Santi: The Devil's Pioneer

Chapter 14 - Lunch Out With Lobsters

“It’s actually a side dream for me to become a fashion consultant. You know, like Rachel’s job? I think it’s kinda cool.” Emily sips on her pina colada at 10 am.

We were sitting by the terrace of a beautiful, summery, and warm restaurant that faced the marina. Emily had gotten bored shopping for two hours and decided it was time for brunch. A brunch that I assume would also be expensive as hell, if not just to keep up with her brand of being daddy’s spoiled little brat.

“Rachel who?” My eyebrows crunched in confusion.

“Come on, you’re shidding me.” I looked even more confused. “Rachel Green from Friends? Friends the 90s sitcom?”

“Not really ringing a bell.” I shake my head at her. How could I know? Television cables couldn’t reach Hell.

“No offense, S, but it honestly sounds like you were born yesterday.”

That, indeed, was taken with offense. Her use of slang such as calling me S when my name is Santi is evidence enough that she was born yesterday.

I shrug off her comment and gasp at the lobster that was as red as an apple being served on plates. It even had garnishes or lemon and green leaves.

“Don’t tell me this is your first lobster meal, as well?”

“Where I came from, we didn’t really eat all that much.”

I had learned the habit of taking things simple. It wouldn’t help me nor Emily’s situation to know about my truth.

“Well, ready your stomach because we have all morning to finish these off.”

Just as those words left her mouth, servers continuously left plates of food on the table. By my count, eight servers placed two plates each on the table. The table looked like it could feed a community by the time the servers left.

“Are we expecting more company?” I asked politely.

“What? No? Why, is there someone you’d like to invite? Call them over.”

“Um, no. I actually don’t know anyone else here. I- There’s just a lot of food here. Do you really think we can eat this much?”

I know I couldn’t even if I have been starved for almost a week now.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take some home for my pet dogs. They love these chicken apps.”

“Apps?” I ask out like an i***t. Well, she might think I’m an i***t. Or just an extremely underprivileged, poor girl from nowhere. Either way, I know she feels hella good for herself right now. Way to help the less fortunate, huh.

“Appetizers.” She chuckles sarcastically, as if in disbelief that I didn’t know appetizers could now be shortened to figging apps. “Anyways, I texted some of my friends to come over since you obviously think we aren’t starved enough for this feast.”

The day was starting to go downhill. I could sense some tension between me and Emily. She wasn’t as tough and sweet as she was in jail. In less than the four hours that I spent with her outside of jail, I could already feel her overbearing attitude slumped on my shoulders.

We start to eat in silence after our drinks were refilled. Every dish on the table was scrumptious and I hadn’t even tasted everything. We were starting to have fun again. Emily’s spoiled and overbearing attitude tuned out as she introduces me the different dish on the table. She always had a fun way or story to accompany the dish introduction.

“Now this, this is the main meal of the night. Red Hook Lobster Pound has everyone else’s lobster beat. This guy right here is the winner of this marina. This guy will take you to heavens. This lobster is heaven.” She laughs as she cracks the lobster’s tail open and fishes out the flesh, handing it to me.

“Use your hands and take it in the dip. That dip is fire, too. Reminds me a lot of the time my brother and I surfed in Cuba. They had this special drink. It was a little thick, served in a big glass cup, and it even had a little spoon that you could use to stir it around and slurp.” She giggles like hell before finishing her story. It was cute. So far, she had mentioned countless stories with her brother and father. None of them were spoiled or rotten stories as well. Makes me think that maybe I judged her too quickly.

“And then what happened?” I nudged her story along before dipping the lobster meat.

“We were halfway through glass, casually slurping our thick drink when the waiter approached us and said,” Laugh here, laugh there. Her laugh could eat the entire table, honestly. “Ma’am, I’m sorry for serving the wings late. There was a problem with our fryer. But glad to see you’re enjoying the dip without the chicken. The dip! We were drinking the figging dip!” She laughed out loud and I chuckled at her story. It was funny.

“I can’t believe you drank a half-full cup of dip. What must’ve that like?”

“I can’t believe they serve dip in glass full. It was bright, summery, and drinky. Who would have thought they were accompaniments to our chicken wings?” She laughed some more and I smile at seeing her this carefree.

I wish I could have been that carefree. But no, Hell always demanded the most intense of personalities from me.

“Your brother sounds so cool. I wish I could get to meet him sometime. I never really had a sibling.”

“He’s an ass most times. But I need him. He’s actually the only one daddy trusts with the money and the cards. Kind of selfish of him, really.”

“Oh?” How do you respond to a comment that shallow?

“Daddy thinks I can’t handle the responsibility, but I totally can, you know. I don’t mind though since my brother entrusts me with the cards completely. You can’t really deny this cuteness, can you?” She pretends to flicker her eyes. I smile along, completely in disagreement with everything she said.

She is hella spoiled.

Moments after, her phone rings and she stood up to answer.

“This must be my friends. Would you mind if I left for a minute? I have to go get them by the gate.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll stay here.” I tell her.

Her friends were rarely mentioned during any food dish introduction. But I expect them to be more of her kind. Bratty and spoiled. Teens on Earth never really know the word content. It’s as if money or clothes would run out on them.

I shift in my seat, quite uncomfortable with meeting new people. I’ve never really had much human interaction. Any decent interaction on Hell comprised of Lucifer and Lilith. Both were pretty dark.

Emily returns and I inwardly gasp at her guests. They were not what I expected, at all.