Hot Denial

Unbelievable

Levon stood in front of the two men, with a table separating them. He was curious as hell as to what Mr. Roman was doing at The Owls. After he placed the bottle of wine on the table, he waited for any further instructions, but none came. "If there is nothing else, I'll get back to work.” He turned and left.

"Wait."

Just when he was about to open the door, he heard Roman's cold voice. He knew it...Mandy was a damn liar, He was no lucky whale, damn her! How could his luck turn for the worse in just one day?

"Yes sir.?

He politely answered, successfully hiding his ever-growing irritation towards the overbearing man.

"Do you know me?" That was a technical question. What did he mean by asking him that kind of question.?? Levon decided to get this over with and get back to work. He can't keep tolerating his fellow man all in the name of professionalism and work environmental statuses.

"Yes. You're my boss at the spa." He went straight to the point, leaving room for him to confirm what he dreaded the most.

"And here." He knew it! He must have wronged a powerful god in his previous life, and now this awful but got man was sent to torment him.

Roman was pleased by the one-second display of displeasure that passed through Levon's face before he quickly masked it. He saw how he balled his fists, making veins pop out of his arms. This boy was surely something. Levon didn’t give away the turmoil he felt within.

"Okay, boss. May I leave now?"

"Pour us some wine." Roman relaxed comfortably on the sofa, pressing his phone nonchalantly like he wasn’t secretly bullying a subordinate.

"Let me."

Joshua leaned forward to pour the wine.

"No. Let him." Roman said coldly. Joshua paused in his movement, it was between him and his employee anyway, and he didn't want to overstep. Levon wanted to fold his arms and scoff but he did not.

"Yes sir."

Levon bent forward and picked up the bottle of wine, he uncorked it and tilted the bottle to pour out the wine into the glasses. On tilting the wine bottle, the weight went directly to the broken finger which made his hand shake lightly and before he could use his other good hand for support, a hand already beat him to it. Joshua covered his hands with his own and gently removed the bottle from his hand.

"Let me." He gave Levon an understanding smile and poured the wine into the glasses. Roman sat there, vexed. He didn't like it when people couldn't perform a simple task effortlessly, he didn't like sluggishness, and he definitely...did not like when people didn't follow his orders. Although he saw the evidence of the broken finger which may or may not be because of him...he just didn't care.

"Thanks, Josh." Levon thanked his friend, knowing he would have paid for a six-figure worth of wine if he had broken it.

"Leave...and tell your friend never to skip shifts unless he's properly excused." Roman spat out the words coldly.

Levon understood what he meant. He had somehow found out that he covers shifts for Jasper because of his never-ending personal problems. He nodded and left.

Back at the bar, he explained everything to Jasper.

"He's such a jerk. But a damn hot jerk..." Jasper said in a dreamy voice. Levon rolled his eyes, losing all hope of redemption for his dear friend. It seems that he was the only one amongst his friends who didn't think of searching for their boss online. That was quite lame on his side, he would have avoided all this drama if he had just asked Google.

Inside the office, Joshua took a few sips of wine and told Roman he was going down first. When he left, Roman stood by the transparent glass wall watching how Levon smiled genuinely with Joshua and Jasper, talking to them when he wasn't mixing or serving drinks. He was irked for some unknown reason. He wanted to stop paying attention to him, after all, he had addressed his wrongs and was sure that with the kind of person Levon was, he would avoid anything that would make him stand in from of him again, he knew he hated his guts. So with that settled, he should be happy...right.? He decided he was still paying attention because he was his employee and as his employer, he had to keep an eye on him because of his attitude, wouldn't want him chasing off customers with that attitude of his. After a while, he still stood there watching he shook, mixed, and poured drinks with masculine elegance. He noticed how both males and females were drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

‘He sure had charm.’ he thought to himself. He saw two blondes, a boy and a girl who came running widely toward the counter, he saw how they barely kept their hands and eyes to themselves. They kept touching him at the slightest opportunity and he didn't even seem to care, he even smiled and talked with them. Was he so in need of money that he would let people grope him with just a few tips they gave? Roman shook his head in detest, he knew he did the right thing by creating boundaries between them...wouldn't want to be seen with him and be labeled as one of them and that was more reason to get him fired; wouldn’t want his company’s image to get tarnished because of an employee’s callous lifestyles. He knew he sounded hypocritical but he was the boss, he did what he wanted. He turned and went into another room inside the office and called one of the servers upstairs.

Levon was glad he had these people in front of him as his friends. Alex and Ariana had come in later, flirty as always. It was almost time to go when a female server brought an ice pack to him.

"Levon, here. The boss asked you to apply it on your broken finger."

She stood beside Ariana, holding out the ice pack to him. Levon wanted to laugh but ended up scoffing. He couldn't believe his ears, the arrogant boss could feel guilty. Unbelievable.

"Take it back to him Sandra, I already applied an ice pack. The accident was seven hours ago and it's my finger after all...so of course, I would want the pain to go away. Tell him I said thanks… genuinely." He finished and went back to what he was doing.

Roman watched from his office how he outrightly rejected his ice pack. He held a grudge after all.’ He heard a knock and asked the person to come in.

"Sir...the ice pack...he..." She stammered not knowing how to tell him that his rare care was rejected.

"Just speak."

He turned and continued looking at Levon menacingly. Sandra drew in a deep breath and told him exactly what Levon had said.

"You can go."

Sandra didn't have to be told twice before she quickly escaped from the office that suddenly turned cold in resonance to the temper of the man in there. Roman felt anger boil within him. He had never been rejected...never. He thought Levon would jump with excitement when he heard it was from him. Was he pretending because of the people around him? He was sure the young man wanted something from him if not s*x then definitely money. He would call him out tomorrow. He won't let anyone toy with his intelligence, how could he give him a sensual massage and act all hot and cute around him when the first thing he does is reject his gift? He was going to get it straight with him. He either wanted him or he didn't. He decided to fire him if he ever found out his assumptions were true, he won't let the working atmosphere become awkward for others just because a colleague harbored feelings toward the boss. Even if he won't be reciprocating the feelings, from his experience, they would start to feel special and entitled, giving attitude to colleagues. He had to put an end to his delusions tomorrow.

Roman saw how his spot was the busiest even as it was his time to check out, he still wore a bright charming smile and attended to them while checking his wrist now and then. All his friends had long gone left for Joshua. He patiently sat there, busying away on his phone.

Roman checked the time and saw it was already 2:50 am. ‘So that was why he was always late.’

He decided to go ask him how he was getting home when he saw him preparing to leave but when he got down, he saw him leaving with Joshua, both looking very close and comfortable with each other as they left. This is why he had to end things tomorrow, he didn't want his business associates getting involved with his employees. ‘But what was I about to do?’

He was glad he didn't go through with his plan just now.

Roman reached the spa at exactly 8 O’Clock. He marched up to his office with purpose. He wanted to lay him off easily when he came in late, he decided last night that he hated just guts so he was going to lay him off with any slightest mistake he would make. He didn't like it when anyone made him feel uncomfortable and undeserving of their attention, all his life he had gotten what he wanted but right now a common employee was acting like he was the boss and he was going to show he who was the boss.

"Good morning Mr. Roman."

Mandy greeted cheerfully holding a file in her hand. He nodded and continued toward the elevator.

"Here, I was just about coming to give it to you upstairs."

"Thanks. You're a darling."

Roman paused and turned toward the direction of the voice. He saw the person he hoped would be late collecting a file from Mandy and cutely pinching her cheek while she dodged and tried to avoid getting pinched.

"I see you have free time on your hands." He walked back to them with his sight trained on Levon. Mandy quickly made up an excuse of how she needed to attend to emails and ran off. ‘Traitor.’ Levon cursed her silently as she ran off.

"Good morning Mr. Roman."

Levon turned unwillingly to face him. Mr. Roman was wearing black jeans with a black shirt accompanied by black shoes, he sure lived up to the reputation of a devil. Levon planned to avoid him just as he had suggested yesterday, so why was he still standing there looking at him like he had a score to settle with him? Levon had made sure he came to work early this morning with the help of Joshua who insisted on sleeping over at his place so he could take him to work early in the morning, so what could he have done wrong that got the boss’ pants in a twist?

"Follow me."

That was the only thing Levon heard him say before he turned and walked toward the elevator...for real this time. Levon followed suit and they got in the elevator together. Roman kept looking at him like he was studying a specimen through the reflective walls of the elevator while Levon kept his eyes on the file like it was the most important thing in the world at the moment just to avoid the silent stare contest his boss has started.