● AUTHOR'S POV

~~~~~ 1 month later ~~~~~

It had been a month since Ava started working at the club, it was a host hostess club and she was appointed as a waitress there by Xanthos. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as Ava had expected it to be. She was provided with a place to live and during her shifts she was given breaks with meals offered by the club, they weren't anything fancy but it was better than starving oneself.

She would be earning more than she did at any of her previous jobs, even though a percentage of her pay would be deducted for the debt to be paid off little by little, but nothing too drastic. Ava did face a little flirting here and there which was expected but nothing she hadn't dealt with in the past, or anything of extreme nature. Despite these reasons not making unwanted flirtatious efforts towards her acceptable, but she was unbothered enough to not let such lowly things faze her, as her goal in mind was set, to diligently do her job and get the debt off. She was a hot-headed girl at times but wasn't a foolish person to just lash out whenever she felt like it, and mess things up for herself.

All things considered, she wasn't having a terrible nightmare of a life she thought she would be having, after getting caught that day one month ago. She had only seen Xanthos a total of three times through out the whole month, and two of which was she just catching a glimpse of him from a far, and one was where he had inquired her about getting nicely adjusted in.

As usual, Ava was diligently serving orders and waiting for her next break, as she had to cover up for another waitress during her afternoon break whom had to leave for an urgent matter, thus making them a little short on staff. Hers was a full day job starting at 10:00 a.m. and ending past 8:00 p.m. or even 10:00 p.m. at times, which was by her own choice as she had no one back waiting for her or even any close friends she needed to catch up with, also the fact that she wasn't allowed to roam freely around the city as a security measure, till she was done with paying off her father's debt, as she had already been caught fleeing three times, so she had decided working some extra hours to make a few more pennies.

"I'll pay you. The authority does not need to know about this. Just meet me outside when you're done with your shift. It'll be a private matter between you and I. You won't even have to share the money, it'll be all yours." an ashy blonde haired guy whispered seductively in Ava's ear, as he purposely stood close beside her shortening the distance between them, his hand slowly slid down her waist to her rear and he gave it a squeeze.

Ava unconsciously flinched in response, and turned her head sideways to face him. He had a nasty grin sprawled across his face, and his tongue was flirtatiously playing with his gold lip piercing.

As much as the unwanted and blatant interruption during her shift made her blood boil, Ava tried to keep her cool and handle the situation sensibly.

The perverted scoundrel standing infront of her despite his low character was a wealthy man, and Ava was very well aware of that fact, the last thing she wanted was having troubles with a rich man on top of being chased by her father's loan sharks.

"Mr. Cancio." Ava feigned a smile and removed the tall ashy blonde's hand from her bottom.

"Call me Paolo." he retorted and pushed his hand back resisting Ava's attempt to get it off of her.

'This delinquent sicko.' Ava mentally cursed.

"Paolo." Ava spoke calmly trying her best to maintain her composure and not letting the smile slip off, despite her intense urge to slap the ashy blonde's piercings off of his face.

He had his whole face simply filled with them, one lip piercing, two eyebrow piercings, and innumerable ones adorning both his ears. This man was a walking talking accessory outlet that Ava was not ready to shop at.

"Like I've said before, I'm a mere waitress here. I'm not one of the hostesses. My only job is to serve drinks and that's it." Ava explained making another attempt at moving his hand away from her and this time succeeding, she immediately took quite a few steps back creating a safe distance between the two.

"You can be so much more than just a waitress, all you need to do is let loose a little." Paolo smirked biting the side of his lip as he walked towards her. Paolo was a moderately good-looking man, but his debaucherous nature covered up all his little charms like thick snow in winter.

Paolo raised his hand and moved it closer to Ava. Touching her neck he let it slide down and using his index finger, adorned with a massive gold ring with a cracked skull on it, he traced the exposed part of Ava's chest.

"Mr. Cancio, enough is enough. I'd appreciate you not taking things too far." Ava, quickly stepping away leaving his finger hanging mid-air; that was uninvitedly running over her skin, stated sternly creasing her brows, and getting rid of her smile that she had constantly plastered across her face, as if it was carved in. Things were slowly getting out of hands, and she had to put a stop to all this before the situation took a turn for the worse.

Witnessing Ava's stand for herself, Paolo couldn't absorb the fact that a trifling little waitress was rejecting him. Paolo's halfwitted mind not being able to comprehend the fact that even those who don't belong to a distinctively higher status still had the liberty to refuse, made him lose his temper and his face turned sour in a matter of seconds.

Roughly yanking Ava's arm he pulled her towards him.

"I'm being tolerant so you're acting bratty? Name it. Your price. I refuse to believe that someone like you wouldn't have one!" he spat whilst a hint of mockery sprawled over his face. His eyes staring at Ava as if she was something lowly that he could and would, take and use, whenever and however he pleased.

"Get away from me or I'll complain you!" Ava protested snatching away her arm and pushing Paolo with all her strength.

Someone tall and sturdy like him wouldn't budge by just a push from someone petite and a bit small in stature comparably. But it would work if it were an unexpected attack.

The unforeseen counterattack, against his imprudent aggression took him by surprise, and he bumped into the waitress right behind him.

"Cazzo!" Paolo scowled, as the drinks placed on the tray being carried by the waitress he just jarred into, fell, littering the back of his expensive black lapel dark blue suit.
(Cazzo : dick / but used as fuck in italian)

"Pagherai per questa cagna." Paolo gritted his teeth as he glared at Ava as if his eyes were breathing fire.
(You're gonna pay for this bitch.)

Each person around was now focused on them, and goosebumps slowly rising over Ava's body, as she had a bad feeling regarding whatever was about to come for her.

'If I get complained for making a ruckus during my shift, would they inform Xanthos?' the thought alone made Ava want to disappear, because during this time-span of one month she had come to know that Xanthos was an extremely strict man regarding his work, and if she was here disturbing it then perhaps she'd have to face dire consequences, even though it wasn't her fault to begin with. But why would her actions be justified compared to someone who was actually benefitting Xanthos.

Paolo had been a regular, even before Ava had been appointed to the club, and she was also aware of the fact that he was one of the patrons, and hence offered an extra special treatment, as he had spent quite alot in availing the club's services.

'Maybe the club pampering him was the reason he was so spoiled.' Ava thought, as her mind kept fishing for reasons to give, once she would be questioned in regards of this incident.

Paolo turned away from Ava and was now facing the waitress who was standing there behind him, quivering out of fear as she had accidentally dumped a tray full of drinks on a client, and to make it worse, on one of the regulars.

Paolo with a nasty scowl on his face glared at the waitress, terrified out of her wits she kept rubbing her shaky hands together whilst making and breaking eye contact with Paolo.

"I'm-m sorry sir. I'll get your clothe--" but before she could complete, Paolo raised his hand and slapped her across the face, the impact of which was easily enough to make her stumble backwards and fall down.

Paolo rolled his eyes as if he had to deal with a nuisance just now, and raising his hand he had just slapped the waitress with, he started fixing the gold rings in it, one resting on his index finger and the other on his middle finger.

A few gasps was all that was heard, no one dared to interfere and stop him. 'Being kind and tolerant towards a client was one of the top and most crucial rules of the club. But this was utter bullshit.' Ava thought as she was startled by how fast and aggressively things were pacing around her.

"Ti rovinerò." Paolo said as he turned towards Ava grinning with a nefarious look in his eyes. He had been spitting Italian left and right, and it was worrying Ava as she didn't understand a single word he was saying, and through his actions she had already seen how unforgiving, intolerant, aggressive, and rough he was.
(I'm gonna mess you up.)

"Vedremo chi sarà incasinato." another voice came snapping the tension between Paolo and Ava.
(We'll see, who gets messed up.)

The commanding voice came like a bullet to this entire chaotic spectacle of nothing but humiliation. Every single head turned back to its original position and everyone started behaving as if nothing had happened.

"Your club's precious little staff soiled my clothes and misbehaved! Do you have anything to say about that?" Paolo complained spreading his arms and pointing using both his hands, towards Ava and Lilly, the waitress he had wrongly hit.

Lilly was being held up by one of the other waitresses, her right cheek was flushed red and the corner of her lips was bruised a little. She was wincing in pain with her hand glued to her right ear. Tears rolling down her cheeks as her whole body kept trembling.

Ava gasped in disbelief as she saw blood on Lilly's fingers that she had been covering her ear with.

"Mr. Cancio, it is quite troubling to know that a client was treated this way." Ilaria coaxed as she strolled seductively towards Paolo, and gently started fixing his tie.

Ilaria was the head of the club's section Ava was working at, she was severe and everyone with their utmost efforts refrained from getting in her way. She was extremely uncompromising regarding any and every unjustifiable misbehaviour towards a client. She wouldn't spare a second in firing anyone who broke her or the club's rules.

Paolo smirked and mockingly rasied an eyebrow looking at Ava through the corner of his eyes. He focused his vision back on Ilaria whilst letting his tongue play with his gold lip piercing.

"But do you know what is even more troubling?" Ilaria softly whispered as she inched closer to Paolo's face with an angel like smile, and startling every single head present there she suddenly tightened Paolo's tie to the point of almost choking him.

Author's Note
(I'll have my own version of a host hostess club, if I ever get into its details, please keep that in mind while reading).
Another update on the same day!!!!! Yay! Lol. So, how are you liking the story? Leave your valuable thoughts in the comments and vote if have the time to.
Thankyou.