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Chapter 13

"Thank you for eating at the Longue! We hope to see you again!" I said happily to the couple who had just paid for their dinner, and was turning to leave through the glass doors. In response I received a duo of slight smiles from the panther and his female partner, a dalmatian lady with long black hair going down her back. Once they got past the first set of glass doors I let a slight sigh slip past my lips, rolling my shoulders to keep my muscles warm. This morning had been pretty slow with very few customers dropping by over the course of the first few hours on the clock.

Guess I shouldn't complain really, after these few past days and their respective events, I could use some calm. Even if it meant I'd be stuck at the cash register, the day promised to be an uneventful one, if it weren't for a certain black furred wolfie who kept on prodding me in the back every ten minute to ask a dumb question about his school work or what kind of shenanigans one of his frat mates got into. I wouldn't mind listen to the wolf and answer his question if he could just, stop, being so frequent about it!

"Hey Lukas, what do you think of-..." Kieran's voice approached me from the side, and without batting an eye I held up my hand to halt the wolf in his step.

"Kieran, please." I turned my head to look sideways at the wolf. "You're acting like a stripper."

"I-.. Say whut? How am I acting like a stripper?" Kieran asked, puzzled.

"You just won't accept change." I replied dryly. "I asked you to give me a break from all your pestering questions. That was three hours ago." It was fun watching Kieran's expression change from confused, to realization, to cracking a smile.

"I dunno man, as a poor college student I'd need every coin I could get my paws on, even if it means I have to accept loose change." Kieran said with a lopsided grin.

"So you're saying you could handle being a stripper?" I pretended to give the wolf a skeptical look over, shaking my head sadly. In truth I could see it work out for Kieran to be a stripper, with a fit body like that, and such a nice butt. But I'll withhold that information to myself for now...

"Eh, why not? There's plenty of girls who'd fawn over this." For emphasis Kieran made an indication towards his whole body with a gesture of his paw, swaying his tail in a large arc.

"Sure Kieran, whatever you say." I snickered at him, there are also plenty of guys who'd fawn over him. With a muscular posterior and handsome body, he could probably sway anyone under his charms, as long as he doesn't open his mouth.

"Just don't forget that you're working here, and that this is a respectable establishment. So clothes will remain on at all times, capish?" I said with a grin. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Simone approach us, so I turned my head to greet her but held my tongue when I saw her seriously pissed off expression.

"Lukas, there is a customer who 'demands to see my manager' over at table 6." Simone said with an utmost polite smile, but a slight twitch in the corner of her muzzle made it easy to tell that she was on the edge of snapping.

Sigh. "What did we do wrong this time?" Scratching the back of my head I waited for Simone to explain.

"Her lemon water is 'lukewarm', not cold as she wanted it. Her salad is 'stale' and the service is 'unbearable slow' I think her exact words were." Simone huffed.

"Alright, I'll go and handle this, you just wait here and keep Kieran entertained. Table six, right?" I got a nod from Simone as I walked past her, in the direction she had come walking from.

I tried using as much authority as I could muster while I walked, making my way through the restaurant towards table 6. At the mentioned table sat a malamute woman, long grey scarf wrapped around her neck, thick glasses, and wool cap on despite being indoors and mid-to-late summer weather outside. Not to mention all that fur, and that obscene patterned shirt.

"Hi there, I'm Lukas Rosenberg, assistant-manager. What seems to be the problem here?" I asked the malamute, painting the best Charming smile I could manage.

"Yeah hi, I don't know if it's standard procedure here but making a customer wait ten minutes for a tacky salad such as this..." The 30-ish looking malamute woman poked her avocado salad with her fork, making a slight snorting sound. "And my lemon water wasn't even cold or had any ice in it."

"My apologizes ma'am, I-..." I bit my tongue when I was cut off by a snarky voice.

"I'm not looking for excuses, all I want is to get my food within reasonable time. Food that is -edible-. You can do that, right?" She looked up at me, eyes half closed in a disgusting sleazy gaze.

"Of course ma'am." Smile Lukas. "I would be happy to give you a new serving right away, free of charge of course." Just keep smiling.

"Good, see that you don't mess up this order as well or I'll never come back to eat here again." She promptly looked away from me and turned her attention to her mobile, no doubt twittering whatever, about how bad this place is.

#NoService #BadFood #EatingSalad #BeingHealthy

"I'll be as fast as I possibly can ma'am." Bitch."We would hate to lose you as our customer." Quite the opposite if I'm honest. Our atmosphere does not need your toxic air.

As fast as I possibly could I tapped down her order again and left to carry the 'bad salad' back to the kitchen. Stupid self-important, self-absorbed 'free spirit'... Eh, let's not keep thinking like this, it's not good for anyone. Happy thoughts Lukas, happy thoughts. Think of a happy place... a happy place.

What we workers do for customer service.

I grunted when I walked past Simone standing at the register, as she was busy with checking out a customer.

"Helen, a customer complained on your avocado salad. I need you to hurry up with the order for a new one." Trying my best sounding serious, I was secretly terrified of the deer lady's wrath. Anyone insult her food and I get an earful words of spite while she complies to the customers wishes.

"Say that again Charming? It sounded to me like someone's a whining little Bitch who can't even eat a damn salad." Helen appeared behind the counter to the kitchen with a sugar coated smile on her face and in her hand she already had the requested salad in her hand.

"She said that it was lacking in taste? I wouldn't read too much into it but what can-..." I started innocently, but as expected I didn't get many words in before Helen interrupted.

"Well that's just -great- isn't it. Of course I would be -happy- to make an entirely new salad even though I'm already in the middle of making this here chicken, but I'll -gladly- take some time off to make a new salad for an unsatisfied customer!" While she talked, Helen put aside her work and let Frank cover for her while she whipped out the ingredients for a brand new avocado salad.

Out of fear for getting a tongue-lashing myself, I kept myself quiet while Helen worked with practiced ease, chopping, dicing, cutting, slicing. In mere minutes she had a new salad ready for me, which I quickly moved over to my tray.

"Tell our valued customer, bon appétit." Helen sneered nastily towards me and turned back to whatever it was she was doing. Leaving me free to escape from the fuming chef, back to the venomous customer. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Here you are miss, one fresh avocado salad and some nice cold lemon water with ice. Eh. Bon appétit." Presenting the new salad to the malamute woman, I took a few steps back to observe her taste the salad to see if it is to her tastes.

The lady took her sweet time to impale an avocado cube on her fork, inspect it with scrutiny before finally she bit down on it with her sharp fangs. It was hard to tell whether she approved of her new salad or not based upon her half-scowling face. But as some people say: No news is good news, right?

"I suppose this will do, but expect me to knock off a star on my review of this place." She sneered at me while waving a paw dismissingly, obviously telling me our business are done. Politely excusing myself I retreated back to join Simone by the cash register over by the entrance. It appeared as though Kieran had slipped away during my absence, hopefully taking my words of warning to his heart.

"Lukas, how did it go with the uhm... customer?" She asked rather tentatively upon my return, having calmed down after the tongue-lashing she no doubt received from said customer.

"The situation is dealt with, don't worry about it. Hold the fort while I write down the report." Simone gave me a curt nod as I went past her, and once she was behind me I could hear her letting out a mixed sigh of relief and pent up frustration. The young college leopard have been working with us here at The Longue for two years now, she was very bright and quick on her feet, which secured her a job waiting tables very early on in her career. But there was one big hurdle she had to get over before she was allowed to wait on tables without a mentor nearby.

Controlling her anger whenever a customer was rude.

Simone has the body of a leopard but the soul of a lion, full of pride and authority. If I didn't know better she could be the long lost daughter of Helen. The very idea of such a thing....

A shiver ran down my spine, interrupting my typing on the computer for a second.

She's come a long way from almost getting fired for punching a guy for hooting at her, and I'd say with confidence that she has improved much as a person in general these few past years working here. After college graduation I can easily see her assuming a manager position in any field of work imaginable.

"Aaand done. Now to resume work..." I said out loudly to myself right after finishing writing the report, pushing off the desk to get up on my feet. "Time to be a productive member of society, to pull my weight." Walking out of the office I steered clear of the kitchen, for obvious reasons, getting back to my position by the cash register.

From my position by the entrance I could see Simone taking the orders of a newly seated customer in the non-smoking section, and over on the opposite side in the smoking section I could see Alice captivate and bewitch a couple of important looking business men with the power of boobies. It could almost be called abuse of her large bust privilege when she used them to get a customer to order extra or to get them to leave a bigger tip. Most of time it worked beautifully and I could respect her for using her body proportions to her advantage in a non-threatening way.

It's a good thing Hank, her boyfriend, isn't the overly jealous type. Personally I'd only met the golden retriever a couple of times and he seemed like an alright guy, he knew his girlfriend couldn't help it that people stared at her chest. Now, that she took advantage of them, and that she and I flirted endlessly, was another business. He'd said he didn't mind Alice getting chummy with her coworkers, as long as he didn't have to hear about it.

"Are you ogling Alice again boss?" Kieran had snuck up on me from behind, this is only the tenth time today.

"Me? Ogling her? Pfft." I said without really taking my eyes off her. "If anyone's ogling anybody it's those two canons over there. They started it."

"You really shouldn't be staring at your coworkers breasts Lukas, it's really unprofessional of you, you know." Simone said in passing as she went to get some drinks.

"I wasn't-..."

"Ohh, Lukas you were staring at Alice again?" To my surprise Felicia had come from behind, still wearing her regular outdoor clothing.

"I keep telling you I wasn't-..." But once again I was cut off mid sentence by Felicia who had a half serious disappointed expression.

"Pervert." She said.

"Pervert." Said Kierarn.

"Pervert." Said Simone walking past again.

"Pervert? You're not talking about me are you?" Alice came up to us and when she did the others scattered, leaving me alone to explain the situation.

"Oh muffin, they called me a pervert, accusing me of staring at your chest." I said with a hurt tone, looking at Alice like a kid who needed his mum to comfort him.

"They did not! Oh darling come here, let me give you a hug." Without warning she pulled me in to a hug, or rather she pushed my face down in her bosom. I had never had my face so... intimately close to a woman's chest before, and if this is what people call motor boating I could absolutely not see the appeal. How are you supposed to breathe down here?

With lightly applied force I managed to pry myself from Alice's iron grip around my head, gasping for air once I freed myself.

"There, feeling better now Charming?" Alice said most amused.

"Uhh, oh! Yes, very. Thank you muffin. Guh..." I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "How does Hank not suffocate whenever the two of you get frisky?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." A foxier smile that could almost beat Ian in slyness spread across her muzzle. She gave me a wink before sashaying away with her tail swinging in a large arc.

"These foxes... They'll be the death of me." I said with a goofy grin plastered upon my face.

Felicia returned shortly now in proper work clothes, ready to assume her duties as the manager.

"Awesome, if you're done harassing your coworker Lukas then maybe you'd be willing to run on a little errand for me." The short calico said with an innocent smile.

Oh no.

"I think I just broke my arm so I'll just-..." Too late, she already had that twinkle in her eye.

"I just need you to run across the street to the mall and pick up a bundle of printing paper for our printer, it has run out." Felicia grinned most wickedly. "But if you don't want to do it I'll just have to ask Kieran... although. That is if you're not too old to run a simple errand?"

Oi, not fair. Pulling the age card on me. "Fine, I'll do it. Anything else I could do for you? Sweep the floors? Give you a massage? Actually, never mind. You're too late, I'm going now." I dashed past her in all haste, swinging by the changing room to switch out my work shirt to my regular white t-shirt. I went out via the backdoor, rounding the building to get across the street over to the mall.

"Printing paper, the nerve. I'd stake my good leg she forgot to place an order for it..." Mumbling lowly to myself I passed multiple shops during my one-sided conversation. "The nerve." It's lucky today is a slow day, not that many people to witness my grumbling muttering.

I stopped briefly to allow the automatic doors to slide open to Craft & Office Supplies. A quaint shop nestled in-between the toy shop and the florist.

"Welcome-... Oh. Hello there Lukas! How are you?" Benjamin greeted me warmly as I entered his shop. Ben is your usual happy-go-lucky raccoon who was a bit pudgy with beer belly, always donning his green tweed pants with suspenders over a blue t-shirt. It was hard not to crack a smile at him when he tugged at his suspenders and chuckled like an overjoyed Santa Claus who just found his favorite pair of socks under the fold of his belly.

"Hi Ben, yeah I'm just peachy thanks. I don't mean to be rude but I'm on a tight schedule and am here to pick up-..."

"The printing paper, right? Oh yes Felicia phoned a while ago, remarkable that woman isn't she?" Benjamin rumbled as he heaved up said package up on the front desk with a loud thud. "The order for printing paper was placed but, heh, she mixed up the delivery date. This package wasn't scheduled to be sent in uhhh, about twelve years?" Ben chuckled heartedly and pulled on his suspenders with his thumbs.

"Oh thank you Ben, I was afraid it was something like this." I shighed, grabbing the surprisingly heavy package with printing paper. The raccoon had made it seem so light when he only used one arm to lift it.

Benjamin chuckled again, walking after me to the door. "It is no trouble Lukas, we got it solved right? Make sure you give lil' Felicia a finger wagging from me." He raised his paw to wave me off as I slowly wandered off.

"I will, you bet your suspenders on that I will." I grunted back to him, returned my attention to carefully wobble forward. We usually have a trolley for walking-distance supplies we buy in, though in my rush to get away from Felicia I had left it behind.

Either I was walking slower than an old turtle or this mall was magically getting longer the more I walked, and I guess that gave reason enough for someone to assume that I was having some trouble with my package.

Heh.

"Would you like any help with that?" A gentle voice asked from behind me, and it was almost enough to make me trip. I turned around and wobbled again, but a pair of large hands grasped around the package and made it easy for me to regain my balance.

"Ouff, thanks, huff." I let slip a puff of air in relief as I looked up at my saviour. A huge stallion stood in front of me, easily a head taller than Matthew, but much less threatening at a first glance. Definitely not a part of the mafia...

Although judging by his appearance he looked much more like a gang member. Tall, black fur, ripped jeans, studded piercings in his ears and an impressive golden septum piercing. I'd probably be frightened by all of that if it were not for his shy smile and warm green eyes.

"Oh, uh, it-... it's alright I j-just... saw you struggling so I-... Couldn't just help myself..." He stuttered shyly and at once it looked like he regretted ever speaking out loud. Well isn't he just adorable despite his size and appearance...

"Well, I appreciate the help. This was heavier than I anticipated." I motioned to the package. "And my leg was killing me, eh, figuratively speaking."

At first the stallion didn't say anything, he seemed to fight internally with shying away and helping at the same time. "Uhm... I-I'll help y-you carry it... If... if it's not a bother."

"If you could do that I would be so grateful, but will you be alright? It's very heavy-..." Feeling the packages weight being taken over by the stallion I realized I had nothing to worry about, the stallion could easily carry it in one hand if he so desired. And it's not like he'd steal it, who in their right mind would steal printing paper?

"It's ok, where to?" He said shortly and heaved the package in his arms while avoiding direct eye contact with me.

"To uh, the Longue, outside the mall." As I pointed we begun to walk in silence, beside the few odd shopper around us chattering all I could hear was the stallions hooves hit the polished stone floor. Walking this close without talking gave me an opportunity to give this stallion a quick glance over, from what I could tell he was very slim and fit. Probably worked out by doing push-ups or something... But his arms rippled with well defined muscles, so he was very unlikely unfamiliar with working hard with his hands.

Nearing the exit I decided to be the one breaking the ice. "I'm Lukas by the way, Lukas Rosenberg. What's your name?"

It was possible to visibly see the stallion flinch as I spoke to him, and he readjusted his grip around the package.

"Dust.. en.." He said quietly with a quick glance down on me.

"I'm sorry, what? I couldn't hear you." I put my hands behind my back as I spoke, trying to appear lesser before him to not appear overbearing.

"It's.. Dustin Holden...." Dustin was brief in his response, and once again shifted the package he carried trying to look too occupied to carry on the conversation.

"That's a nice name, Dustin. So what do you do Dustin? I mean for work, you obviously know what I do now. I work as a waiter you see, from time to time, when I don't manage the restaurant as the assistant-manager. I guess this is how I ended up having to fetch this package you're carrying for me." We came outside the mall and stopped briefly by the pedestrian crossing to allow a car to drive by before we walked across.

It was clear now that Dustin wouldn't or couldn't come with a response so I just carried on. "Let's go around back, I can take the package from there. Thanks again, by the way, for offering to help. I gotta repay you somehow... Ah! I know just the thing." We walked briskly now over the parking lot and circled around the restaurant, coming by the back door.

I unlocked the back door and motioned for Dustin to come inside. "Wait here." I dipped inside the office quickly and fished up a couple of coupons from a tiny box on the desk. When I came back to Dustin I presented the coupons to him.

"Here, these are good for a free lunch each. As thank you for carrying the package for me!" Dustin seemed more hesitant than ever to accept any gift at all, but eventually he reached out to take the coupons from me while handing me the package in silent compliance.

"Well, alright then. Thank you again, I uh... Hope to see you'll come back here and eat sometime!" I tried to sound enthusiastic as I spoke to the timid stallion, and I think I got a mumbled response from the guy. But it was hard to tell.

Now that our business transaction was finished Dustin excused himself quickly and left out the back way. I was left reminded just how heavy the printing paper actually was and I hobbled quickly into the office to unload my burden.

Well, that's that. I suppose I have to return to work now, and so I left the office.

"Hey Lukas, there you are! So I have this question about the convent-..."

Uughhhh...