When she lifted her stunning green eyes again, the rebellious factor that he had noticed before had doubled in size. She now positively radiated confidence as she stretched out her hand, gesturing for the bottle.
The waiter handed it to her. He did not know what to think. After all, he knew nothing of this girl or of her history- maybe she was a drinker. In any case, the most important thing he had to worry about was the wine itself: it was rapidly disappearing and this was something his manager would certainly notice. With a shudder he recalled the last time he had been yelled at. It had been nearly his strike three. Or, in other words, according to the manager himself: “Even one little slip up and you’re fired for good.”
The worry was now finally sinking in. The waiter gazed at the beautiful blond girl sitting before him and then trailed his eyes onward to the bottle. It was now barely half full. Maybe if the bottle was done completely, he could get rid of it and say that one of the guests had taken it. Or even that there was no bottle of wine whatsoever, though of course the manager would know better, having a drinking problem and a strong devotion to this particular kind of red wine. But by now the girl seemed to be more or less satiated- she was handing him back the bottle. This was bad- if his manager found his favorite bottle of wine half full in the back of the kitchen after he, the waiter, was the only one around to guard it, well, there would not be a strike four.
Without further debate, the waiter proceeded to do the only thing that seemed reasonable to him at this point- he poured himself a glass and drank up. He had never been much of a wine drinker, or, in reality, much of a drinker at all, but this wine was good. If he could finish the bottle, he could…wait, but what was this exotic creature doing now?
Chloe rose out of her seat and shuffled a bit drunkenly toward the fridge. Before he could stop her, or react in any other way at all, she had taken out something else, something that he, as a lowly waiter, was forbidden to touch because it was so precious to the manager of the restaurant. And this special object was an intricately designed golden bottle of liquor.
“Maybe-” he began slowly, but Chloe had already opened it with a puzzled expression on her face and then took a few swallows right out of the bottle. Her eyes watered and squeezed tightly as she wrinkled her nose.
“What is this?” she asked, her words slurring a little. But he was too slow to respond. Once again, the bottle was tilted, and the golden liquid trickled down the inexperienced drinker’s throat. By now this bottle was also emptying rapidly, and Chloe’s eyes had become glassy- she had a goofy but still adorable grin plastered over her face. This change brought the waiter back to life- quick as a wink, he snatched the bottle from her hands and held it away.
“No more,” he told her.
“Why not?” she wailed. “Give it to me.” She managed to say this in French, though her words sounded diluted and barely made sense.
“You’ve already had too much,” he soothed, slowly drawing the bottle behind his back. “Just relax. Maybe you should go outside and-”
“No! Give it to me.” Unexpectedly, she leapt at him, throwing her arms around him to snatch at the hidden bottle. This was a pretty desperate situation. Panicking, the waiter did the only thing that would keep this girl from going completely insane- he tilted the still open bottle of liquor and slurped down every last drop.
Not being much of drinker himself, his vision went a bit hazy. He had a sudden urge to laugh at the hysterical, unbelievable expression that was now drawn upon Chloe’s features. She had not expected him to commit such a crime in her eyes- to drink all of this golden fluid and not leave her a single swallow more. But on the other hand he was so cute, with his puppy-like silly grin, that she could not resist relaxing her arms around him so that they would land gently upon his shoulders. No, he was no longer cute- that was a poor description. He was now positively sexy in her mind, as all previous subconscious built up barriers against the idea began to shatter apart.
A mischievous smile spread over her face, and was contagiously passed on to the waiter himself. It did not take long for the lovebirds to be leaning over one of the already overloaded kitchen counters with their arms wrapped about one another in a passionate embrace. Chloe convinced the waiter in a cooing voice to finish the wine, and then they located some more refreshments and proceeded to enjoy them as well. Their personal party went on for what felt like hours, with each genuinely having a wonderful time.
It was only when the sun had set and the outside world had grown dark save for the flickering old fashioned fake candles that were thrown about the yard to aid the party guests in seeing what they were doing that someone finally bothered to remember that something was amiss. The first person was, of course, the detective Damian, who had long ago realized that Chloe was absent and did not take this lightly. He had immediately gone to the front of the mansion to wait for her arrival, but her taxi never came and no one seemed to have seen her. As he waited with growing impatience at the very entrance of the entrancing garden where Chloe had gotten lost around a mere hour ago, another individual became aware of something being curiously out of order. This person was no other than the restaurant’s manager.