CHAPTER 3

Hearing a crash followed by a commotion, she rushed out from the back kitchen with a tray of freshly baked batch of cookies and macaroons. She saw her best friend and co-owner, Zeke, short for Ezekiel, gaping at the scene. She followed his line of vision to find one of her regulars in a confrontation with someone. She passed the tray to one of the part timers and rushed over to handle the situation before shit hit the fan. She knew her regular, Cassian Luciano, had a temper with impulsive behavior to match it.

" Aren't you going to apologize?" The guy in a cheap knock-off suit asked.

Cassian scoffed. "Like hell! You're the one that bumped into me! Why do I have to apologize?" he asked in a condescending tone. He was in a particularly bad mood today because of what happened with Shaw and the cheap suit guy just won't let up. He had been waiting diligently for his first love to show up and he even put some thought in today's outfit. Well, it wasn't the tailor-made suits he usually wore but that didn't make them any less expensive. Then they all got ruined because some guy thought he was too young to be in the café, so much so he spilled his drink on him.

"You should apologize cause you're younger! And you were just sitting there doing nothing. I asked you to leave but you wouldn't!" He has gone on defensive but that just made him seem like an ass to everyone, even he didn't have that much confidence in what he was saying.

"What did you say?" Emily looked towards the counter to see her friend, Zeke, fuming. "What gives you the right... No no no.....The AuDaCiTy! To kick out my customers?" He growled. Emily tried to hide her smile because the situation didn't call for it

She turned back to the customer, "Please apologize then leave," she tried to calm the situation.

"Why am I the only one that's leaving?!?" He yelled angrily.

"Hey!" Cassian said as he shoved the guy's shoulder pretty hard he stumbled back. "This is not your café! Show some respect, huh? And do you know how much these clothes cost?" He smirked and the look in his eyes was anything but friendly. He was pissed. The owners and the café regulars didn't deserve half the shit spewing out of the guy's mouth. He would have very much liked to whip out his gun and off him on the spot but that wouldn't bode well with Emily who thought he was a sweet kid even though he was pretty sure they were agemates. He sighed and rolled his shoulders. He sighed, this situation was giving him a headache. He looked at the time, Rainier was almost arriving to get his coffee. "Look, let's settle this amicably, just pay me for my dry cleaning and we'll call it even, how about it?"

"WHAT? Why? Huh? Why should I pay for your dry cleaning? I got coffee on my clothes! If that's the case then you ought to pay me too!" He said angrily. Rolling her tongue in her cheek, Emily smiled at the customer as she got between her and Cassian. As much as she craved drama, it didn't have to happen at their café.

"Excuse me, please leave. You're disrupting business. Just go get your dry cleaning done, your suit is not even designer, if you please, stop being a petty ass shithead, hmm?" She said still carrying her friendly customer service smile. Without waiting for a reply she turned around and dragged Cassian with her to the restroom to get somewhat clean.

The doorbell jingled signaling that someone had walked in, Zeke turned to the newcomer with a welcoming smile. "Good morning, welcome to Mocha Avenue- oh! Rainier, hey, the usual?" He asked with a smile.

"Yeah, what happened? What's with the weird atmosphere today?" He asked as he approached the counter. Zeke felt the headache coming back again when he thought of what was still happening because that rude guy still refused to leave despite the other customers telling him to just drop it and leave because it wasn't worth the fuss.

"Some guy poured his drink on our regular and he won't apologize," he said with a sigh. "If Emily didn't react quickly and take Cassian away before he exploded... Well... Let's just say that there wouldn't have been a café to come to anymore," he said with a small laugh. It sounded forced as he was trying to make light of the situation. If Cassian Luciano had lost his temper, no one would have dared to come back and that would have been the end of their business mostly because there would be no building to even conduct business in. He was a good kid with a terrible temper.