Chloe’s eyes were fixed on Bradley’s hand.
She wasn’t looking at his face.
She was analyzing his skeletal alignment, his weight distribution, the tense muscles in his forearm.
“Or what?” Bradley sneered, finally releasing Toby and shoving him hard into a table.
Toby scrambled away, clutching his shoulder.

Bradley took a step toward Chloe, encroaching on her personal space.
He was a foot taller and easily outweighed her by 90 lb.
“You’re going to cut me off from the pie display, go fetch my steak, waitress.”

Chloe didn’t flinch.
She didn’t step back.
Seeking to completely humiliate her in front of his live stream audience, Bradley suddenly chambered his leg and whipped a lightning fast roundhouse kick directly at Chloe’s head.
It was a classic intimidation tactic.
A kick meant to stop a fraction of an inch from the target’s nose to make them flinch, scream, or fall over.

The heavy leather of his sneaker stopped exactly 1 inch from Chloe’s left temple.
The displaced air fluttered her loose hair.
Any normal person would have screamed.
Any normal person would have thrown their hands up, stumbled backward, and cowered.
Chloe didn’t blink.
Her breathing didn’t even accelerate.
She simply stood there, staring at the leg hovering near her face with bored indifference.

Bradley’s smirk faltered.
He lowered his leg, slightly unnerved by her total lack of reaction.
To cover his embarrassment, he slapped the tray of silverware out of her hand.
It crashed onto the linoleum with a deafening clatter.

“Clean that up,” Bradley spat, turning his back to her and laughing for the camera.
“You call that karate, kid?” he yelled across the room to Toby.
“That’s real speed. You people wouldn’t know a real fight if it kicked your teeth in.”

Behind him, Chloe looked down at the scattered silverware.
She looked at Toby, who was shaking in the corner, tears of humiliation welling in his eyes.
She looked at the smartphone in Cameron’s hand, broadcasting the cruelty to thousands.

Slowly, Chloe reached around to the small of her back.
She took hold of the strings of her apron.

The diner was suffused with a suffocating tension.
The only sound was the rhythmic thrum of the rain hitting the large glass windows and the tinny distorted audio of Cameron’s live stream echoing from his phone.
Chloe’s hands pulled the knot free.
She slipped the white loop over her head.