The repair company that had worked on ‘Chez Manon’ had completed their job extremely fast. Perhaps that was a good thing, since they had also taken the time to repair the faucet in the employee’s bathroom, and retouched some paint. But this also meant that Manon had sent all her employees a somewhat worded email, asking them to return to work as early as Saturday afternoon.

My sole solace in all of that was that Etienne would be there too, as both of us took Tuesdays off, leaving those days entirely to the part timers.

However, there was still one more issue that had yet to be resolved.

“What happened to your face?” My manager asked as soon as I entered the store.

“I hit myself with the fridge door.” I recited a well-rehearsed lie.

Yesterday, when those two idiots had tried robbing me, the man had hit me with an icicle in the face. Although I hadn’t felt anything at the time (blame the adrenaline for that), I did realise when I was getting ready for bed, that I had a massive bruise on my cheek.

Why it hadn’t fully healed the next morning, when my luck got restored to its max, was a mystery to me.

I had, of course, done my best to conceal it with makeup, but it seemed Manon had seen right through it.

“You’re on kitchen duty. All shift. And if you need to do something up here, wear a facemask.”

“Yes ma'am.” I said, and headed downstairs.

There was no use arguing with her. She had a very imposing aura to her. Despite her druid class, she made the perfect shop manager. Everyone, clients included, were too intimidated to ever argue with her. And it wasn’t only the tone she used, but also the way she dressed and styled her long dark locks. She always looked as if she was too good for this place, and that she was doing us all a favour by gracing us with her presence.

Plus, I wasn’t feeling like working at the counter today anyway.

“Good morning! Seems you’ve been sent to the oubliettes today.” Etienne greeted me as he entered the kitchen.

“Very funny. At least I won’t be the one to tell people we don’t do discounts.” I snarked back.

I was busy hand-washing glasses, as they could not go into our industrial dishwasher. But even though I wanted to get this over with ASAP, I had to take my eyes of my work to say hi to Etienne.

“What happened to you?” He asked, shocked, as soon as I turned my head towards him.

“Gee, did I make that bad of a job covering it up that even a guy has noticed?” I joked.

He rushed towards me and gently turned my head to get a better look. I blushed, but didn’t push him away. This was nice. I should get hit in the face more often.

“Half of your face is swollen up, there’s no covering that up.” He said in a worried tone.

“It’s not half. Just a small bruise.” I said, before gently pushing his hand away and returning to the washing. “I told Lady Manon that I hit myself with the fridge door. She seemed to believe it.”

Etienne scoffed.

“Right. I don’t think she cared enough to call you out on that.”

I could hear in his tone that he wanted to add ‘but I do’.

“Listen,” I sigh, still avoiding his eyes. Seeing him worry about me like that created a strange feeling in my chest. “I’ll tell you but you need to promise not to worry.”

“How could I not?!” He retorted, throwing his arms up in the air.

“No, but I’m fine, really.” I tried to reassure him.

He crossed his arms over his chest, giving me an unconvinced look.

“Right. So it wasn’t a fridge door, it was an icicle. And it wasn’t me, but some thug in the street. But it’s all sorted now.”

“You got assaulted?!”

“No, well .. yes. But no.” I tried to explain.

“Did you call the police?” Etienne asked, with an increasingly worried tone.

“Yes! Well… no…”

“Laura!” He dropped his arms to his side.

I caught a glimpse of his expression. I think the only other time someone liked as worried about me was when I had gotten into a cycling accident and was laying in a hospital bed, in my previous life. I turned my back to him, and crossed my arms over my chest, ignoring the water that I was getting on my shirt and apron in the process.

“I am fine, really.” I insisted. “It’s just a bruise, you shouldn’t be this worried.” I tried to make it sound as if I wasn’t deeply touched by his reaction, but my tone came of as angry instead.

There was a pause.

“I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you.” Etienne softly apologised.

I turned around, relaxing my stance. This wasn’t what I was going for, but at least as long as he wasn’t worrying needlessly, that was enough for me.

“Listen,” He looked away, awkwardly holding his arm with his other hand, “I don’t know what your personal circumstances are, but really am worried about you, alright? Not just because of the attack the other day, before that as well-”

My eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise. Could it be that he had feelings for me as well?

“Just, next time that you get into a situation like that, call me, alright? I’ll do more good than the police.”

I couldn’t help by smirk at that.

“Oh, my knight in shining armour!” I teased him. “I will make sure to summon you if I ever were to encounter the highwayman again.”

He gave me a look I could not decipher.

“I probably should be heading back up.” He said. “Manon will have my head if I’m late for her ‘grand opening’.”

“Have fun.” I waved, as I returned to my task.