“Who are you talking to, motherfucker?” I snarl. “You see a woman sitting alone at a diner and, what, you think you can ask to see herassbecause you’ve perved on her stream?”
This prick has clearly never been punched in the face. “Hey, brother, if she’s going to put it out th?—”
He shuts up when I step forward again. Close enough for him to truly understand the mistake he’s making.
“Are you concussed? Or just stupid?” Another step, forcing him to back up. “Apologize to my woman and walk the fuck away.”
“I’m—” He clears his throat. “Sorry. Ma’am.”
I look at Dakota. She’s staring up at him with white-hot rage in her eyes.
“You’re only saying that because he’s here,” she says in disgust. “If I were alone, you wouldn’t take no for an answer. At least, not my first no. I’d have to placate you. Act all nice and pretty and obedient just to get you far enough away from me that my skin would stop crawling. But no, because there’s a bigger manhere, a man who could squash you like a roach, suddenly,you’re sorry.”
“That’s not?—”
The man shuts his mouth when he sees me glaring at him. I’ve never been readier to hurt someone, even if it wouldn’t be much of a fight.
Finally, he turns and walks to the door.
“Lowlife,” Dakota hisses.
“What was that?” The man yells, standing in the open doorway. “Little bitch!”
“What thefuck?” I jog toward him, every inch of me burning, ready to tear his head from his shoulders.
The little rat immediately pulls out his cell phone, aiming his camera at me. This is bad. He clearly doesn’t know who I am, but the last thing I need is for a video like this to go viral.CEO Launches Attack on Trucker to Defend Streamer Girlfriend.
“This man is trying to intimidate me!” the trucker whines, voice breaking. “I complimented his girlfriend because she’s apublic person. And now, he’s getting jealous and trying to attack me, a man twice his age.”
I stop, glaring at the camera. “Unbelievable,” I snarl.
He backs up slowly. “Do you want your assault on video? Is that it?”
“Coward,” I snap. “You made a lewd comment to a woman young enough to be your daughter, you bastard, when you thought she was alone and defenseless.”
“I didno such thing,” he says, seeming genuinely outraged like all lowlifes are.
“Just get out of here with your little camera.”
He leaves, the door swinging shut behind him. I turn to find the waitress aiming a camera at me, too.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“This place doesn’t have CCTV, and you folks are getting rowdy,” she says.
Even when people don’t know who I am, it’s cameras, cameras, cameras. I’m sick of it.
“Come on, Dakota,” I say, walking over to the table and offering her my hand.
“What a jerk,” she says, taking it and rising to her feet. As we leave the diner, she calls over her shoulder, “That goes for you too, bitch!”
That draws a crazed laugh out of us all the way to the limo, a laugh of pure adrenaline and release, an acknowledgement of just how surreal this all is.
“Can you believe that guy?” she rages during the car ride back. “What right does he have? I get it—I sometimes dress alittle, atiny bit, provocatively, but surely that doesn’t… does it?”
“He’s in the wrong. Completely. No qualifiers. I wish he’d been bigger and my age so I wouldn’t feel bad about shoving that phone down his throat.”
She laughs, looking up at me with glistening eyes. “Am I going to be even more of a head fuck if I say I kind of liked you riding in as my knight in shining armor?”
