Page 11 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

Nothing about this was fair.

Nonetheless, it’d be a cold day in hell before I admitted that he’d gotten the best of me last night.Even though I needed every dime from my shifts, I’d choose starving over begging Kasimir for mercy.In fact, seeing him last night had been a reminder of why I needed to do a better job of convincing my mother to leave St.Moran.There wasn’t anything left here for us, and I just wish that she could see that.

“Oh, my God,” Marcelle whispered, snapping me from my thoughts.“Is that Kasimir Korolev.”

My head turned fast enough to make blood rush down my spine, and dread grabbed a hold of my throat as I watched him walk into the diner, heading over to my section again.Honestly, for a brief second, I wanted to cry.I wanted to cry because it was Sunday, which was one of our slowest nights, and I hadn’t made enough tips yet to pay for whatever he was going to order tonight.

I felt sick.

I was also tempted to ask Marcelle if she wanted to take my table, but then I felt sicker when I imagined him doing the same thing to her.While Marcelle wasn’t poor-poor, she also wasn’t working as a waitress for the glamour of it all.

“You better hurry up and go wait on him,” she said.“He doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would appreciate waiting.”

I let out a shaky breath before I made my way over, and I could only pray that I didn’t have an epic meltdown, costing me my job.While I was barely making it, minimum wage was better than zero dollars earned while not having a job.

Just like last night, I placed a menu in front of him, then asked, “Would you like to start with something to drink, or would you prefer a few moments with our menu, sir?”

“I’d like a cup of coffee,lepestok,”he answered.“Black.”

“Of course,” I said before turning to get him a cup.

“What did he order?”Marcelle asked as soon as I began brewing a fresh pot of the potent caffeine.

“Just a cup of black coffee for right now,” I muttered, my stomach in knots, tears of frustration threatening to turn me into an unraveling joke.

“God, he’s gorgeous,” she whispered.“I bet he’s amazing in bed.”

Now, while it was true that he was sexy as hell, I wasn’t interested in what kind of women Kasimir took to his bed.Plus, he didn’t deserve any credit for his looks.He and Viktor Korolev had both taken after their father in looks, and so all the Korolev men were good-looking, and that had been a gift from God and nothing more.

“Oh, miss?”Marcelle and I both turned to see one of my tables waving me over, and the relief that I felt nearly dropped me to my knees.

“Do you want to take Mr.Korolev his coffee once it’s done?”I asked.“I need to go see what they want.”

Marcelle grinned like it was Christmas morning.“Absolutely.”

Leaving her to it, I walked over to my other table, and these people wouldn’t ever know how happy I was that they had called me over.“How can I help you?”

“We can’t eat another bite,” the man said.“Can we get some to-go boxes and our ticket?”

“Of course,” I grinned.“I’ll be just a moment.”

“Thank you so much,” the woman replied, smiling back.

When I reached the counter to grab a couple of to-go boxes, Marcelle was already pouring Kasimir’s fresh cup of coffee, saying, “This is going to be the highlight of my night.”

Ignoring that, I grabbed the boxes, then headed back towards the couple, handing over both the boxes and their dinner ticket.It wasn’t until I was heading back towards the counter that Marcelle met me halfway there, and not only did she still have the cup of coffee in her hands, but she looked slightly worried as well.

“What?”I asked.“What happened?”

“He said that he ordered the cup fromyou, and so he expects foryouto deliver it,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice as low as possible.

I let out a sigh before saying, “I’m sorry.I’ll take care of it.”

“Yeah, okay,” she murmured.

So, as quickly as I could, I poured another cup of coffee for Kasimir, then walked over to deliver it to him.When I placed the cup in front of him, I asked, “Is there anything else that you’d like, sir?”

“Since you asked, yes,” he replied coolly.“Do not ever place someone else above me again.Do I make myself clear?”