Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 114: Stuck In A Fantasy

Chapter 114: Stuck In A Fantasy

The thing about the diner was that it was predictable in its unpredictability. Not in terms of what she had to do. No, that was the easy part. Greet customers, take their orders, serve them. Then clean up their messes once they were gone.

That was easy. What was not easy however, was dealing with the customer’s moods.

While most people were alright on most days. There were some people that were just difficult by nature. And in Emily’s experience the police fell under the category of being difficult by nature

That night when the doorbell jingled and Emily saw what looked to be half the police station walking in to the diner her heart plummeted. It was bad enough when she had to deal with just a few at a time. So many police officers coming in all at once could not lead to anything good.

And so Emily braced herself.

She put on her most plastic smile, and got her dish cloth ready, in case she needed to snap it at an unruly police officer.

Most of the time, that was enough to do the trick and remind them that she was not to be messed with.

"What will it be today ladies and gentleman?" Even as she asked the question, Emily was already dreading the reply. No doubt it would contain something along the lines of

"I will have fries with a side of you sugar," Or something like "How about you serve yourself to me on a platter," Or, the worst one she’d heard so far " How about I wine, and dine you instead?" That time the words had been followed by a wink and a truly revolting slow run of the tongue against lips. Emily shuddered just thinking about it. No matter which police officers came through there was always that one crude officer who just said the rudest things, and their fellow officers either laughed or stayed quiet. Emily did not like it one bit, but she always managed to keep her cool under such situations, and that night she was expecting no different.

But instead of the expected crude remarks, there was a bit of silence and then one of them answered sounding weary.

"Just give us what you have, that has a lot of sugar, grease, and salt. Oh, and keep the coffee coming," and so Emily did just that, and as she moved back and forth from the table, she was finally able to piece together why they seemed so sombre. They were working a case, something particularly difficult and nasty. Which was never a good thing in any profession. But for police to be calling something difficult, and nasty, she knew it had to be something pretty bad.

Normally, Emily was just waiting for the moment when the police finished with the meals and left. But as she watched all of them looking so downtrodden, her heart began to thaw, and so paying out of her own pocket she bought each of them a cup of coffee, delivering it to them in addition to the orders. There were some muttered words of thanks, but most of them just stared at the cups in shock. She let them stay as long as they wanted, not making unnecessary noise or cleaning too close to their tables like she normally did in order to make them uncomfortable enough to leave.

This time, Emily let them stay. Making sure that they felt comfortable enough to use the diner as a safe space. A place where they could sit, recuperate, and then go out to fight the evil of the world once again.

It was not much but it was something, and as Emily was cleaning up after them after they had called for the bill one of them said something that just hit different with her.

"What really gets me is that so many of the victims were so young, so much unfinished business. Things they wanted to do. People they needed to talk to, and now thanks to some psychopath ,they will never get a chance to do the things that they wanted to do..." The officers had left soon after that, leaving Emily to her task of cleaning up. But the officer’s words stayed with Emily long after they had gone.

And the more she thought on it, the more she realized why.

What she and Derek were doing was not right. The little fantasy world they had created. Where they did not talk about exactly what it was that had brought them to where they were in their lives. It was not working. They had to address the issue head on. He might have moved on from it, but Emily was still a bit bitter about it. It had to be solved. Otherwise it would always be at the back of her mind.

After finishing with the clean up for the cops, Ethan and Ella came in, and Emily served them, only half paying attention, grateful that she knew their orders by heart. After they were done and she waved at them as they left, Emily took a seat, deep in thought.

If she did not address the issue that she had with Derek, it would always eat away at her. On the other hand, if she did confront him, he might run and never come back. Either way, she was prepared to deal with what came she had to move on. And to do that, she had to know why he had done what he did.

The doorbell jingled, and Emily looked up, expecting it to be just another customer, but it turned out to be Derek. He was not dressed like he had just come from the office. This time he was in a blue shirt, and some slacks, his hair slightly wet, and curling up. Such simple things, changing from one look to the other, formal attire to something more casual and it did things to Emily.

He looked so much younger than anyone with such a bushy beard had any right to be, and not just young, but vulnerable too. It tugged at Emily’s heart strings, and all the pep talk that she had been giving herself about facing things head on just evaporated. The way he just broke apart all of her logic without uttering a single word should not have been legal. It was awful and Emily was already beating herself up over what she was about to do, but she could not help it

She stood up, smiling at him in greeting. Yes, they had to talk, but she could take care of him one last time before they did.

" What will it be today sir?" She asked, her smile still stretching her face.