Twenty eight

MORGAN'S POV 

"It's not in your place to tell us how to do our jobs," the manager snapped at Eve, taking a step towards her. 

"I'm telling you now, if you and your husband don't leave right away, we'll detain you and call the police to take you away”,

Seeing that the argument was getting heated, and that Eve seemed ready to lash out at the manager, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to my side.

 "It's okay. Just let him be", I whispered to her,

She looked up at me, her face troubled, her nostrils flared, betraying the fact that she was truly worked up and barely holding on to her civility by a thread. 

"You heard what he said;' she told me, as if she couldn't understand why I was asking her to back off.

 "He is making false accusations to humiliate us. We cannot let him treat us like that",

"Why don't you listen to your husband? He seems to understand what's going on," the manager butted into our conversation, sounding smug.

Immediately, Eve tried to break from my grasp to confront the manager, but I successfully held her back. She looked at me again.

“I can't bear to spend my money on this place anymore. Let's leave”, she said.

I shook my head and stroked hers gently.

 "No, we are not leaving. I will deal with this”, I replied.

By the time I was done with this trio, they would be begging me for forgiveness. It would be too late. 

Turning to the manager, I said firmly.

"Call the boss of this store, I'll speak to him and not you”,

The manager was taken aback by my authoritative tone. My voice was absolute, as if i wasn't going to settle for less. If anybody heard me without seeing me, they would think I was the owner of the place or something. That, or that I know the boss personally.

The manager scoffed, getting over his initial shock at my aura. Perhaps he would have thought.

“How could someone who was so shabbily dressed have any connection to the boss? He was likely just some loser with a big ego who wanted to make a big deal of everything by involving the boss”,

"Sorry, but I can't do that",the manager told me.

"I'm the one responsible for incidents like this, not the boss. If you don't listen to what I say, you'll land in trouble",

I took a threatening step towards him, and the guy stood his ground. The defiant look on the man's face almost made me smile evilly. I could see that he was trying to pretend that he wasn't intimidated by me. but he wasn't being very successfull at it. His throat moved as he swallowed, and his eyes blinked so many times.

When I took another step, the manager stumbled back, almost running into one of the shop assistants.

Happy at the reaction I had engineered out of the man, I lowered my voice, staring deep into his scared eyes. 

"If you don't call your boss right now, this store will close down tomorrow”,

When the man stared at me speechlessly with his mouth open like a dying fish, I added

 "You should think about what your boss will do if he finds out it was all because of you”,

The manager looked around, as if making sure that everybody else had heard the same thing.

The two assistants had moved back and were cowering together, uncertainty on their faces. That was when real fear overwhelmed him.

Who knows what he might be thinking. Maybe he might be like,

“Why would a nobody make such a big deal of calling the boss? He must know that if he was bluffing and the boss came here, he would truly end up in a police cell!”, 

But I guess that right now, he felt that maybe I was more than i seem..

Without a word, he turned away and went to get the boss.

EVE'S POV 

When the manager left, I poked Morgan in the arm, and when he looked at me, he winked. I was perplexed at the turn of events and wanted to ask what he intended to do, but seeing his wink postponed my questions for later. I would trust him to have his way out of this. He seems to have a way out of everything, doesn't he?.

The manager reappeared a few minutes later, looking all smug and confident yet again as he walked alongside his boss. 

"These two" he said, pointing at I and Morgan.

 "They came in and couldn't afford anything, and when I asked them

to leave... Sir?",

The manager stopped his narration when he realised that upon seeing us, his boss had turned pale and was trembling. 

His eyes were locked on Morgan, and were full of recognition. A second later, the boss turned to the manager, a stern look on his face. 

"Apologise right now”,

The manager's lips trembled and his eyes widened like saucers. 

"Wh..what ?"

"Apologise to the customers", the boss demanded, also turning to the two assistants.

"What are you waiting for?",

MORGAN'S POV 

The staff exchanged shocked glances, obviously not expecting this turn of events. They had thought the boss would drive the two of us out. 

Why was he suddenly asking them to apologise? If the two of us were nobodies, the boss wouldn't have bothered to ask them to do that. Well I guess it must have dawned on them that they must have messed with a big shot.

Well at this point, the thoughts in their heads would be like 

 “Whoever these two were, they weren't just people the boss knows”,

Given the boss reaction, it was evident that he was terrified of me. 

“Whoever he was, he must have a higher status than the boss”, I heard one of the customers whisper.

The three promptly got into a line and bowed as they apologised to Eve and I. But, no matter how profusely they apologised, I didn't spare them a glance.

Seeing how I reacted to their apology, and knowing what it meant, the boss turned to the three. 

"You are all fired".

The three looked at their boss, their heads still bowed at an angle.

 "What?" the manager asked, not believing what he had heard.

"It is your job to make sure that our customers enjoy their shopping experience in our store, but you and your assistants have antagonised them instead. This is not your store, it's not up to you on who should and should not shop here, and above all, every customer should be treated with courtesy and receive maximum attention".

"But...but..you can't just fire us like that. We will be careful next time!!" one of the assistants argued.

"Besides, we have already apologised", her coworker said.

"You're fired, and that's final" the boss insisted.

“Now get out of my face or I will have the security throw you out!”, the boss yelled.

The three hesitated, wanting to plead some more, knowing the boss wasn't joking about having them thrown out. In the end, they had to leave with their heads bent, to try and hide from the onlookers who were still paying attention to the spectacle.

As soon as they were gone, the boss turned to Eve and I, clasping his hands in front of his body respectfully.

 "I'm terribly sorry for what has happened, Sir. I will take more care in the future to ensure the staff are respectful towards our customers. Please accept my apologies for this unpleasant occurrence”,

I cleared my throat and nodded, silently accepting the apology.

"To make it up to you, you can shop any clothing you want in the store for free. And if you have any complaints, please do not hesitate to reach out to me."

"That's very kind of you”, I said, giving him an appreciative nod.

 "I’m sure that'll make up for the incident. We hope that such an incident will not repeat in the future.", I said 

"Of course, Sir. I'll do a thorough inspection of the staff to weed out anyone who does not represent the values of the company. Please accept my sincere apologies once again."

"In that case, my wife and I would like to resume our shopping", I told him, which was my way of letting the man know he could go back to his office. 

I knew that unless I dismissed him in some way, he would be there apologising all day, probably making sure that he wasn't on the firing line too.

"Of course, Sir. Please enjoy your shopping. I'll instruct my best assistants to assist you and your wife. Please excuse me",

The man finally left, hurrying off to look for the said assistants as if it was the most important mission of his day.