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“I improved your benefits.”
“You watched me through security feeds.”
“I also doubled paid leave.”
“That doesn’t change the motive.”
A customer stepped up to the register before Lux could find a response. The man wore a blue suit and held a phone against one ear while squinting at the menu as though every drink had personally disappointed him.
“Excuse me,” he said.
Lux stayed facing me.
The customer tapped his fingers against the counter. “Are you going to take my order or stand there all day?”
Lux’s expression emptied.
The nightmares beneath his polished shoes stretched toward the man’s shoes. The customer kept going, either brave, stupid, or too busy speaking into his phone to notice death preparing a customer-service response. “Is it this hard to get decent help around here?”
Lux spun fully toward him and growled. The sound of his Nightmare Hound rolled through the café, rattling plastic lids and making the espresso machine beep in surrender. Every conversation stopped. The customer’s face drained of color.
His eyes dropped to the white name badge pinned crookedly to Lux’s tiny apron:
HELLO! I’M LUX DRAVEN
I had written the name in thick pink marker with two hearts beside it. The customer’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Lux smiled, which on his face looked more like a threat than anything else.
The man backed away from the register. “I changed my mind.”
“About coffee?” Lux asked.
“About several things.”
He rushed out of City Coffee and kept walking past the windows with the focused speed of someone reconsidering his existence.
I planted both hands on my hips. “We do not terrify customers.”
Lux waved one hand toward the door. “He was rude.”
“Customers are rude every day.”
“He insulted you.”
“He insulted your speed.”
“Same thing.”
“You have worked here for nine minutes.”
“Nine unbearable minutes.”
Sam appeared beside us and set a paper cup on the counter. “This has been the best morning of my professional life.”
Lux glared at her.
She took a sip. “Try growling again and I’ll write you up.”
