Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Fifty-One

                "Don't get that piece of shit." Alessio said rudely.

I glanced up to the poor customer service representative and then back to Alessio. "Hon, it's fine." I said despite the fact that I was thoroughly humiliated.

He'd had a piss poor attitude from the very beginning of the day when I purposely woke up before him and took Donato on a jog alone and his scowl had become growing deeper the more time passed.

"What the hell are you going to do with 16 gigabytes?"

"I, uh, store photos?"

"You'd run out of memory in a month. Get a bigger one."

I rolled my eyes. "It's fine Alessio. I'll probably break it in a month anyway."

He snatched the phone from my hand abruptly. "Well of course you will it's a flimsy piece of shit." He snapped and threw it as hard as he could onto the ground shattering it.

"Alessio!" I gasped.

"Relax, I'll pay for it." He rolled his eyes.

Again, the customer service rep seemed baffled on what to do. Alessio turned his attention back to her and looked at her like she was insane. "What are you still doing here? Clean this up? Get your manager? Or get out of our hair." He snapped and she scurried away to retrieve a manager.

"Honestly Alessio." I scolded in a hushed voice. "Must you give the poor woman such a hard time?" I crouched on to the ground and began picking up pieces of the broken phone.
"She started it." He muttered in response. "She tried to sell you the cheapest piece of shit in the building."

"It's a cell phone not a Ferrari, it's fine."

"It's disrespectful."

"I don't need a big fancy indestructible phone. Just because you do doesn't mean the rest of us do too."

"When I'm the one buying the phone you do."

"Excuse me but I can pay for my own phone." I huffed.

He raised an eyebrow and I deflated a little.

"Well I could make payments." I muttered and turned away.

The manager approached us slowly. "I'm sorry folks, do we have a problem here?"

"Yes." Alessio snapped. "I came in here to get my girlfriend a good phone and your people keep handing me pieces of shit." He reached into his pocket and I was expecting him to pull out his gun but he brought his wallet out instead.

"Sir I'm sure you understand we appreciate your business but you simply cannot break the merchandise. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to pay for the phone you've broken."

"Or?" Alessio stopped just as his fingers brushed against his bank card. He'd had every intention of paying for the phone because he could but it had suddenly become a demand and he did not respond well to those.

The manager blanched slightly.

"Alessio please." I groaned. I was so ridiculously embarrassed.

"I'm just asking what would happen should I refuse."

"Well..." The manager said and took a step back. "We would have to involve the authorities sir."