How does love factor into divorce?
Herald vs. Yaruban: Everything you need to know about Aimee Herald's separation from her husband!
Zayvier King pushed his red-tinted lips into a seductive smile as he walked his fingers up a customer's arm. "Your friends put you up to this, didn't they?"
The customer, a young alpha who had been shoved in Zay's direction by four older alphas, smiled shyly and shrugged. "Maybe. But joke's on them cause I get to be with you."
Zay traced the young man's jaw. "But they know something you don't, love."
"Oh?" the young alpha asked, clearly enjoying Zay's touch. "And what's that?"
Zay pulled back, lounging across the top of the bar like a magazine model. "I'm not for sale."
The young alpha's eyebrows drew together. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Zay chucked him under the chin with a hand too quick to be caught. "I'm the establishment's tease, darling. I never sleep with anybody." He ran his hands down his own body, enjoying the looks he drew. "All this is too perfect to ruin, you know? And," he added, holding up a perfectly manicured finger, "you can even go ask the owner. My job description is on all my pay stubs." He spread out both hands like he was putting up a sign. "Zay, Establishment Tease, Too Good to Sell." He ducked easily when the young alpha threw a punch at him, fuming and furious. Sliding down off the bar, he wove into the young man's personal space and whispered, "You're gonna have to be quicker than that, beautiful." Then he slipped away before another blow could be aimed in his direction. His job was to make the customers horny and so irritated that they took whatever opportunity presented itself after Zay left. He could not do his job with a black eye.
Pushing into the staff bathroom, he checked his makeup, adjusted his outfit slightly, and then leaned against the counter on his phone for twenty minutes. With another quick look at his makeup, he left the bathroom and headed back out onto the floor. He barricaded himself behind the bar until he was sure the young alpha he had taunted was nowhere in sight and then, with a cheeky apology to Jorge the bartender, he climbed over the bar and sat with one foot dangling over the edge, waiting for another customer to approach him.
It was a dull few minutes until there was suddenly a hand on his knee. To Zay's horror, it was Noah.
Zay jumped down off the counter immediately. "Noah! What are you doing here? Oh god, please tell me you're not cheating on Camille right now!"
Noah rolled his eyes. "I'm not a cheater, Zay. I'm here because you agreed to a job that starts in about six hours."
Zay sighed, slumping against the bar. "Thank goodness. I can't lie to Camille for shit, you know."
Noah rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, I know. Let's go, Zay. I'm not going to have Pandi regret trusting me, so I can't have you going into his office with bloodshot eyes and smeared makeup and messy hair."
Zay gasped in mock horror. "As if I would ever do that!"
"C'mon, drama queen. You need to get home and go to bed." Noah took his arm, and Zay did not resist Noah leading him out to the car and pushing him down into the passenger seat.
The drive back to Noah and Camille's house was quiet, with only the low soundtrack of Noah's K-pop playlist to fill the silence between them.
Once they got inside, Zay went straight back to the bathroom he shared with his older brother Ezekiel and started removing his makeup. Honestly, his setting spray would have held up for five hours of sleep, but he did not want to antagonize his already frustrated skin. He glared at the reflection of his clean face, irritated at the redness his makeup had hidden. Maybe it was time to go back to the dermatologist and accept the medicated lotion she had recommended last time. He sighed in defeat, braided his hair, and padded into his bedroom, carrying his heels in his hand since he had to walk past Ezekiel's bedroom to get to his own. He stripped off his club clothes and pulled on comfortable boxers and sweatpants before tumbling into bed and quickly falling into a hard sleep.
Zay did not realize how hard he had slept until his very pissed older brother was shaking him awake. "Hm, what?" he asked groggily.
"Your. Stupid. Alarm. Woke. Me. Up." Ezekiel punctuated each of his words with a shove. "You woke up your pregnant older brother at 6 am. Did you think I'd just roll over and—oh, wait, I can't."
Zay scrubbed at his eyes, very thankful he had removed his makeup. "Sorry," he mumbled, not mad at the shoves at all. He was a physical touch person, but Ezekiel was traumatized, so the only times Ezekiel touched Zay were when he was pissed, usually in the mornings. "At least you don't have morning sickness?"
Ezekiel scowled, his white-blond hair falling into his pale blue eyes. He shoved it back with an irritated grunt. "You're impossible. Just get up." He turned on his heel and left the room.
With a yawn, Zay sat up and got out of bed. He went to the bathroom, washed his face, and joined the three other residents of the house in the kitchen. As she went about making her breakfast, Zay flashed Camille a smile.
Camille smiled back. "You weren't out too late, right?"
"Nah, Noah hauled me back before it got past 2 am." Zay cracked an egg into a frypan, her shoulder bumping against Noah's. "I'll just be sitting all day, so I'll be fine."
"You don't have practice?" Camille took a bite of the yogurt bowl Noah had placed in front of him.
"Not til tomorrow." Zay pushed the egg around the pan with a spatula. "And it's off-season, so my coach isn't going to push me super hard."
"Speaking of sitting all day," Noah chimed in, "I wouldn't do super over-the-top makeup. Pandi's cool with our community, but a lot of his clientele…let's just say they're not so friendly."
Zay rolled her eyes. "Fiiiine. But I'm not going out bare-faced. My skin is horrendous right now. I promise I'll keep it natural. I don't want to make my temporary boss uncomfortable." After finishing breakfast while ignoring Ezekiel's side eyes, she went back to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and then stared herself down in the mirror until he was looking at himself again. With a heavy sigh, he did light makeup, mostly just concealer and foundation with some lip tint he applied sparingly to both his lips and cheeks.
Glancing at the time, he scurried back to his room, got dressed in attire that was probably manly enough to keep customers from glaring at him too hard, grabbed a small purse that would be easy to hide if someone stared at him for too long, shoved his wallet and pocket makeup into it, pulled on dress shoes he rarely wore, and dashed out. He was nice enough to wave goodbye to Ezekiel, and Ezekiel was nice enough to grudgingly wave back. He clicked on the map link Noah had sent him as he started his car and buckled his seatbelt. Once the directions had loaded, he pulled out of the driveway and headed to his first receptionist job in probably two years. He shook his head at that thought. He was young enough still that stuff he had done two years ago had been done by a completely different version of himself.
After parking, Zay followed Noah's texted instructions up to the office and cautiously opened the door. He stepped inside and gave the man inside a smile in return for the surprised look he received. "Am I too early?"