★彡ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ | ᴘᴀᴜʟ ᴍᴄᴄᴀʀᴛɴᴇʏ彡★ ✅

★彡[ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 14]彡★

Arthur put down his spatula and turned to the pretty waitress who was drawing up the bill for one of her tables.

"When you've done that," he said in an almost sly tone of voice, "we need to have a chat."

That was ominous.

Abby gulped and then finished serving her customers before she went back over to Arthur.

He was waiting for her like a lion for its prey.

"You're not working hard enough for me." Arthur said simply, though very angrily.

Abby disagreed. She worked her arse off night and day! If anything, it was Arthur who didn't work hard enough.

"I -" Arthur held up a finger to cut Abby's defence off.

She let him.

He carried on berating her for things that were out of her control - like how long it took her to make a cup of tea for a customer when the kettle took several minutes to boil!

The bell above the door rang as it swung open, but neither of them turned to see who had just come through the door.

Daphne, however, looked up from her order pad to greet the new customer. She recognised the man immediately.

He was a friend of Abby's, and perhaps more. She wasn't entirely sure. He was handsome, with doe eyes and a funny haircut that made him look a lot younger than he probably was.

The man smiled at her and then said, "hello, luv, d'you know where Abby is?"

Daphne nodded, "she's behind the counter with Arthur." She pointed him in the direction of the counter, which was really not necessary.

Paul thanked her and then went to the counter. He saw Abby with her back to the rest of the cafe and Arthur facing her. He saw Paul as soon as he appeared at the counter and frowned even more deeply than he had been before.

"And you can't have visitors in here!" Arthur exclaimed. "Tell your fancy man to go somewhere else -"

"What?" Abby asked in a confused tone, following Arthur's line of vision and turning around to look at Paul.

He cleared his throat, feeling very awkward. He didn't like the thought of the very pretty girl who he liked so much being in trouble because of him. He held out the bouquet of peonies which he had bought for her on the way to the cafe. He had got them from the very same flower stall that he bought them from everytime; the one where he had bought the first bunch from.

Abby's eyes widened, but she was unable to stop herself from smiling. The flowers - and Paul - was exactly what she needed to brighten her day.

"You ready?" Paul asked, ignoring the searing look he was getting from Arthur Spot.

Abby took a deep breath and turned her head back to look at her boss, who was seething. She then looked back at Paul and nodded. Once more, she turned to Arthur and said two words as a farewell; "I quit."

Promptly, she went to get her coat and bag before coming back and walking past Paul. She led the way out of the cafe, throwing a quick "see you, Daph" to her friend... and she did intend to see Daphne again. The two were good friends and had grown quite close in the past few weeks.

Paul was very proud of Abby, and waited until they were away from the cafe to tell her so... but as soon as they were halfway down the street, it was clear that she was very angry and very nervous.

"... Abby?" Paul asked, reaching out gingerly to put a hand on her shoulder. When they finally made contact, she jumped in surprise. Their eyes met and he could see that she had tears in them. "Are you okay?"

"Why did I quit, Paul!?" She cried, "I need that job! I need the money! God, Mollie needs new shoes, and we need food and I have to pay rent and -"

"Calm down, Abby luv, it's alright." Paul tried to reassure her. "You needed to quit, and we'll work it out from here -"

"We?" Abby echoed in disbelief and annoyance as Paul slowly put his arms around her. Surprisingly, she laid her head against his shoulder and wept. "Easy for you to say, Paul," she sniffled, "you have money - and you don't have a sister who relies on you for everything -"

"Let me pay for Mollie's shoes." Paul said softly into her ear, trying to hush her so that they wouldn't draw any attention to themselves. Paul would hate to have to dash now, and he suspected that it would have been very difficult to get Abby to go with him given her current state.

It appeared that she was in the mood to throttle somebody, and he didn't want it to be him. No, he wanted to help her.

"I can't, Paul!" Abby continued to cry, "I -"

She lifted her head and looked at her watch, her eyes widening once more. "Shit!" She exclaimed, wiping away her tears, "we need to go now! We're going to be late!" Paul had almost forgotten about the little girl which they needed to get from school. He had been so preoccupied with helping her sister to feel better.

Paul dropped his arms from around Abby and instead took her hand. She didn't object. He led her quickly over to his car which wasn't parked more than a street away. He held onto her tightly, wishing that they could have connected in different circumstances and not out of inexplicable emotion on Abby's part.

He made sure that she was safely strapped in before he got into the driver's seat and started the car, speeding off to Heathmount Primary School as fast as the speed limits allowed; he didn't want Abby to be any more stressed than she already was.