Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Some of the other customers were looking up and another one of the servers ran to the back to get Mr. Harvey. Before she knew it, Hanna was caught between the two angry men—her customer shouting that she had poured hot coffee on his crotch on purpose, and her manager apologizing profusely and chewing her out right there in front of everyone.
“He was touching me!” Hanna exclaimed desperately. She knew she couldn’t explain that the Dark Entity—which had mercifully disappeared from the window by then—had scared her. It would only make both of them think she was crazy—not that she cared very much what anyone thought at that point. She just wanted to go home. But at the same time, she barely dared to leave—what if the Dark Entity was waiting for her, just outside? What if—?
“I don’t care what he was doing, that isn’t the way we handle that kind of thing around here!” Mr. Harvey was shouting in her face, his breath heavy with stale coffee fumes.
Right, Hanna thought, beginning to get mad. Because we don’t handle things like that at all around here—at least not when you’re the manager. You don’t give a good goddamn how your servers are treated as long as you get to help yourself to their tips at the end of the night!
She only wished she had the nerve to say it out loud. Wouldn’t anyone say anything in her defense? But looking around the dining area, she saw that while all of the customers and servers were watching—some were even filming it on their phones—no one came forward to defend her. She was all alone in this and no white knight was going to come riding in to save her.
“I didn’t pour the coffee on him on purpose,” she tried to protest. “I was startled by something…something in the window and my hand jerked.”
Mr. Harvey raised his bushy eyebrows almost to his thinning hairline.
“Which is it, Hanna? Did you pour it on him on purpose because he was ‘touching’ you? Or was it an accident because you saw a ghost or something in the window?”
“Like I’d touch your fat ass, you cunt!” The customer snarled at Hanna before she could answer. “Fucking disgusting pig like you—you’d be lucky to get any man to come within twenty feet of you!”
Hanna felt a rush of shame and anger. Her weight had always been a sore spot with her.
“That wasn’t what you were saying when your hand was crawling up my leg!” She spat, finally losing her temper. “How dare you talk to me like that? You’re the disgusting pig! Do you think any woman will ever be interested in your tired old lines and your nasty, grabby hands? No! No woman with a pulse would even give you the time of day unless she was trying to earn a tip from your sorry ass!”
“Hanna! We do not talk that way to customers!” Mr. Harvey blustered.
Hanna turned to him.
“Oh, so it’s all right for him to call me a ‘cunt’ and a ‘disgusting pig’ but I can’t return the favor? He was harassing me from the minute I came up to their table!”
Mr. Harvey folded his arms over his chest.
“It’s your word against his, Hanna and now your job is on the line. I think you’d better apologize, don’t you?”
He and the customer both looked at her expectantly. But even though she needed the job and her rent was due, Hanna couldn’t make herself apologize.
“No,” she said, folding her own arms over her chest. “No, I shouldn’t have to apologize. The coffee spill was an accident but everything I said was true—he was touching me and harassing me and I shouldn’t have to put up with that.”
“This is bullshit!” The customer raged, before Mr. Harvey could say anything. “She poured boiling hot coffee on my dick and then she has the nerve to insult me?” He stabbed a finger at Hanna. “I want her fired now or I’m going to sue this fucking restaurant for everything its worth!”
Mr. Harvey went pale—he didn’t like lawsuits.
“I’m so sorry, Sir,” he said to the customer. “You are absolutely right.” And that was when he turned to Hanna and said the fateful words. “That’s it—you’re fired! Get out!” And he had pointed to the door of the Denny’s, indicating that she should leave at once.
Hanna had tried arguing, but it was a lost cause. Mr. Harvey had been looking for an excuse to get rid of her from day one and now he had one. Even now, no one spoke up for her, though it felt like every eye in the place was on her as she marched to the swinging double glass doors at the front of the Denny’s.
But when she got to the doors, she hesitated. The night outside was dark and impenetrable. The few streetlights in the parking lot were the old Arc sodium kind that barely put out a dim, flickering orange glow. Anything might be waiting out there for her—anything at all.