Author's Note: Emily chapter.

Chapter 4: The Invitation

The sharp dressed blonde man with the prosthetic hand was back again, he'd become a regular as of late. That was actually the upper of Emily's day. Sarah hadn't come in so Emily had to do the tables and man the register. Bill hadn't come in today so his sister was in the office just in case, and her son was manning the stoves and doing a mediocre job at best. She kept having to return orders that he either burnt or messed up in some way.

"Rough day?" The blonde man asked, clearly amused at her frustrated expression.

"With the knowledge that my problems are small in the grand scheme of things, I TRY not to be too annoyed with them." Emily explained. "That's not working today." She added as the punchline. He smirked at her.

"So, you'll have the club again?" Emily asked.

"Yes please." He said as he handed her the menu.

"Oh good. At least that's an order the idiot back there isn't likely to screw up." Emily said in a sarcastically cheerful voice before walking away.

Not half an hour later Bill came in the door looking more than a little cranky. He went straight to the back office. Emily scoped the room before deciding it was probably okay to follow him.

"What do mean there's a mobster in the dining room? Do I LOOK like the kind of idiot that would fall for that protection racket bullshit?" She heard Bill yell.

"If that guy in the suit isn't with the mob than what is he?" Bill's sister (Emily thought her her name was Mary or Marie, but wasn't sure) asked in a softer voice. She'd only moved to New York a year or so ago. She was still a little obsessed with the cliches and stereotypes of the city. She probably thought half the people she passed were mobsters.

"What guy?" Bill asked in exasperation. Sensing that Mary (Marie?) was probably going to show him Emily attempted to flee before getting caught eavesdropping. Sarah blocked her path.

"When did you get in?" Emily asked roughly. Sarah frowned at her.

"I came in with Billy." Emily carefully didn't roll her eyes at the way she'd said that.

"What are you two doing back here?" Bill asked as Marie (Mary?) passed by the two of them. Emily turned around to face him.

"Oh, Boss-" Emily started.

"The front's busy isn't it? Get up there." He said.

"Right." Emily quickly retreated to the front which is where she wanted to be anyway so that worked out okay.

"That's the one." Mary ( Ma-oh whatever) pointed to the blonde man discreetly when Bill got up front as well.

"Marie..." Bill sighed, conveniently clarifying Emily's name issue. "He's not with the mob. His credit card is issued from Xanatos Corporation. He's one of the higher-ups from the Eerie Building." Bill explained.

"You mean the gargoyle building?" Sarah spoke up, sounding really creeped out.

"That's just as bad. You know that corporation is up to no good, housing those devilish creatures." Marie crossed her arms defiantly. "You should ask him to leave."

"What? But he's a regular. Plus he tips so well." Emily complained. He was just sitting there eating his sandwich, Emily couldn't see anything wrong with this picture... except that his drink was nearly empty, she should probably ask if he needed a refill. Emily slipped out from behind the counter to do just that before Bill grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Oh c'mon, you can't be serious." Emily protested.

"Go see to the other customers." Bill told her. Emily rolled her eyes in disgust but did as she was told.

As Emily went around and refilled coffees and cleared plates she kept her eyes on Bill and the blonde man. After a heated discussion in whispers with Marie, Bill went and started up a conversation with the man. It all seemed to start out amicably enough. Bill shook his hand and sat down on the other side of the booth and they talked for a minute. Then the blonde man raised an eyebrow at Bill. Emily suspected that's when the whole thing started to go downhill. Emily couldn't believe that Bill was actually going to ask the man to leave just because he worked at some company that may or may not have peculiar business practices.

Though now that Emily thought about it... David Xanatos was always in the news for doing something weird. He'd gone to jail a time or two as well. She wondered what kind of job this guy had at Xanatos Corp. He must lead an interesting life.

Emily must have missed the last part of the conversation as she was at the register with a customer because the next customer up to pay was the blonde man. Emily wasn't sure what to say to him. He was a fairly stiff person so it was hard to pinpoint how he felt about all of this.

"How was your meal?" She recited at a loss.

"The first half of it was quite good." The man said as he pulled out his wallet. "The last half is likely to disagree with me." Emily snorted and grinned at him.

"Do you get thrown out of establishments often for working at Xanatos..." Emily examined his card. "Mr. Burnett?"

"No." He said. "Usually I get hounded by reporters. The anonymity of this part of town is a pleasant alternative."

"Well, hopefully you can find yourself another nice anonymous diner. One where the manager isn't being hounded by his sister and his girlfriend to get rid of you." Emily said wryly.

"I'm sure I will before too long." He commented. "But in the mean time, I'd like to ask you to dinner."

Emily didn't know exactly what to say to that. Though most of her was calling herself an idiot for hesitating. Here was a good looking guy who was clearly well off and he was asking her out, what was there to think about? But the back of her mind was filled with paranoia. This guy was well off, and more than 10 years older than her. What did he want with her anyway?

"Okay." Emily said. She hoped she hadn't hesitated too long.

"Excellent." As he took his card back he handed her a tip along with a card. His business card.

"Have a nice day." Emily said as he left.

'Owen Burnett'... Emily thought as she examined the card. She nearly choked when she noticed his title. She slipped the card into her pocket discreetly.

"What did you talk to him about?" Sarah asked.

"Oh..." Emily hemmed. "He wasn't all that pleased with being kicked out. I was just placating him." Sarah didn't look convinced.

"What'd he give you?" Sarah eyed Emily's pocket.

"A nice tip, what's it to you?" Emily started to walk away. Sarah's hand went out to reach for Emily's pocket but Emily dodged out of the way.

"Stay out of my business." Emily said, feeling affronted. Emily managed to walk away successfully that time and get back to work.

Author's Note: By now you've possibly noticed that I'm sort of skipping around the story with different characters. I hope this doesn't bug anybody.