Page 171 of From Rivals to I Do

Abel grabbed and twisted his wrist, making the robber release the gun. The robber yelped in pain as the gun fell out of his hand and across the floor. Abel yanked his arm back, elbowed him in the face in the next breath, and wrestled the robber to his knees. Abel kicked the gun across the room and told Camilla, "Call the cops. I got him."

He stood with his fists ready in case the robber decided to get back up and fight him. But instead, the robber rolled around on the floor, his hand over his face as blood leaked through the mask.

"I think you broke my nose!"

"I broke your nose," Abel responded. "I should break your face open; how dare you come in here with a gun? If I were you, I would shut up and stay still."

The robber put his hands up, staring at him fearfully from behind the mask. "All right, all right. You got it, man. You got it."

Chapter four

Chapter Four

After the police came and Camilla and Abel gave their statements, Camilla found herself sitting at one of the restaurant tables, struggling to hold back her tears and beginning to sob. Camilla had never experienced anything so horrific and never thought being robbed would ever happen to her, although her father always said running a business could be dangerous. He had repeatedly taught her to give the robbers the money and do the best she could to protect the employees and customers. That's what she had done, yet she still felt like things couldn't have gone worse.

It was why she convinced the robber to let everyone leave and to put up the Closed sign. She figured that if the robber only had to deal with her, it might've made him less nervous. She never dreamed that Abel would come walking back in when he did. As the police investigated and took their statements, she had an eye on Abel, standing in the corner, still in his dark shirt and brown pants, talking calmly to the police about what happened. Who would have thought that he'd be her conquering hero?

When the cops were finally gone, and they were alone, she locked the doors with shaky hands and sat down at the nearest table, fighting back her tears. Abel walked over to her and knelt next to her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, taking a deep, labored, and shaky breath while exhaling, saying, "I'm okay." "Really. I'm just…." She looked at him, his puppy dog eyes looking back at her with genuine concern. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up."

Abel smiled, took some napkins off the table, and handed them to her. She felt a hot salty tear escape her eyes as she wiped them away with the napkin. "Sorry, I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed."

"You just got held up by gunpoint," he said. "You shouldn't be upset for crying about that."

She nodded, and the sobs started to melt away. "Thank you. Again."

He sighed, then sat down in the chair across from her. "Listen," he said, "I came back to apologize for walking out earlier. I was out of line. I should not have popped off as I did."

Camilla looked at him and scoffed. Then, she wiped off the salty streaks on her face and said, "You just have to learn to communicate in this type of work, and we will all get along."

She watched as Abel's jaw clenched. He was holding back a sarcastic remark. "Okay," he said. "Anyway, we both know I need this job, and from the looks of it, you need somebody to scare off the unwanted guest from around here, especially if you're going to be here by yourself at night."

"I wasn't…." She stopped herself, realizing she would have to explain the whole story of trying to keep her employees safe, and she was just too mentally tired to argue. "You know, if this is supposed to be an apology, you need to work on your delivery."

He smirked at her, "Is that a yes, please come back' or a 'no way, don't ever come back'?" As happy as she was to have someone around to keep them safe, she would not let Abel know it.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, you're rehired. But you must communicate with me and cannot ignore me; we have to work together, Deal?"

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss."

Abel stuck around long enough for her to lock up. After he was gone, she debated the decision to take him back. He was a smart aleck with a defiant streak. He seemed to like to argue. He was just the guy who was nothing but trouble as an employee.

But, he was a guy who needed a second chance and far be it from her to stand in the way of that. Camilla's father believed strongly in helping others and lending a helping hand to those less fortunate. She felt her father would expect her to help Abel. It was her duty as a human being to help others. That is what he would say.

Plus, as much as she hated to admit it, Abel was right about one thing. Having him around might keep her and her restaurant just a little safer. The robber could have taken the restaurant's money and run off. He could have easily taken her life had it not been for Abel.

She contemplated the thoughts over and over in her mind as she walked to her car. Rafael said that Abel was just a kid when he went in – sixteen. Who knows what Abel would have been if his life had not been interrupted? No, she thought as she got in her car and started the drive home. Even though working with him would be a struggle, she'd done the right thing, rehiring him.

Abel returned to work the next day, and from that point on, Camilla would have liked to say that everything was different, but it wasn't. Abel still argued with her over just about everything. The sauce, the cheese, the pizza cutters, everything. The only difference now was the way he decided to respond.

One day, she caught him cutting the pizza wrong. She'd taught him to use the pizza cutter to cut the bottom of the round pizzas to the top, right to left, then diagonally. She walked in and caught him starting the slicing from top to bottom.

"Stop," she said with a huff. She walked into the kitchen and snatched the cutter from Abel, slicing the pizza from bottom to top and walking around the box to do the rest of the cutting. When Camilla finished, she closed the box and put it in the window. "how many times do I have to tell you."

She handed him the cutter, and he gave her a crooked smile. "Sure," he said.

Camilla's stomach did a tiny, involuntary flip when he smiled at her. She crossed her arms to chase it away. "Okay, show me, then."

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