The usual cold hiss growled into the phone. It was always like that, a voice of anger yet put in a short, curt mumble. A demand hiding behind a whisper.

“I need a reservation tonight, within the next hour. You hadn’t ever been to Dorsia before and with the way things were going it seemed like that wasn’t going to change tonight. Patrick held the chunky, white phone to his ear, pinching at the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

A thick coat of lipstick smeared across your lips, staining them in its color. A bold red, because you didn’t want to piss him off tonight. Especially not with him lashing out like this before dinner even started.

Patrick always did this, promised things he didn’t have. Things like Dorsia reservations.

You could hear him pacing in the parlor from where you sat at the vanity in the bedroom. Quick, tense steps that carried him into the bedroom.

“Listen–party of 12 at 8:30.” He stood, foot tapping against the floor with a soft, repetitive thump. He ran a hand back through his greased hair before dropping down to rub at his jaw with an open palm.

He was dressed in his suit, having shed his overcoat after he got heated during his second call to the restaurant in which he hollered down the receiver. He wore his red tie, hand loosening it with every demand and shout, disrupting the neat fold of his collar.

His coworkers and their wives were expecting a Dorsia reservation for 12 at 8:30 and he had stated he had it covered. Lied through his teeth about being able to get one, and sufficiently impressed his coworkers in the moment. But now it was backfiring, as it so often did.

He slammed the phone down after a few seconds of silence–after he realized he had been hung up on for the fourth time within the last half hour. He muttered his usually violent threats beneath his breath before picking the device up and smashing the number into it again.

“Change into that black dress with the low cut and the slit up the side.” He snapped before putting the phone back up to his ear and pacing back to the kitchen.