[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 744 & 745. (Patreon)

Chapter 744: A little detour.

It was still fairly early in the day when we picked Mila up from her school. Not yet even 4:00 pm, yet I was fully ready to go back home, half because I wanted to pick my guitar up and half because leaving Cake alone still made me feel guilty. However, the girls had a suggestion.

“Why don’t we stop by the coffee shop?” Mila said in the van. “It’s a bit out of the way, but I’m craving donuts.”

“We could always buy some donuts on the way, but… Yeah, I’d like to sit down and have some coffee,” Grace agreed. 

“...” Maria’s coffee shop? I looked at my mental schedule, and while I knew Isabelle wasn’t working today… Fernanda was. “You know, a cheesecake sounds really good right now,” I said.

“Yeah, a cheesecake,” Sarah teased with a knowing grin, getting behind my seat and poking my cheek.

“So you don’t want to go?” I asked.

“No, let’s go, I want one of those huge muffins.”

“You ARE ready for Maria to be mad are you, right?” Alice asked me, chuckling.

“What? Why would she be mad?” Noelle asked.

“Because I haven’t been there since I quit, I think. I’ve wanted to, but… we had a busy summer.”

It seems we all wanted to go, and I swear that there must be forces at work in the world a million times more powerful than even Frey’s magical powers, because we could not have picked a better time to go there.

We parked the van somewhere nearby and walked to the shop. But as we got closer, I could see something happening inside through the glass doors. Fernanda was talking to a man… Or rather a man was talking to Fernanda. He stood up from his seat and began to approach her, and I instinctively quickened my step.

I could hear even from outside.

“Come on, give me your number,” the guy said. He looked older than us, likely around his early 30s. Tall, fairly well built, lightly tanned skin, short brown hair. Well dressed, too, in a neat white buttoned shirt and black dress pants “I have a yacht that you’d love. How can you say not to a weekend of fun?” He was getting uncomfortably close to Fernanda, to the point she was flinching. Maria wasn’t around for some reason.

“Boy, she’s not interested! Give it a rest!” said a customer at a table. It was the old lady, the regular that always came with her husband. He was there, too, witnessing the scene with a disapproving frown.

“Stay out of this, lady,” the guy dismissed her with a wave like she was nothing but noise or a bad smell.

The bell over the door rang as I opened it, and I felt it clear as day. Discomfort, disgust and fear washed away by relief the moment Fern saw me. Her plea was wordless, but powerful.

‘Help, please!’

“She wants nothing with you. I think it’s best that you leave,” I told the man, walking up to him.

He turned to me with annoyance. He was at least a full head taller than me. “Kid, I’m talking to Fern, here, not you.”

“Oliver, he’s been harassing her all afternoon!” the old lady said, pointing her finger at the man.

My brow twitched. “Fern, is this the guy you and Isabelle mentioned?” I asked her.

“Y-Yes!”

So this is the creep that kept giving my girlfriend and my sister inappropriate looks and tried to snap pictures of them when they weren’t looking. 

That’s it. Fuck repercussions. Maybe the fact that this same thing had happened to Grace and Sarah at university made me even angrier, maybe it was the fact that I still felt a bit of possessiveness over the girls despite trying hard to keep that feeling at bay, maybe it was the dude’s note even when talking to the lady, or maybe it was all of that combined with the fact that this wasn’t his first time harassing Fern, but I just had to do something a bit more drastic.

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of the shop. He must’ve been surprised by the strength of the pull, because he nearly tripped. Alice and Grace kept the doors open as I practically tossed the guy out, which was pretty easy considering he was off-balance.

He fell on his ass as he turned mid-fall and looked up at me with pure fury in his eyes. “What the FUCK do you think you’re doing?”

I didn’t answer. “Can someone call the police, please?” I said.

“On it,” Mila said, her phone already out.

The man scowled, stood up and turned to leave, but I grabbed him by the wrist. “No, you’re staying.”

With a loud groan, the guy shook me off and hit me with a backhand on the face. The most shocking part of that was that… I barely even felt it. I felt the hand reach me, I felt its weight, but I felt little to no pain.

“Sexual harassment and assault,” Alice said. “What else do you want to add to the list of charges?”

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” he asked, suddenly getting smug.

“Should I care?” I asked.

“You should.”

“I don’t. That girl you were harassing? She’s my girlfriend. The other girl you’ve been ogling? That’s my sister.” I gritted my teeth. “You better hope the police do something to you, because if not…!” I took a step forward and the man flinched, tripping and falling back on his ass again.

Frey had probably turned on the intimidating aura, because there was little chance anyone would be actually scared of me. But it was better this way because seeing him tremble pathetically on the ground calmed me down a bit.

Maria arrived just a moment later, carrying a couple of small, white boxes with pies from the bakery, and was confused and shocked at the scene. The police arrived a minute later, a couple of officers, a man and a woman. Fernanda explained what happened, and with eight witnesses, including the old couple, the man was detained and carried off in the police car.

I still dread to think what could’ve happened if we hadn’t randomly decided to go to the coffee shop that day.

************

Chapter 745: Checking in on Fern.

Things calmed down after a while. Sarah went with Fernanda to the bathroom, less to help her calm down and more just to be there for her. Meanwhile, I went over to the old couple to apologize.

“I’m very sorry for that scene,” I said. “I… got too aggressive.”

“It’s perfectly understandable, dear,” the old lady said. “Stepping up to protect your loved ones is very noble. I’m happy to see you’re that type of man.”

“If you had broken his nose I still would’ve sided with you, boy,” the old man laughed. “Some idiots just need a good whooping.”

“That they do,” Maria agreed, coming over with two new cups of coffee for the old couple. “For the trouble.”

“No, no! It was no trouble! It was actually quite cathartic to see that fool finally get his comeuppance! Hopefully he’ll never be back here,” the old lady said.

“Don’t worry. He’s never getting in again,” Maria said before turning to me. “And you. I was mad at you for not coming to visit sooner, but since you protected my employee, you’re forgiven.”

I chuckled. “I appreciate the benevolence…”

“I’m assuming this was his first time getting this bold,” Grace said as she, Mila, Noelle and Alice took a seat at a table. “Otherwise you’d have him banned already.”

“Yes,” Maria said. “And he clearly picked a moment when I had to step out of the shop for a moment. I went to pick up some more pies and left Fern in charge for five minutes. He actually hadn’t shown up in a while.”

“Do you know who he is?” Mila asked. “He seemed to believe he was untouchable.”

“Oliver’s the untouchable one,” Noelle said, giggling. “He didn’t even flinch when he hit him.”

“Not even a mark,” Alice said. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Barely felt it. Must’ve gotten lucky,” I said, trying to not draw more attention to it in front of Maria and the old couple. That also definitely had been magic.

“But yeah, any idea who he is?” Mila asked again. I sat down with the girls and Maria stood close to us.

“Nope. I assume he has money and thinks that’ll buy him anything, even freedom,” Maria said, scowling. “Might even be right. I’d be surprised if he even spends the night in a cell.”

I groaned loudly. “What’s going on here? Why are assholes always after you girls?”

“It’s nothing new,” Grace said. “Not now and it’s not just us. It’s bullshit every girl has to deal with.”

“Wait, it’s been happening to you as well?” Maria asked the girls.

“Not quite like that, but sort of,” Grace said. “Sarah and I have been getting hit on at university even after saying we have a boyfriend.”

“It happened to Diana when we were on vacation, too,” Noelle said.

“Ugh, yeah, she gets that a lot,” Maria said with a heavy sigh. “It’s obviously not her fault, but she stands out a lot.”

She does.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned my head to see Sarah.

“Hey. How’s she doing?” Alice asked.

“Well enough, all things considered,” Sarah said. “You should go check on her too,” she told me.

“And tell her to take the rest of the day off,” Maria added.

I nodded and stood up. Sarah said Fern was outside, so I went out through the back door leading to the alleyway where we threw out the trash. Fern was there, leaning back against the wall, pushing herself off, falling back and doing it again.

“Should I have punched him?” I asked her, getting closer and leaning back on the wall beside her.

“It’s better that you didn’t because you didn’t get in trouble with the police, but… I kind of wanted you to. Is that bad?” she asked with a wry, guilty grin.

“No. I had to hold myself back. Grace and Sarah are going through something similar, and seeing it happen to you, too, almost made me see red. How are you feeling?”

“Still a little shook. I… didn’t know what to do. I kept telling him to back away, but…” She let out a shaky sigh. “I was so relieved when I saw you.”

“I admit, it was pure coincidence that we came here today, but I’m glad we did.”

“Thank you.” Fern smiled at me, moved a little closer and lightly leaned on me.

I got an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. “Maria said you should take the rest of the day off. Want us to drive you home?”

“...” Fern thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “I’ll finish my shift. I’m fine now, and I’d feel bad leaving when I still have about two hours left.”

“Don’t push yourself.”

“I have to,” she said. “I can’t just let any inconvenience stop me from doing what I have to, right?”

“I wouldn’t call this ‘just any inconvenience’ at all,” I told her.

“Maybe, but… I still want to stay.”

I sighed. “It’s your choice.”

“Hey?”

“Hm?”

“Um… Hug me?”

I smiled and pulled Fern into a tight, reassuring hug while rubbing her back. She held me close, too, taking deep breaths.

When we went back inside, I sat down at the table with the girls and told them, “Fern doesn’t want to leave. She says she wants to finish her shift.”

Alice chuckled. “So you want to stay until they close shop?”

“...Yeah. Is that okay?”

“We don’t have anything important to do,” Grace said. “I’d also like to stay.”

“We can have dinner here,” Noelle said. “I’m fine with sandwiches.”

“She should still go home, but I can see why she’d rather stay,” Sarah said.

“I’d take any excuse to leave work early,” Mila admitted.

We decided to stay. We ordered some coffee and a few pastries since it was still early, and while it was probably unnecessary, I kept an eye out for anything strange.