Cindy rushed away with the hot tea, and Sarah walked off behind her. In the little over two years she’d been working at the restaurant, she’d seen a few people thrown out. Each time it’d been Alex who’d done so, but both times it was drunks at the bar who were getting loud and obnoxious. Never had they asked a customer in the restaurant to leave, and they’d had some rude ones. This time Sarah got a bad feeling just by the way Alex had eyed the guy. Papa Moreno was a stickler for the customer always being right, but Alex was a stickler for having his employees’ backs, especially the sweet soft-spoken ones like Cindy.

Sarah picked up her drink orders for the other table she was waiting on and headed to it. “Could you be any slower?” the rude man said to Cindy as she handed him a sugar packet tray.

Smiling at her guests, Sarah began passing out their drinks. “What a jerk that guy is,” one of the younger girls at her table said.

“How much longer are our salads gonna be?” the rude man asked.

“I’ll go check on that,” Cindy said, rushing away.

The woman sitting with the man whispered something to him, and he quickly snapped back. “I don’t care! It’s her job. Doesn’t take much brains to wait tables. If she wants a tip, she better move her ass.”

The older woman at Sarah’s table turned and gave him an unmistakably dirty look. Sarah finished with their drinks and rushed away to check on her other table.

“Hey, green eyes . . .” The guy snapped his fingers at Sarah. “Can you go check on our order? Our waitress is slow as molasses.”

“Yes, sir,” Sarah nodded but headed to her other table first.

“The kitchen is that way.” He snapped his fingers again, motioning to the kitchen.

Sarah nodded but ignored him and continued onto her table. The man continued grumbling something Sarah ignored, and she checked on the patrons she’d served earlier. “You need me to say something to him?” a man at her table asked, glaring at the rude guy.

“No.” Sarah smiled. “That’s fine. I apologize if he’s disturbing your dinner.”

“No, no.” The man quickly waved his hand in the air. “Don’t you apologize for anything. Idiots like that should stay home and eat.”

Smiling nervously, Sarah walked away as Cindy made her way back to the rude man’s table, holding a tea pot. Alex was leaning against the bar now, arms crossed, his eyes fixed in Cindy’s direction just as the man started up again. “Well, how long does it take to make a salad anyway? This is ridiculous. Those cooks must be as slow as you are.”

Cindy said something Sarah couldn’t hear from where she stood, but the man responded even louder. “No, I don’t want anymore! If the food here is as bad as the tea and the service, I ain’t paying for shit.”

Alex straightened out as the buzz from the other customers all talking at once about the scene the man was making grew louder. “Mind your own business, you hag,” the man said to the same woman who’d glared at him earlier. She was now saying something else to him, only she wasn’t quite as loud as the man, so Sarah couldn’t quite make out what it was.

The other man, the one who’d offered to say something earlier, said something now too. Alex started toward the rude animal as his mouth was still going. Sarah came around and stood where Alex had been standing to get a better listen.

“Is there a problem, sir?” Alex asked as he reached him, holding out his hand to stop the man in the other table who’d begun to walk over there. “I’m Alex, the manager.”

“You don’t need his business,” the angry man from Sarah’s table said to Alex. “He says he’s not paying anyway.”

“Not if the food is as shitty as the service and this tea.”

“Cancel his order,” Alex said to Cindy calmly, and she rushed away.

The entire restaurant had hushed and was watching now. Even the cooks in the kitchen had slowed to watch.

“I’m gonna have to ask you to leave,” Alex said with a calm that made Sarah proud of him.

She knew Alex had to be using every bit of restraint to not blow up at the idiot. The man scoffed even as his date began making her way out of their booth. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I’m a customer like any other, and you’ll wait on me—”

“No one is waiting on you in this restaurant,” Alex said, the calm in his tone waning a bit. “Ever, because you’re not welcome back here again.”

“Bridgett.” The man pointed at his date as she was already standing. “Get your f**king ass back in the booth now before—”

Alex grabbed the man by the shirt and pulled him to his feet. “Maybe you talk to her like that in your home but not in my restaurant. You hear me, ass**le?”

The man’s face turned nearly purple, and his eyes bugged out as he made a weak attempt to loosen Alex’s death grip from his shirt. Sarah brought her hand to her mouth, wondering if this would escalate any further. Would the cops have to be called? Alex made it seem almost effortless the way he yanked the guy toward the front door. The other customers were already clapping even before they reached the front door. “Don’t come back,” Alex said as he threw him out then held the door for the lady who’d rushed out after him.

He stood at the door, watching as the two walked away. From where Sarah was standing, she saw the man turn and say something else to Alex then grab his wife roughly by the arm. Alex charged out the door.