Page 170 of From Rivals to I Do

"Somebody else has got be hiring, Raf. It cannot be that hard."

"It is," said Rafael. "Trust me. Okay?"

Abel did not respond to that. Instead, he just watched his brother pace angrily back and forth.

"You're going back there," he said finally. "Tonight."

"No, I'm not—"

"You are going back there tonight!" he shouted. "After everything that's happened, do you think I'm going to let you just put yourself back in jail? Huh? Do you think I'm going to let that happen? No, sir. You are going back there, and you will apologize to Camilla if I must drag you there myself."

Abel felt his face flush hot with embarrassment and shame. Rafael was trying to make things right between them. He could see that. He looked away from him, ashamed for walking out on the job just because Ms. Nunez was on his case.

"Do you hear me, Abel?"

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I hear you just fine. I will go back."

"Good."

Abel stood up and walked past him, then through the house and out the door on his way back to the pizzeria.

***

The walk was about five minutes or so from his house. He would have asked Rafael to drive him, but having to grovel for his job was embarrassing enough without Rafael dragging him inside the restaurant by the ear.

On the walk back, the heaviness of his shame and pride was more than he could carry. What he did was stupid and childish, and in the end, it would be a shame if he did not return because he could not get along with his boss. He was going to have plenty of other bosses in his future. One worse than Camilla Nunez. He would have to learn to suck it up and get with the program if he was going to adjust to the outside world. Anyways, he endured even worst in prison.

When he got to the restaurant, the first thing he noticed was that somebody had flipped the Closed sign on the door. He looked at his watch. It was just barely after six. The restaurant did not close for four more hours. He tried the door, and it opened. It must be a mistake.

He walked in and turned to the door, intent on flipping it back around to Open, when he heard someone say behind him, "Hey! Don't you move!"

He looked over his shoulder to see a man in a ski mask and a gun. The man pointed the gun at Camilla, who was standing with her hands up in front of the counter, trying to hold her composure. Abel momentarily diverted the gunman's attention when he walked into the restaurant.

Abel put his hands up slowly and turned to face him. "No problem," he said. "No problem at all."

Camilla was shaking. Her aqua-blue eyes looked watery in the amber light as if she might burst into tears at any second. Camilla looked at Abel pleadingly. Run, she seemed to be saying. At that moment, The Gunman noticed the restaurant was empty. Had she told everyone to go home??

"Don't worry about him," she said in a shaky voice. "Worry about me. Focus on me, okay? I'm the one you want to pay attention to."

The robber whirled back around to her and shouted, "Shut up!" Camilla jumped at the sound of his voice. "Okay, okay," she whimpered.

Abel inched closer to the robber behind his back but stopped as soon as the robber turned back around to him. "You picked the wrong day to get a pizza, my friend," the robber said to Abel. Then, he stalked over, grabbed Abel by the collar, and put the gun to his head.

"Get that cash register open, now," he growled at Camilla, "Or else I blow this guy's brains all over the wall!"

Camilla stepped back, her hands still up, and moved to the cash register.

"This is a bad idea," said Abel.

"What?" said the robber,” Shut your mouth!"

"Okay, okay, but I think you're doing this all wrong. Despite whatever you heard, there is not much money in the restaurant business, Especially this one."

The robber chuckled. "You must not be from around here," he said. "This place does good business every night. The place stays packed with customers from Monday to Saturday. I know she has money stashed somewhere around here."

"Yeah, okay," said Abel. "But you're going for the cash register instead of the safe in the back. How smart is that?"

The robber went silent, and his eyes bounced around momentarily, looking at Camilla as she shakily opened the cash registers. "Y-yeah," he said. He took the gun off Abel and pointed it at Camilla. "When you get done with that, we're going to the back and getting the safe—"

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