I looked directly into Julian’s eyes. The manager was standing with his arms crossed, a smug, triumphant look on his face, waiting for us to accept our fate: the noisy, undignified bar table or the walk of shame back to the elevator.
“More important?” I asked, my voice frighteningly calm, a quiet, flat question that seemed to suck the air out of the space between us.
Julian shrugged, a gesture of pure, dismissive contempt. “It’s restaurant policy, sir. We prioritize our high-profile clientele. I’m sure you understand.”
“I see.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t raise my voice. I just nodded, as if he had given me a perfectly reasonable piece of information.
Then, I pulled out my phone. Julian smirked, a genuine, mocking expression this time, clearly thinking I was desperately trying to call another restaurant to salvage our ruined evening.
I found a number in my contacts under ‘Alex – Building Management’ and pressed “dial.”
Part 3: The Time Bomb
Emily watched me, her face a mask of confusion, but she trusted me enough to be silent, to let me see this through.
The call connected on the first ring.
I put the phone to my ear, my eyes never leaving Julian’s smug, condescending face. “Hi, Alex,” I said, my voice still perfectly level.
A voice buzzed on the other end.
“I’m at ‘Le Ciel.’ Yes, that’s right. The restaurant in our building.”
I watched Julian’s face. The smirk froze. The words “our building” had landed like a stone in a still pond, the ripples of their implication spreading across his features.
“Listen, Alex, we seem to have a problem with the tenant on the 60th floor,” I continued, my voice as calm and methodical as if I were discussing a leaky pipe.
Julian’s face began to change, the smugness dissolving into a dawning, horrified confusion. He was processing. He was connecting the dots.
“Call the owners of this restaurant chain, the Sterling Group, immediately,” I ordered, my voice now taking on a new, hard edge of command. “Inform them that their 15-year lease for the entire 60th floor will not be renewed next month. In fact, I don’t care what the penalty clause is, find a way to terminate it, effective immediately. Cite a breach of the building’s code of conduct. I want them out.”
Part 4: The Judgment
