Li hadn't expected Cytra to walk into her workplace that day. She'd autonomously moved to the counter and put on her customer service smile when the girl had come through the automatic glass doors, but it soon turned into a genuine smile when Li recognized her.

Cytra returned the expression with truly one of the most radiant smiles Li had to admit existed. It was honestly unfair, and Li was definitely jealous. Just a little.

"Hi, welcome to... oh, right." Li had started her customary greeting that she'd probably said thousands of times at this point.

"Yeah..." Cytra said, her smiled widening, before both girls broke out into a brief laughter.

"Okay, okay," Li said, still giggling a little. "So what is it?"

"Just the usual. A number 6, and a number 9."

Li rolled her eyes, laughing again. "Of course! Goddamn it."

Cytra hadn't been joking though; both numbers were actual items on the menu. Li usually had to stifle her laughter whenever some random customer ordered it unknowingly, but thankfully, she didn't have to do that right at this moment.

Cytra was a special case.

Seeing as both Paul and Harry were currently out front, Li assumed they'd be able to take care of the order. They'd both just been chatting away, since it'd been a rather slow day, and of course, Harry was the assistant manager. Li didn't like it, but he could obviously get away with it.

For obvious reasons, Harry went quiet when it came to Cytra. Paul, on the hand, greeted her and started chatting while he started getting the order ready.

Not seeing herself being needed at that moment, Li ducked into back of house, and seeing that the dishes were piling up, started to attack them with the pressure hose.

"Jeez, thanks Li. You're always so damn helpful."

Li gave Ryan a grin. The guy was currently filling in for the chef, who was away for the week. "No worries man! You know I always got your back."

She managed to clean through a good amount of dishes quickly, before she heard the dreaded call of Harry's voice.

"Liara! Out here, now!"

Fuck! She must've gotten carried away with the dishes, as she was meant to be out greeting customers. She quickly dried her hands and rushed out, yelling out "Sorry!" to Harry while she did so.

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After she'd greeted the next customer and taken his order, she saw that things were still pretty quiet with only currently two customers, so she figured she'd keep doing the dishes and try not to get carried away.

Before she could do that however, Harry stopped her. "Liara."

His voice had been calm, so when Li turned to meet him, she really hadn't expected such an expression of rage to be on his face.

She steeled herself. "Yeah?"

He let out an exasperated huff. "What are you doing?"

"I was gonna go back into the kitchen and-"

"No, you're not! You're going to stay out here and attend the customers. Understood?"

"Oh, uh. Okay. It's just, the dishes were-"

"Liara! I don't care what the dishes are doing. I need you out here on the registers. So for god's sake. Stay. Out. Here!" Harry put emphasis on the last word by practically shoving his finger at the floor.

"Okay, yes sir. Will stay right here," Li replied rather flippantly.

"Oh, really? Will you now? Because I seem to have to remind you to stay out here constantly. How many times has it been today?" He turned to Paul. "You been counting? Maybe we should keep a score!"

Paul snickered at this.

All while this was happening, Li felt her hackles raising like a cat getting defensive. She had to grit her teeth. They hadn't noticed as a customer had walked in, saw the argument currently taking place, turned around and walked right back out.

Not to mention, Li had made eye contact with Cytra. She had to look away from her as the embarrassment started to become too much.

Don't cry, Li begged herself. Fucking. Do. Not. Cry.

"Like, are you really so incompetent? Are you that daft? Are you-"

"Oh shut the fuck up, you insufferable asshole."

Li blinked.

Cytra had spoken up, and now Li saw her arms were crossed, and she was tapping her foot, almost as if impatient.

Harry on the other hand was sputtering, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.

Cytra kept going before he could get a word in. "You know, this is exactly why I left. And thank fuck I don't work here anymore, under your ass." Her arms unfolded as she approached the counter, fists balled.

But no, she didn't actually approach the counter. She had been going around the counter, and now, she stormed directly at Harry.

"You're just a small dick bully, you know that?" She was right up in Harry's face now. "You know something else? I'm not the only one who left because of your fucking bullshit." Cytra suddenly stepped forward and jerked at him, faking him out.

The idiot fell for it, raising his arms as if Cytra were actually about to attack him.

Instead, Cytra reached for Li, grabbing her by the hand and leading her out.

"Wait! What are you doing?" His voice was almost a shriek, and even broke.

They made it about halfway between the counter and the doorway.

"She can't leave! I'll- I'll report her to HR!"

Li stopped, causing Cytra to lose the grip on her, which admittedly wasn't firm. To this, Cytra turned and just raised an eyebrow, an almost smirk twitching her mouth.

What do you want to do?

Cytra may not have been thinking that, but that's exactly the thought her expression had provoked in Li, regardless.

It seemed to give her courage, even.

Li reached up and took off her cap, some of her dark dreads coming loose. She turned around, looked Harry dead in the eyes, and said:

"Not to worry, asshole. I quit."

She threw her cap on the ground before walking out.