woop woop edited chappie two comin' atcha ! :D
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"Oh, you did not just send away a customer."
Blood drained from Alice's face as Kathleen's voice pierced her ears. Stumbling over her words, she said, "No, you don't understand, he, I, he-"
Kathleen rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. "Minutes after you beg me to give you hours, you kick out a customer."
"But, he -"
"Alice." Kathleen removed her hands from her face and folded them at her waist. A serene glow filled her eyes and her scowl grew sympathetic. Tilting her head, she took a step closer. "I don't pay you to bring your personal life to the restaurant. I don't care that he slept with you and didn't call you back -"
"What!? No! That's not -"
"I don't care, Alice," she said. The ominous smile on Kathleen's face forced Alice to drop her neck and surrender.
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Ever."
"I know it won't," she said and turned to the schedule, scratching Alice's name off of the column labeled Sunday. "But I want you to go home and take the rest of the weekend off. Think about your commitment to the job and talk to me Monday."
Before Alice could argue, Kathleen disappeared down the hallway.
The entire time Alice got ready to leave work, she imagined shoving Isaac off a bridge. When she walked outside, the crisp early September air licked her cheeks and the fantasies of attacking Isaac turned to visions of bubble baths and wine. Already, she could taste the cheap bubbles of her stale Pinot Grigio that was in the back of her fridge. Soon, she could put the horrid day behind her. Tomorrow was a fresh start.
The smell of Philadelphia's polluted air filled her nose. Exhaust from the vehicles and autumn leaves; Two of her favorite smells. She craned her neck up to the sky, marveling at the majestic skyscrapers looming over her.
Everything about the city made her smile. In her opinion, there was nothing more beautiful than the city skyline at night. But what she loved even more about urban life was the ability to be as anonymous as she wanted. So long as she avoided his side of the city, she would never have to see Isaac Hanes again.
Or so she thought.
"...No, Greg. We don't know for sure if there was a contamination of that Straterra shipment. You can't send it out. We'll have another lawsuit on our hands."
All the blood inside of Alice turned cold as the familiar voice echoed behind the dark alley of Sally's Spaghetti House.
No way. It couldn't be him. At least twenty minutes had passed since she kicked him out. There was no logical reason why he would be there.
Following the voice around the alley, Alice's mouth dropped when she saw Isaac sitting on an upside-down yellow milk crate, his face in his hands, growing frustrated with whoever he was talking to. The scene itself was comedic. A man of at least six feet in a perfectly pressed grey suit, slumped on a crate in a dark alley, talking about getting sued. Unfortunately, Alice was too preoccupied with horror to find any humor in the situation.
"You're stalking me," she blurted out in a definitive tone.
His neck snapped away from the ground to her direction and he smiled, held up his index finger to motion for her to wait, and turned back to the phone call. "Hey, Greg, let me call you back, okay? I'm a little busy - no. No. Don't do anything." He pinched his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. "Listen, I'll call you later tonight. Just. Don't. Do. Anything."
He hung up before giving the person a chance to respond and hung his neck back, giving a quick exasperated sigh. "Some people, Alice..."
He stood up from the milk crate and squared his shoulders with her, smiling widely at her face of disgust. "How's it going?"
"You're. Stalking. Me," she said, this time with a wild look in her eyes.
"What? No I'm not."
"Yes, you are!" she said. "You're creeping around in the dark waiting for me to leave."
"I'm not creeping around." He rolled his eyes. "I just want to have a conversation with you."
"It's not going to happen," she said. "Please... go away. Just leave me alone."
"You know, most girls would be thrilled to have me waiting for them outside of work..."
Alice's eyes widened as she scoffed and said, "Alright."
Completely out of patience for Isaac's nonsense, she turned on her heel and stomped away.
"Hey, relax, I was just joking!" Isaac said, trailing behind her. "Where are you going?"
"Home." She sped up.
"Can't you wait a minute?"
Alice stopped her march abruptly, causing Isaac to nearly bump into her. She pivoted on her toes and threw her arms in the air. "Why are you here?" she demanded. "How do you even know where I work?"
"I already told you. I like spaghetti."
"Yeah, you keep saying that. But that doesn't explain why you're lurking around the alley."
When Isaac first entered the restaurant, she assumed it was a stroke of bad luck. But with Isaac's persistence, she knew there was more going on. The look on his face confirmed it. With a guilty sigh, he said. "Fine. Yes. Today... today I was looking for you. But it's not like I was following you or deliberately trying to track you down."
"Then how the hell did you know where I work?"
"For the thousandth time, I like spaghetti," he said. "My buddy and I came here last week to eat. Honestly, for a restaurant that specializes in spaghetti, it's very average. The pasta is overcooked and -"
Alice tilted her neck and raised a brow at Isaac as he derailed the conversation.
"That's beside the point, of course," he said, catching himself. "I saw you working there that day and I thought it was a little strange. You know, because I figured you'd be doing something a little better... no offense."
"I'm taking offense to everything you say."
"After a week I decided to come talk to you."
"Well, Isaac, I've talked to you enough today to last me a lifetime." She turned her back on him and continued down the sidewalk, taking a sharp left turn in an attempt to lose him. "You're wasting your breath."
"You don't even want to know what I have to talk about?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
She groaned in frustration and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Because, Isaac, you're the fucking devil."
"Wow," he said. "That's harsh."
She quickened her speed, hoping to lose him, when he asked, "Can I have a real explanation?"
Stopping once again, long enough to shoot him a look of disbelief over her shoulder. "Are you that dense that I need to spell it out for you?"
"Apparently."
"Alright, fine." Continuing her march, she began to verbalize her list. "First of all, when we were 8 years old and didn't have an ounce of body fat on us, you started calling me 'Fat Ginger' and continued to call me that up until we were fifteen."
"At least I stopped."
"Only because your vocabulary grew and you started calling me other awful things! Trailer trash scum, inept hag, god. The list goes on! To me and Emily!"
"In my defense, Emily was one of those gothic freaks..."
"In twelfth grade, for my final presentation on the function of the myelin sheath, which I had spent months preparing for, I was chosen to present it in front of the whole school. And you... you convinced the entire audience to laugh every time I said the words 'lipid-rich', which is kind of the only way to describe a fricken myelin sheath! Even your idiot friend Blaise was trying to get you to stop, but nope, who cares about Alice Black, right?" Towards the end of her rant, her voice became high pitched and squeaky. "My parents were even there! Every teacher in the school was there! I was laughed off the stage! Do you have any idea how mortifying that was?"
"Yeah, I can ima-"
"And then, you had to sleep with Simon's first fiancee, Sarah. But oh-ho! You didn't stop there. You had to have an affair with Chelsea, and now Simon's life is in shambles and I'm stuck cleaning up the mess," she said. "You know, most people only sleep with one person's fiancee in a lifetime. But nope. You're Isaac Hanes. A real overachiever."
"Okay, listen." He swooped in front of Alice to block her path and put a hand on her shoulder which she swatted away like it was a diseased rat. "The first one, Sarah, yeah. I'll admit that was wrong. But Chelsea was a total accident, I swear."
"So, your dick 'accidentally' slipped into her?"
"No. If you'd give me a chance to explain -"
"Fine!" Alice interrupted. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and nodded at him. "Let's hear it. Why'd you sleep with Sarah?"
"Sarah? No, no. I meant I'd explain what happened with Chelsea..."
"Too bad. I want to hear Sarah's story first. Then Chelsea."
Although he didn't argue, Alice could see him choking on his own words. Rubbing the back of his neck, he shrugged. "I don't know. I was seventeen and your brother was a dick. I thought it'd be funny. "
"Wow..." she said in a flat tone. "That's very compelling."
"Honestly, who the hell gets engaged in high school?" he said. "It was doomed from the beginning anyway."
"That doesn't make it your responsibility to fix it!"
"I know, I know." He raised his hands in defense of Alice's flailing arms that were dangerously close to hitting him. "Some of my buddies from school they... they bet me that I couldn't do it. I didn't think I could, either, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out she was exceptionally easy. Really, I did your brother a huge favor."
"You really are a true hero."
"But Chelsea..." he started, and something changed in his eyes. Alice wasn't sure what it was, but it was enough to make her listen. "Chelsea was a different story. She came onto me and I had no idea she was with your brother. If I knew that, I probably wouldn't have done it. Not gonna say for sure, because she was a total smoke show, but my conscience definitely would have kicked in."
"Pfft. Yeah, right," she said. "Besides, how did you not realize she was getting married?"
"She wasn't wearing a ring," he said and lowered his head to absentmindedly kick a pebble. There seemed to be a trace of sincere guilt inside of him. "I was at Barlow's Grill, you know, on 87th? I was minding my own business, having a drink and doing some paperwork, when this blonde woman in a red dress that was so low cut she was nearly falling out of it. I'm not kidding, Alice, you could totally tell this chick was down to fu- "
"- Just continue the story, Isaac."
"Fine. So, we have a few drinks. She says she's single and I have no reason to doubt her. We end up back at my place and..." Isaac's forehead crinkled up and he shook his head. "And she was crazy. The damn woman wouldn't leave! She made herself right at home and I... I had never dealt with anything like that before so I... let it happen, I guess. The sex was fucking amazing, after all."
"Charming."
"Anyway, so after a couple of weeks, she admits that she's engaged. Naturally, that sent up some major red flags, but I was busy with work and didn't have time to kick a deranged woman out of my house." He stopped to gulp and lick lips. "And then... the next day, she said Simon's name. And everything clicked. Like you said, I had slept with two of this poor guy's fiancees!"
"So... what'd you do?"
"What do you think I did?" he asked. "I kicked her out and deadbolted my door so your brother wouldn't murder me!"
The corner of her lips nearly twitched into a smile at the thought of Chelsea getting kicked out of Isaac's. She always loathed Crazy Chelsea, but she forced herself to hide any amusement. "So, what? Are you looking for forgiveness? Do you expect me to tell Simon that you're actually a great guy?"
"What? No! I don't care what that he thinks of me," he said. "This is about you. Come on. One drink tomorrow night and I'll make it worth your while."
There was something slimy about the way Isaac wiggled his eyebrows that made Alice queasy and she turned on her heel. "No."
"Why?"
"Because you're revolting!" she said. "Are you that arrogant that you really think you can sleep with Simon's fiancee and his sister?"
"If you honestly think I'm trying to sleep with you," he drawled, "then you're even more arrogant than me."
She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around. "You're not?"
"God, no!" He scrunched up his nose in a way that was offensive. "Why would you even assume that?"
"I don't know! I... you..."
"It doesn't matter," he cut her off. "Listen, if there's no way I can convince you, I get it. But trust me. Tomorrow night. You won't regret it."
The city was unusually quiet that night. Any other night, sirens were blaring, or at least a few drunken teens stumbled down the sidewalk. But that night there was an ominous emptiness in the streets. Only Isaac and Alice were in sight, standing parallel to each other, squaring each other up. Her nails dug into her palms as she narrowed her eyes, trying to gauge his intentions. He lazily slipped his hands into his pocket, patiently waiting for her response with an unreadable nonchalant expression.
The human embodiment of evil stood three feet away with what could only be an invitation to hell, and yet, she found it impossible to refuse. Her curious mind was getting the best of her. What could he possibly want?
"Fuck," she muttered under breath and sighed in defeat. "Fine. Whatever."
Relief visibly washed over him. "Are you serious?"
"I guess so."
"Great," he said smiling. "You won't regret it."
"Mhm."
"So," he said, pulling out his cell phone. "Can I get your number so I can send you the address?"
"I am not giving you my number."
"What?" he asked, throwing his free hand in the air. "How come?"
"Because you've already practically stalked me tonight," she said. "The last thing I want is you calling me all the time."
"Listen, I know you think I'm a huge asshole and all," he said, taking a few steps closer to her, "but you're the one who's being kind of a prick right now."
She scoffed and swatted his shoulder. "You can't call a girl a prick!"
He raised his eyebrow and asked, "Why not?"
"Because...I don't know," she said, "because it's not very feminine."
"Well, now that's a little sexist, don't you think?"
She gawked at him in bewilderment before turning on her heel and walked away.
"Fine," he called out. Grabbing a pen and paper from his pocket he scribbled down an address. "Meet me here at 8 o'clock."
"Fine."
"Good."
They stood in an awkward silence just staring at each other. After shouting at each other for nearly ten blocks, it seemed neither knew how to end the encounter.
Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "Hey, I would offer you a ride home but I take it you don't want me to know where you live."
"You're very observant."
"Alright, well, take care then," he said, giving a small wave as he sauntered off. "Don't forget - eight o'clock."
As she watched him disappear around the corner, her head began spinning. What had she just agreed to? Her brother would definitely murder her if he found out. She wished she had gotten his number simply so she could promptly cancel. Instead, she pulled out her obsolete LG flip phone and texted her best friend Emily.
HEY. Where are you???
Alice leaned against the side of the building and tried to patiently wait for a response. After a few minutes without a new text, she decided to spam her friend.
Hellooooooo???
Emilllyyy????
EMERGENCY!!!!!!
Much to Alice's relief, her phone vibrated with a notification.
I'm breaking a sweat at the Jim.
You mean at the 'Gym'?
;) Nope. I mean at Jim's. Hottie I met at the gym lol.
Alice giggled. It was just like Emily to manage to pick up some hot guy at the gym, even if she was sweaty. She contemplated leaving her crisis alone and letting Emily have her fun, but when she remembered Isaac's blue eyes piercing through her she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep.
Can you meet up in a bit? Something really weird happened tonight.
What happened?? Jim wants to make me vegan tacos. Idk if I can turn that down.
I'm going out for drinks with Isaac Hanes tomorrow.
OMG!!! I'll be over in an hour.
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