Baby Doll Ch. 09

It was before one-thirty in the afternoon the next day when Jenny saw that creep again. He just walked into the cafe, sat down, and patiently waited for service with a genial smile. Jenny cut in front of a waitress to see to him. Excitement enhanced his pretty light blue eyes as she quickly, yet elegantly, walked over to him and gave him a menu.

"Hello, welcome to Conner's Cafe. My name is Jenny and I'll be your waitress today. Would you like to start off by ordering a drink?"

"I'd love a coffee and a chat with the owner." His grin would have been so enchanting if Jenny didn't think he was a disgusting son of a bitch. He had the teeth of an actor and the face of an angel. That glorious blond hair of his was combed back, looking very well settled against his gently tanned skin. His remarkably clean hands were relaxed against the table.

"I'm sorry. He's not here right now." Jenny had on the phoniest smile she could muster.

As if he had every right to do so, the man made several unreasonable requests, all with a cheerful tone and a relaxed posture. "Fetch your cell phone. Return to me. Call him. Have him on speaker phone." He didn't even say please. What a prick!

Jenny was afraid he'd start something if she refused. Then again, it was highly possible that he wouldn't do anything too obvious. Even he must try to avoid attention from the police.

"Alright then. I'll be right back." Jenny strolled across the dining area and into the kitchen. She found her purse, and then her phone. When she was standing near the stalker blond again, she dialed up Cliff's number and waited.

Three rings sounded, and then there was his voice. "Hello?"

"Hi Boss! Listen, I'm about to put you on speaker phone. Mr. Pretty Boy Stalker here says he wants to talk to you."

For a moment there was nothing except the idle preening of the blond. He was brushing and pinching imaginary bits of dirt and dust away from his brand new slacks. Then she heard Cliff say, "Okay."

She tapped the little button. "Okay Boss, you're on."

That was when the creep leaned into her phone a bit and said with an energized voice, "Heeeeeeeeeelo! I'm Eric. How are you?"

Jenny cringed at him. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help it.

Cliff's voice from her phone's speaker bitterly replied, "Kind of pissed off."

That creepy man, his name was Eric. Jenny was pretty sure Jessa hold told her that, but she had misheard and thought his name was Elric.

He made something of a pouting face and spoke into the phone with a sad tone. "I'm sorry to hear that. What's the problem?"

"Well I had a girlfriend for about a minute but now she's gone."

Eric's light brown eyebrows rose. "She's gone? Where did she go?"

"I don't know, Man. Something about an ex-boyfriend scared her so bad she left town."

"So, you were dating one of your employees?" The way Eric licked his lips made Jenny give a quick shudder. "That's a little risky, especially when she hasn't been working for very long."

Jenny wanted to slap him.

"Why don't you come over here and talk to me for a while? I'll be right here."

Jenny wanted to punch him.

Cliff said, "You want me to drive over there just to talk to you?"

"I'm waiting." Then Eric personally reached for Jenny's phone. His fingertip tapped a red square on the screen, and Cliff was hung up on. He then put his attention back to Jenny's frowning face. "Get your pad, Miss."

She prepared to write, but she wasn't happy about it.

"Coffee, extra sugar packets, a glass of water, two plain waffles with hot syrup, two link sausages, two slices of bacon, two full slices of toast." He didn't even glance at the menu.

As she took that menu away, she replaced her fake smile and said, "I'll get right on that. Don't you worry."

***

He left Rebecca at his brother Ryan's house, along with all of her packed up belongings. Poor Rebecca was absolutely vexed, confused, even screaming at him at one point.

Michael was growling in the background. He wanted Eric dead.

"Vampire or not, the cops will look for him if he goes missing," he silently reminded the Beast. His foot slowly nudged the break pad down as the truck approached a stoplight. "If they find his body, it'd be better if it was in the woods, looking like a bear or a wolf got him."

Michael wanted to drag him into the woods.

"Well," Cliff thought, "that would just make me more suspicious, wouldn't it? You don't want to be in a cell, do you?"

Michael whined at him.

Cliff pulled into a parking lot and thought, "Calm down, Michael. We need to keep cool. We can't lose our temper again. We'll get him, just not right now."

When he opened the front door to Conner's Cafe, he saw the back of Eric's head and his broad shoulders. Big guy. Pretty bad, but pretentious as all hell.

He smelled like freshly dug up dirt. There was also the candy and expensive cologne, but mostly he smelled like earth. It wasn't a bad scent.

Cliff's fingers were flitting about. He put his hands in his pockets. One pocket had a key-chain and a good number of keys for him to nervously finger.

Damn it. He wasn't a big, bad-ass, alpha mother fucker with a big ass family ready to die for him. Well, he was pretty sure his family loved him to death and would gladly fight for him, but Cliff didn't like the idea. He didn't want his family, or anyone else, to get hurt.

He was scared.

All he knew about this guy was that he had lots of money, super strength and speed, could grow fangs, and drank blood.

God damn. Was there anything else he didn't know? Did he normally have animal-like senses, like Michael did? Could he smell Cliff as he sat there, watching Jenny remove his dirty dishes? Could he hear him? Could he hear his terrified heart pounding his blood throughout his nervous body?

He must have covered up that murder that had scared Rebecca so much. How many other people had he killed? The last thing Michael had killed was a literal rabbit. Cliff had never killed anything bigger than a spider. When it came to actual people, none of them had ever actually done it.

But, he might have to kill this creepy ass son of a bitch, and he'd have a hard time doing it. He'd have to actually use his brain if he wanted to stand a chance. That meant that Michael needed to shut the fuck up for once in his life.

Properly chastised by the thought, Michael turned sober and quiet in Cliff's brain.

Then that Eric bastard turned his head. He smiled with teeth as white as clown makeup, teeth framed by admittedly nice lips that were almost girly. He didn't look like a blood sucking demon of the night. He looked like a guy who just had a nice vacation at the beach.

God damn it.

It was time to harness his very reasonable fear.

Cliff took a deep breath and kept a robust stride. He stopped before the man who was smiling like he was about to go on a date.

"The hell do you want, Man?" He purposely made eye contact for just a moment, and then quickly focused on his throat, then his shoulder.

He was mentally recalling Rebecca's behavior during her shyest moments, and his own memories of junior high, all the way up to his senior year in high school. Awkward, confusing years!

"Goodness, I feel like a valued customer!" Eric Hardy made a shooing gesture at him. "It's nice to have the owner greet me, but I need to pay for the meal."

"You have to pay up front, bring your check. I'll ring you up."

Eric slipped a fine leather wallet out of his pocket, opened it up, and took out a crisp fifty dollar bill. He slid the bill onto the table very delicately. "Lead the way, Mr. Owner."

As Cliff was walking to the register, he realized that the fifty bucks on the table was the god damn tip. Jenny was going to have a tantrum in the kitchen, unless Jessa could find the time to calm her down. Did Eric tip big like that all the time, or was he just showing off?

Cliff deliberately allowed a few second's worth of extra contact between their fingers as he took the ticket. He tapped out the total onto the touch screen, popped the cash drawer open, and put the cocksucker's money inside, not that there was anything wrong with being a cocksucker, he reminded himself. He didn't think it was a bad thing at all. He just liked coming up with new insults for the guy.

As he gave the dickhead his change, he once again allowed a slightly more contact with the man, as if he wanted to feel his smooth skin against him for just a bit longer. Cliff looked at the man's only somewhat wincing eyes, looked back down at his own rough hands, and closed the cash drawer with a lowered head, as if he were embarrassed of his marked skin.

Then he dared to look back up at Eric.

What a shit-eating grin!

"You ... uh ... you wanted to talk to me?" That's it. Nice and scared. He had to be nice and scared, with a hint of curious.

Eric's back was straight. Very quickly, his teeth went over part of his bottom lip. If Cliff hadn't been paying such close attention to him, he wouldn't have noticed it. "We shouldn't be around all these people. Let's try your office."

"You're not getting into my office, Man."

"The men's restroom, then. I assume it's clean?"

Cliff couldn't help but flex his hand at his words. "Cleaner than your teeth."

Eric clapped his hands together and walked through the dining room. Cliff watched him for a bit. Then he moved on in the same direction, putting his hands back into his pockets and fiddling with his jingling keys.

Hm, what's another good insult for him? Leech?

Michael howled at that. Cliff had to bite his cheek to stop himself from smiling.

The bathroom was as Cliff had said, cleaner than the leech's teeth. Eric was the one who locked the door. Was he about to get violent? He wouldn't, right? If Eric left a corpse behind, there would be an investigation. Cliff pulled his hands from his pockets, just in case.

Eric rested his back against the door, completely blocking Cliff's chances of escape, if he needed to escape. Cliff chose a similar position on the other side of the room, between the toilet and the little trashcan.

A new musky scent was just barely touching Cliff's nose. A part of him didn't want to admit that it was possible, but he knew that this was evidence, evidence that Cliff's strategy was working. It wasn't difficult for him to blush and turn his head to the side.

"So Baby Doll got a job. Poor thing." The man sounded moderately gloomy. "You didn't work her too hard, though. If you did, she wouldn't have been building sandcastles with you."

Cliff tried not to react to Eric's statement, but in his mind he was so angry. If he had been familiar with Eric's scent beforehand, Cliff could have pointed him out a long time ago. But he didn't even think to sniff anybody out at the beach because, as far as he knew, there was nobody he needed to sniff out. It wasn't fair.

"Rebecca has a little pride. When she left me, she left behind everything I bought her. Jewelry, makeup, dresses, books, toys, even her favorite snacks. She didn't take anything from my wallet. She didn't destroy my clothes. She didn't put sugar in my gas tank. She only took what she needed and left." There was a very amused laugh. "Isn't that just the sweetest thing?"

Cliff didn't understand the point. Of course she wouldn't try to fuck shit up before leaving. Of course she wouldn't steal from him. Of course Rebecca would want to leave all that fancy stuff behind. The last thing she had wanted to do was piss the man off any more than she already had.

Eric's tone brightened. "I know she would want to be treated just like all the other employees. The idea of her boss coming on to her must have really hurt her feelings, but you earned her trust, otherwise she'd be looking for work elsewhere."

"Get to the point, Man. You're making me feel bad."

"Come over here."

Cliff wasn't looking at him, but he had a feeling that the man was smirking.

As if he was eager, but also shy, Cliff stepped towards him, then paused, forcing himself to think of the most awkward things in the world, forcing himself to blush. One of those awkward things making him blush was how that musky scent was increasing in intensity. His face was so hot that he wondered if he could catch a fever from thought alone.

Then he stepped a little bit closer.

"Mr. Miller, are you sad that Rebecca ran away?"

"Duh." He tried to choke out an uneasy laugh that ended in a cough.

"This really is a terrible misunderstanding, isn't it?" Why was his breath so minty? He just ate. Did he sneak in a stick of gum?

Cliff was looking down at the buttons on his dress shirt. He could see the faint impressions of hair under the fabric.

And suddenly ... right up the side of Cliff's face ... he was being licked.

Cliff sucked in a breath and tried not to punch him in his throat. Michael wanted to taste his blood.

Eric ... the madman, the absolute madman, had ran his tongue right up his face. Cliff dared to look at him. His lips were curved in a very soft smile.

"Would you like to spend some time with me?"

Cliff swiped the spit off of his cheek. "Geez, Man. I don't know. I've never done this before."

"I have. It's fun. There's a place nearby called Giorgina's, right? Tomorrow at six. Wear a suit."

"I don't think I have a suit." He had to rent one for Jessa's wedding, but that was about it.

Eric's condescending little sigh irritated him. "Then wear the nicest clothing you have."

He nudged Cliff's chest with just his fingertips, and Cliff was easily pushed back, almost to the other side of the room. Cliff almost tripped from the force.

Eric reached behind himself to unlock the bathroom door. He saw himself out.

***

"The least Cliff could do is show up at his own meeting," Jenny told Rebecca as they sat on the back porch of Nana and Pa's house. The whole family was gathering around, waiting. It was a pretty large amount of people.

"The least Cliff could do is explain to me what the fuck is going on," Rebecca murmured, sipping from a glass of ice cold sweet tea. She had told Jenny that this was the only kind of tea she'd drink. Maybe she was a Southerner after all.

Soon, Jessa got everyone's attention with a great holler, setting up her tablet on an outdoor table with a small set of speakers.

Cliff's face showed up on the screen. "Hey guys!" Having a webcam session with someone who was a short drive away felt weird. Jenny almost got a headache from thinking about it.

Everyone gave their hooting and happy waving. Even Nana hopped a bit. "Alright everybody, calm down," Cliff said, making little waving motions with his hands. "Listen. I need to tell you guys something about Rebecca's ex-boyfriend. She's there, right?"

Rebecca tugged on her rather unflattering wig and leaned into the tablet's camera. "I'm right here."

Nodding, Cliff said, "Okay, skip to the part where you got really scared and wanted to leave."

And everyone had their attention on Rebecca, who nervously gave the weirdest story Jenny had heard since Jessa had introduced her to Lucy, the sexy Beast of a lady. When she was done, Jessa spoke up.

"He's a fast one! He was able to knock me down in no time! And his eyes turn red sometimes! It's weird as hell!"

Everyone stared at each other, fear touching most of their features, but some still were unconvinced, which was quite reasonable.

"He was at my cafe today, and he pushed me back hard with just his fingers." Cliff's little window froze for a moment.

"You stopped," Jessa said, impatiently tapping on the screen with her fingernail.

Jenny tapped on her arm. "Just wait a minute."

Cliff wasn't frozen anymore. He was talking. "Did you hear the part about him pushing me back?"

"Yes," Nana said, tapping her cane on the porch.

Cliff nodded. "Look guys, I'm going to hide Rebecca at Ryan's for now. For some reason, the weirdo's interested in me. He might follow me around. I don't need to have Rebecca anywhere near me."

"Just kill the fucker," a cousin called out.

"I'll need to get him into the woods, and he's a snobby son of a bitch. I need to earn his trust before I do that, make him think I could be a friend. As far as he knows, I think, Rebecca's left town."

Jessa frowned. "If he thinks Rebecca's left town, why isn't he running on after her?"

Rebecca gave the answer. "He doesn't know where I supposedly ran off to. He might as well stick around town and see what clues he can get."

"But why would he want to be Cliff's friend?" Jessa asked her. "That sounds stupid."

"Well he can't get clues from you, can he?" Rebecca said. "You love your shotgun too much. And besides, Eric's," and here Rebecca made an uncomfortable face, "weird enough to try and hang out with Cliff. He might even like him."

"Guys," Cliff said, "I don't want anybody messing this up. This is serious. Somebody could die."

Jenny folded her arms.

Weirdest. Family Meeting. Ever.

Honestly.

***

Giorgina's wasn't so uptight that you needed a reservation to get in. You could walk in any time and expect to be seated reasonably soon. It was still considered to be a nice Italian-like restaurant, though, and it was a place that wasn't owned by anyone in Cliff's family. Certain elements of the decor were somewhat cliché, but it was overall well put together.

Cliff had on his nicest pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of cowboy boots, even though he wasn't a cowboy at all. He had chosen a nice blue flannel shirt with long sleeves, and he made sure he used good quality deodorant to keep the shirt smelling fresh. He even combed his hair with an actual comb instead of his fingers.

The moment he entered the place Eric's long arm lifted up from a round table in a corner, and Cliff went there as if attached to a leash. As he sat down, the chair squeaked.

Eric had the most placid little smile in the world. "It's good to see you. Order whatever you like. It's my treat."

Cliff flipped his menu up and scanned its contents. Everything looked pretty nice.

"I imagine that you'd want to order a steak." Eric's voice sounded rather confident.

There were a few steak options, true, but Cliff honestly wanted something with pasta. He sighed and said, "I probably should order a steak. I like mine rare."

"That's cute. I like mine rare too." He genuinely sounded like he thought it was cute, and Cliff really didn't want to know why. "What sides do you want?"

Cliff shrugged. "I'm feeling wishy-washy. You can pick the sides if you want."

"Excellent!"

And once they had a waitress' attention, Eric ordered for them both. Was he ever like this with Rebecca? No, he was probably worse. He probably told her what she was going to eat before she even had a chance to look at the menu. Then again, Rebecca was a weirdo, a cute weirdo, but a weirdo. She probably liked being treated like that, at least sometimes.

"You're currently wondering how I treated Rebecca, aren't you?" Eric asked very calmly, looking down at the table and brushing something off of it. Cliff didn't know what it was; he couldn't see anything wrong.

"That's a duh, Man."

"Do you know why she left me?"

"She said she didn't want to talk about it." At least that wasn't a lie. Cliff tried to remain still as he said it, though. "I just assumed it was something bad, because she ran off when you came around."

"Oh it was pretty bad. I'm rather ashamed." He sure didn't sound ashamed.

The waitress from before handed them tall glasses of sweet tea with lemon wedges. Eric took his lemon wedge and placed it onto his napkin. "It was awful. I lost my temper." He was cutting the lemon wedge into four neat little sections with a knife. "I ended up punching a wall. I made a pretty big hole too." He dropped two of his lemon bits into his tea. Then he squeezed the juice from the other two in there.