● Amber Erin Anderson ●

I was told to serve table nine where two wealthy looking men wearing black suits were chatting with the manager of the restaurant I was working in as a newbie waitress. Three of them were smiling while talking and the manager of the restaurant, Jonathan Roberts was bobbing his head and judging by his tight lipped smiles towards them, I could tell Jonathan was getting complaints about how late the waiters worked here.

Before going to serve them, I looked at my best friend, Nathan, who was tip-toeing carefully while holding bunch of plates in his hands and was trying his best to not let them wobble and fall onto people's heads.

I felt pity for him; not only he was doing his own work but he was also covering up for one of the worker who was absent. I was pretty sure that absentee was just bunking off his work as he knew how naïve Nathan was.

He knew Nathan won't even hesitate to cover up for someone who was sick and was having hard time. I had rolled my eyes when I had heard that from Nathan.

Because I was a great friend, I decided I'd help my best friend and would give him a piece of mind about how he shouldn't just trust anyone blindly.

Forgetting I had a table waiting for their food, I walked towards Nathan whose face was covered by the plates. "Geez, did you really believe that guy didn't come to work because he is sick?" I raised an eyebrow as he realised someone's presence.

By my sudden appearance he flinched a bit and that caused the plates to wobble more but luckily, he didn't let them fall. "You scared the shit out of me!" he let out a shaky breath and said, "Jake isn't someone who'll bunk off his work like that!" he defended his friend.

"Sometimes I can't figure out if you're dumb or innocent." I took some plates full of food from him carefully and served it to the tables while he made a face.

In the middle of serving food to the customers, I heard Jonathan's voice and I realised how dead I was. "Anderson! Table nine!" he looked at me furiously with wide eyes.

"Oh, crap," I muttered under my breath and remembered I had customers waiting for their food. I rushed to serve the customers hurriedly who were important guests to Jonathan and displeasing them won't be something pleasant for me.

As I was hurrying towards table nine with plates of food in my hands, I wasn't focusing to my surroundings and because I was an unexperienced worker who didn't know how to stop plates from wobbling and work at the same time, I tripped.

I tripped so much that the plate of lasagna in my hand started to wiggle and I wasn't paying attention to where I was heading as at that exact time, my only goal was not to let that delicious lasagna fall into the ground and get wasted.

Because of my lack of attention, I tripped again and this time I couldn't protect the plates. The two plates of lasagna fell--but not in the ground--but on the head of the customer who ordered it.

Table nine's customer.

The plate of lasagna flew from my hand and perfectly landed on the customer's bald head. I don't know if I should be saying this, but the way the lasagna landed on his head, it was as if the lasagna was a perfect substitute for his hairless head.

As the plate fell and broke--along with lasagna dripping from the customer's head to body, I noticed how furious both Jonathan and him were, making me gulp.

"I- I'm so so sorry. I didn't mean it. At all. I just tripped. I'm sorry," I managed to say, closing my one eye once the customer wiped off some lasagna from his head--using the white handkerchief that he had in his pocket while scowling at me and Jonathan.

The other customer who luckily didn't encounter lasagna like that, was trying his best to hold his laugh.

I couldn't see his eyes as they were closed because he was still trying his best to not burst out laughing. The only thing I was able to see was, his long black eyelashes with thick eyebrows, his jaw; which was sharp and sculpted perfectly and his high cheekbones.

His hair, which was dark brown was pulled back by a zig zag hairband and few strands were falling upon his temples. The black button down shirt that he was wearing was embracing his well built muscles and its sleeves were rolled upto his elbows, causing his veiny hands to be viewed.

"Anderson!" I was snapped back to reality by Jonathan's angry voice.

Shaking my head, my attention diverted to the current scene.

Some people saw what happened and was already whispering how insulting that was and I shouldn't work as a waiter.

Jonathan's special guest received some apologetic looks from him and seeing his scowls, I knew Jonathan's apologies didn't mean anything to him. 

I was also about to apologise again but Jonathan didn't let me. "Meet me at the staff room," he ordered through gritted teeth, his jaw clenched and his hands clasped tightly together.

I nodded, thinking this wasn't a big deal and he would just let it go just like he'd always do whenever I made mistakes. But this time, things were different.

"There's no need her to go to the staff room. I will handle this situation." The bald man spoke with an intimidating voice, standing up when he finished wiping off his head.

Jonathan looked astonished by his words and he turned around to face him. Because the bald man's voice was loud, it caught some more people's attention who, just a while ago, didn't even know what was going on.

Even Nathan's.

Great, now I'm gonna be insulted in front of the whole restaurant.

I rolled my eyes hearing my inner voices and focused on the bald man who was sending me daggers through his brown eyes. Stepping forward to come closer to me, he said, "Jonathan tells me about every worker here. How they work, how skilled they are, how much work they do and everything," he said slowly and continued.

"He also told me about you and how slow you are. Because you're new, he let you work here as he felt pity for you and your financial situation. But if I were him, I'd have fired you very long ago. Which I'm going to do now," he said sternly and I felt everyone's eyes on me. This was his way to get back at me?

"Mr. Gray, I understand that what she has done is extremely rude and not something any worker should do, but, please try to understand that she's new to this and I'm sure it was just a mistake. I think firing her will be too much. I'll make sure to do something about it," Jonathan tried to defend me calmly and my respect for him grew more than it was.

"Just a mistake? she humiliated me for heaven's sake!" Mr Gray argued, his eyebrows twitched.

Humiliated him? There were only a few people! You just caught everyone's attention by that loud voice of yours!

By the loud voice he said those words, now, more people's attention were to us. This time I could also hear murmurs about me saying what did I do to deserve scolding from the owner of the restaurant.

"Mr Gray, I know what she did was also humiliating but I am sure she didn't mean any o-" Jonathan tried to disagree with him with a calm demeanour but couldn't.

"You say another word to defend her, you lose your job as the manager." Mr Gray said darkly which sent shivers down my spine and I was sure Jonathan got it too.

I looked at Jonathan and he sent me an apologetic look. I smiled at him, indicating him to not say anything as I knew, he had a family to feed and take care of and losing his job would only mean starvation to his family which I didn't want.

I sighed, ready for him to finally say I was fired so that I could go home and cry my eyes out for everything that happened today.

Just when Mr Gray was about to speak, the guy who was sitting the whole time and enjoying the drama, said something.

"Uncle Harrison," he said with his deep voice and stood up, facing his uncle--Harrison Gray.

Mr Gray gave his attention to the guy and he continued. "I don't think firing her is necessary. Besides, you weren't a customer or anything. You just happened to pass by your restaurant and decided to take a look. If this happened to a customer or a special guest, I'd have considered to fire her immediately as such an irresponsible employee should never work like that." The guy explained, his ocean blue eyes bored into Mr Gray.

I nodded towards Mr Gray while apologising and bowing my head a little. He seemed to think about what the guy said but after sometime, he also disagreed with him.

"You stay out of this, Hayes." Mr Gray warned the guy who was apparently named as Hayes with a cold glare and I sighed.

Hayes nodded in response and sat down and I realised something about Hayes. As he sat, I saw there was a tattoo in his neck and by looking closely, I knew there was a sentence written, making me almost curious.

You're getting fired and you're thinking about his tattoo?

And that's when I realised that there was something off about Hayes - not off about his personality or the way he was but the way I felt when he had made an eye contact with me. The air around the whole room shifted as I locked my eyes with his - it was strange, his dark ocean eyes watching me like he just fixed a mystery while I felt like something in me broke free, something that was in me for so long had finally gone free.

Before I knew it, my strange birthmark, which was in my right wrist began to itch and after a few mere seconds, it burned a little, making me frown and gaze at it and what I saw was something I wasn't expecting at all.

It was glowing.

.