Reyona raised her head just in time to see Rouarke parking his car in front of the bistro.
She turned to face the woman.
"What did you just call me?"
The woman seemed a bit surprised that Reyona understood what she said.
Still, she was not remorseful.
Instead, she raised her nose in the air and said, "Get out of my restaurant, bad woman."
"CEO Lanoth, is everything fine?" Rouarke asked as he entered the restaurant and heard the last statement from the woman.
"Oh, you are here, Rouarke," Reyona said cheerily as she turned to him. "Good. Just in time. You see, I invited you here for a different reason before, but I just discovered something better."
Better?
Curiousity could be seen on the faces of the people around as they wondered how Reyona could still be chirpy despite what just happened.
Even the heavy-set woman was looking from Rouarke to Reyona.
Reyona raised her voice as she looked in the direction that led to the kitchen and said, "Can you see what I am seeing, Rouarke?"
"I…I am not sure I can." The man placed his camera bag on the closest table and moved closer to Reyona.
"Look closely, Rouarke. In fact, bring out your camera so that you can capture this very well."
"What…what are you talking about? You…what are you doing?" The woman said this when she saw Rouarke bring out his camera.
Then he started seriously setting it up, like he was about to capture something serious.
Glad that Rouarke was such a good sport, Reyona fully got into her role as she said, "Let your camera capture that angle over there. Can you see that big roach that is about the size of a child's fist?"
Rouarke gave her a confused look, but the look Reyona gave him made him quickly look back at the direction she was pointing at.
"Yes, yes, I can see it now. I think I see it going near a pot of soup right there."
Even better than she anticipated.
Reyona smiled inwardly when she saw a man who was about to put a forkful of pasta in his mouth drop the spoon as if it were a live wire.
"What are you saying? Why are you lying like this?" Ariel was clearly distressed as she moved her massive arm from Reyona to Roarke, then back to Reyona.
"Oh, did I forget to mention it? My friend here is a top-notch reporter. He is very good with that camera and his pen."
So saying, she turned to Rouarke and said, "If we report this, just how fast do you think KFSIS would get here?"
Roaurke snapped his fingers as he said, "That fast."
One customer called one of the workers to come and give him his bill.
The food in front of him was barely touched.
Another woman stood up before they could serve her food.
One elderly man said, "Ariel, is it true that you want to make us sick? Have I been eating food that rodents have played with?"
"No, no, no. I would never do that. There is no rat. There are no cockroaches anywhere. She is lying."
"But I can see them."
Reyona said so sweetly that Roaurke gazed at her in shock for a moment.
Then he nodded and said, "Yes, yes. Right there. They were running around behind that counter. You can go look for yourself if you don't believe."
"Bah!" one man spat his polenta out onto the table. "No wonder this tastes weird today," he said as he stood up and walked towards the door.
As if that was all they needed, the other four customers left their food behind and made for the door.
"Please, don't go! What are you standing there for?" Ariel screeched at her workers.
She tried to hold on to her customers, but her massive build did not agree with her intention.
She almost toppled over the threshold in her haste to call the people back.
Her workers were beyond themselves as they came back in defeat.
The man who had spat out the polenta could be heard shouting as he went.
"You…you devil!" Ariel shouted, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath while wagging her finger at Reyona.
"What did I do?" Reyona asked innocently.
"What did you do? You just sent my customers away with your lies!"
"What lies? I only said what I saw. After all, riconosco un ratto quando lo vedo. I know a rat when I see one."
The woman's eyes widened when she realised that Reyona understood and could speak Italian.
Then she narrowed her eyes as she put her hands at her waist and said, "You did this on purpose. You did it as a payback."
The feigned look on Reyona's face was gone as she moved closer to the woman and said, "No, I did it to teach you a lesson. Not everything is as it seems on the internet. I hope you will teach your daughter this lesson too."
With that, she turned to Roaurke and said, "I have lost my appetite. Let's leave this place."
"You are just going to go? What about my customers?"
Reyona shrugged. "I assume you will have a fine time proving to them that your food is not made with rat piss after all. Good lock on that. Maybe that would teach you to think twice before calling people names."
"I…ah…I am…ahhh!"
Reyona didn't look back as the woman fell off the edge of the chair she had tried to sit on without looking back.
Reyona was not known for being vengeful, but at the moment, it felt so good to be able to pull one on such a narrow-minded, horrid woman.
Too bad that her cook makes good food.
She looked aside to see Rouarke looking at her curiously.
"Thank you for your help tonight," she said.
"You are welcome. Uhm, any time."
That made Reyona laugh.
"Oh, you mean anytime I am in the mood to put an old woman out of business, I should let you know? Cool, I will note that down."
As she reached her car, she turned towards him and said, "Let's get this done and over with."