaced his fingers on the table was everything but innocent.

"No, thank you," I said, attempting to walk away from him when his disgusting hand stopped me again.

What the fuck is this guy's issue?

I freed my arm from his hold, having to use the necessary force to do so. There was anger boiling me – and it was about to overfill at any second.

"I said no." My voice was firm, unshaken. We hadn't drawn much attention; most of the customers seemed occupied by their own matters.

"Why? You got a man?" he asked, and my jaw nearly hit the fucking ground. He had the nerve to narrow his eyes at me. As if he was losing his patience. Too many times there was a situation where men felt it was appropriate to lay their hands on me – and too many times I let it slide.

I scoffed at him, the disgust on my face painfully obvious. If only he had caught the hint. "I'm only allowed to say no if I have someone?"

"That's usually how it works.," he said, amused. But I wasn't laughing – not at all.

Rolling my eyes at him, I decided I was done talking with him. He had other plans. The same hand grabbed my wrist, wrapping around me so tightly to the point that it hurt. He was rough. And the anger on his face scared me.

"Are you fucking serious?" I yelled out, and it made every customer in the diner look in our direction. But I didn't care- I was fed up and ready to cause a scene. I should have done it the first time he touched me.

Even upon witnessing that this man was harassing- not one person in the diner stood up. The humiliation sunk in – all eyes were on me but they were just watching the show. The man smirked when he saw nobody was coming to my defence.

"See? Nobody gives a fuck but you," he murmured. And it stung because he was right.

"Don't touch me again-"

I didn't hear the door open. I didn't hear the footsteps. But I did hear the sound of a gun cocking. I looked around for the source of noise when my eyes landed on Alessandro, and he had his gun pointed directly at the stranger whose hand flew off me as if I burned him.