Renaldo pressed his mouth against Chloe’s rosy lips- he could taste the alcohol on her tongue, but her skin smelled of fresh flowers- hotel soap. The scent blended so well with her own body scent that it created a flawless elixir- enough to fill him up with energy and desire for life.
Chloe herself, inexperienced as she was with men, was having more than the time of her life. After the stress of coming to this new foreign land, this new, foreign feeling that she was experiencing after that drink seemed almost natural to her all of a sudden. It removed all homesickness and worry.
It was at this very moment that the other, more improbable duo arrived at the scene. Damian positively burst at the seams of his priceless fancy suit when he spotted the lovers, perched on a counter, still fully clothed but close to being not.
Jenny, on the other hand, nearly burst into tears. It was so traumatic to see such a devoted couple broken away from each other, since that was inevitable at this point, but all the more traumatic to realize that she had not had a boyfriend for three years, ever since she had started working at this accursed restaurant. And she was thirty, for heaven’s sake! After surviving such harsh treatment from Damian, she left the scene with watery eyes and a promise to herself that she would never again do something mean to someone else for her own purpose- it was such an ugly, irreversible thing.
“Chloe!” Damian screeched, and his voice authentically replicated the shrill screeching of car tires when an irresponsible driver hits the breaks too hard. The inhuman sound brought both Renaldo and Chloe to attention, and they broke away from each other like stunned animals.
One look at Chloe’s glassy stare told Damian more than he needed to know. His anger boiling at a point of no return, he whipped around to face Renaldo.
“Stay away from her, you worthless rascal. Where is your boss? He will not be left ignorant of this!” He cursed in phrases that Chloe could not comprehend, having not become familiarized with this particular aspect of the French tongue. Renaldo grew angry as well now; his mind was still foggy from the alcohol and he was easily affected by anything that was said around him.
“And why can’t you mind your own business, mister wealthy? Why don’t you go show off your stylish bling somewhere at the party?”
Damian’s eyes flashed dangerously; he nearly hissed like a snake. Chloe, even in her tipsy state, was able to sense a fist fight coming close. She approached Damian slowly, rocking dangerously back and forth on her high heels. The few steps she needed to take to reach him felt like an entire mile to her, but when she finally succeeded in her task, stumbling at the last second to fall against Damian’s chest, she knew exactly what she had to say. She placed her hands against his shoulders, steadying herself until she was upright and standing with him directly face to face. She lifted her gaze to peer straight into his eyes, and then, with profound clarity, she proclaimed her poor little French speech.
“Damian, I know you want to keep me around because you like me. I get it. But you’re just too fake for me. You know? I don’t know if you want to keep me around in your company after today, but I just want you to know that you are not working with nice people. And that’s it. Actually, if it were up to me, I’d even quit.”
And with that Chloe strolled casually away, barely able to keep her balance long enough to grab a hanging kitchen towel and then sending a whole line of expensive silverware crashing to the ground. Damian’s face was bright red by now, and he did not even bother to help her up though she was much closer to him than she was to Renaldo, who was the one who came to Chloe’s rescue instead.
“Well if that is the case, then perhaps I should allow it to indeed be up to you and not up to anyone else. If you said so yourself, I may just as well kick you out of my company. Unfortunately, that will likely land you in a pit-hole for failures, but this no longer concerns me now. Goodbye, dear Chloe. And what a certain pleasure it had been to meet you. I will be sure to send you a farewell letter once you are a bit more in the right mind.”
And with these dramatic words, Damian turned around swiftly a left the kitchen.