Chapter 10 - Amber
“Unbelievable,” a harsh voice spat. “I would expect better service from the staff here, especially considering how much I had to pay for this. At those prices, I expect perfection. I would have assumed you knew how to follow specifications, but apparently that’s beyond you.”
Amber slowed as she walked past the counter with the bouquet of roses, her ears pricked.
The customer wasn’t exactly being quiet, but she had to strain to hear Alex’s nervous stammering.
Glancing over, her brow furrowed in concern when she noticed how uncertain Alex looked, how nervous and unhappy.
Frowning, Amber slowed, tilting her head to listen better.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Alex said to the woman. “But I thought you wanted purple.”
“Are you blind?” the woman snapped. “These are clearly blue. They aren’t purple. If you can’t do your job, then you should at least have the decency to find me someone who can.”
Hurt filled Alex’s eyes. She swallowed and glanced away. Amber watched with growing ire as Alex began to flush.
“These are labeled as purple, ma’am,” Alex murmured.
“I don’t care. You have eyes, don’t you? You should be able to tell the difference between the two.”
Alex bit her lip. Her eyes met Amber’s, then moved away as if she were embarrassed.
Amber’s lips tightened, her eyes narrowing.
If anyone should be embarrassed by this, it was the woman currently berating Alex, feeling safe on the customer side of the counter, entitled to bully whomever she pleased.
Well, Amber wasn’t going to have any of that. Marching around the counter, she plopped the flowers onto the counter, then nudged Alex to the side to take her place in front of the woman.
The customer looked Amber over with a disdainful glance. That smug certainty faded when she took in Amber’s expression. She didn’t shrink back, but a stony harshness spread across her face as she realized she was about to face an opponent she wouldn’t be able to push over as easily as Alex.
“Excuse me,” Amber said, glowering at the woman. “But out of curiosity, ma’am, what planet are you from?”
The woman’s jaw dropped; her eyes narrowed. “I beg your pardon?”
“It’s just that these are definitely purple, and so I’m wondering if maybe there’s been some misunderstanding. Maybe blue and purple are different from wherever you came from, but here, these are purple. ”
The woman frowned. She began to speak again. Amber held up her hand, her eyes burning. She was tired of people bullying defenseless people they knew couldn’t fight back. She wasn’t going to put up with it. Not today.
Amber’s smile grew wider at the woman’s indignant expression. “Or maybe it’s that you wanted to push around someone who isn’t going to fight back, and now that someone with a backbone is talking to you and you realize they aren’t going to put up with your bull, you’ll decide to back down.”
The woman gaped like she’d just been slapped. Pink flickered across her cheeks. “You can’t speak to a customer like that,” the woman stammered.
Amber adopted a confused expression. “I can’t?” she asked, her voice going an octave higher. “Goodness.”
Splotches of pink flickered across the woman’s face. “Where’s your supervisor?” she demanded.
“I am the supervisor,” Amber said.
“Not for long.” The woman drew herself up in righteous fury, a smug smile spreading across her face. “If you don’t apologize in the next thirty seconds, then I’m going to report you.”
Instead of responding, Amber took a step back, twisting her head to glance up at the clock ticking over a shelf of planters.
“What are you doing now?” the woman hissed.
“I’m waiting thirty seconds before responding,” Amber said, and her smirk changed to a frown, eyes burning again.
“Because I’m not apologizing for standing up for a coworker when someone chews them out for no reason.
I don’t know what made you wake up this morning and decide to antagonize a random woman at work when she can’t stand up for herself, and I don’t particularly care.
You’re not going to get away with that here.
So either go report me to the boss, buy your obviously purple flowers, or get out. ”
The woman scoffed. She glanced around, noticing the other people wandering the nursery, shooting peculiar looks in her direction. She huffed.
“Just give me the flowers,” she grumbled.
Amber’s customer-service smile returned. “Fantastic. I’ll check you out.”
The woman’s lips remained pursed as Amber rang up the flowers. She hummed as she took the woman’s credit card, acting as though she didn’t have a care in the world, as if nothing had happened whatsoever. The woman snatched the bouquets and walked off.
“Wow,” Alex muttered, staring after the woman. “Thanks, Amber. That woman was a nightmare. I didn’t know what to do.”
“She was trying to get a discount,” Amber muttered, rolling her eyes. “I’ve dealt with women like that plenty of times before. They think if they push you around, you’ll cave and give them whatever you want.”
“Well, thanks,” Alex said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I really appreciate it.”
“No need to apologize. Next time you have someone pester you about it, feel free to call me over. I’ll take care of them.”
“You don’t need—”
“I’m not going to let someone bully you,” Amber cut her off. “It’s fine. Really. I would rather you tell me than try to deal with it on your own. No one should have to deal with that on their own.”
“Still, I’m going to keep thanking you.”
Glancing around, Amber’s lips twitched downward.
Something about the situation bothered her, though she couldn’t begin to understand why.
It was as if some internal part of her was scolding her.
Not about challenging the woman, but about how easy it had been to stand up to her.
It felt contradictory somehow, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.
It swirled uneasily inside her, nagging at her.
She swallowed and shook off the sensation. She didn’t regret arguing with the customer or for standing up for a friend. At the moment, that was all that mattered. She could decipher her feelings about it some other time.
“What are you doing later?” Amber asked. “Some girlfriends and I are going out to a bar for some drinks. Why don’t you join us?”
Alex beamed. “That sounds great!”
Amber smiled and nodded. “Excellent! Though for now, it looks like we have another customer. Hopefully they’ll be more reasonable.”
Alex smirked, then turned toward the man who had just entered the store.
***
Later, Amber and Alex sat at the same booth as Nikki and Flora, Camden’s mate, along with Izzie and Dana, two other women from their time in the Ironbrand pack.
A colorful cocktail stood in front of each of them.
Currently, Alex was regaling the other three with the story of how Amber had handled the “atrocious customer,” as Alex christened her.
“You should have seen her,” Alex said admiringly. “I would have sworn she was my guardian angel swooping down with a vengeance.”
“That sounds like Amber,” Nikki said, laughing.
“I’m impressed you let the woman walk away with all her teeth,” Flora responded.
“God, I know I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of Amber’s trademark death glares,” Izzie chimed in. “I think I’d rather dig my own grave at that point.”
“As long as you aren’t a horrible person to everyone you come across, then there’s no need to pick up a shovel,” Amber responded cheerfully.
“I still remember what she was like when we were under Sier,” Dana chimed in. “Sometimes she was openly antagonistic toward him or one of his goons just to take their attention off one of the other girls.”
Amber flapped her hand dismissively. “That was nothing,” she said. “I just can’t stand bullies. I’ve had to deal with them nearly my entire life. So if I see one going after someone else, I can’t just let it slide.”
“Well, I still can’t thank you enough for sticking up for me,” Alex said. “I owe you big.”
“No, you don’t owe me anything,” Amber insisted.
It wasn’t just that she was more than happy to help Alex without any sort of reward for common decency.
Part of it was that she didn’t feel like she deserved the praise.
Not just because she felt that people should do that sort of thing without saying, but because of something else, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
She explored that thought, trying to get to the bottom of it.
It didn’t take long to figure out what had unsettled her, and it shot through her with a painful jolt that made her insides twist: if she could stand up to difficult customers to defend her friends and herself, then why couldn’t she stand up to the men in her life trying to control everything she did?
She had crumpled when Eric had found her, basically going along with whatever he said.
Just being in his presence had sapped the fight from her, and it was easier to comply than to fight.
When it came to Cillian, fighting and standing up for herself always felt pointless.
He wasn’t going to yield just because she fought with him.
She hadn’t wanted to start a long, drawn-out fight that was going to end the same way.
It hadn’t helped that, during the argument, she had flashed back to similar situations with Eric that had ended far worse. It had just been easier to give up.
She was surprised Cillian had apologized and changed his mind about her going out with her friends. She was so used to Eric and his attacks that having someone admit their mistakes felt unnatural.
You’ve been spending time with the wrong sort of guys, then, a voice pointed out.
She winced and tried to shove those thoughts away. It was true that Cillian was the nicest guy she had ever been involved with. It wasn’t a particularly high bar, but it was something. Except she still didn’t feel comfortable standing up to him, much less fighting back.