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Chapter 3

Two weeks working here and I was ready to quit. Ben, I finally knew his name, was the most insufferable person I had ever met. He was bitter and never pleased. It was such a shame that the handsome face had to be wasted on such a nasty character.

“lock up as you go, tell Stella she doesn’t need to come tomorrow, you too, you can take the day off.” I nodded. His driver had come to pick him up.

On the bright side, I’ve had a place to stay for the last two weeks. The shed closed down, so I slept here at the café.

I went out every night like I was going home and then I would come back when I was sure no one was going to be around and stay for the night.

It was convenient.

I cleared up for the night and prepared to sleep. I still needed to get other jobs in order to meet up with the deposit money.

I laid my head and then I was out like a light.

“.... kidding me?” I heard a voice. It sounded distant at first and then it got closer and every where got brighter

“Why are you here?” I opened my eyes to see a very livid Ben looking over me.

“What are you doing here?” his voice was calm, too calm.

“I’m sorry” I stated. was this where he was going to hit me?

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s actually more irritating when you apologise. What are you doing here”

“I.. i.. i live here”

“why” his voice was deathly calm and I was not about to look up to check from my bent position.

“I have no place to go”

“Come with me” he said going to the door.

I hesitated. He could be taking me to the station.

“don’t let me say it twice”

I followed him quietly. Shockingly, he took me to what I assumed to be his house.

“You’ll stay here for as long you need but don’t think you’re off the hook for breaking into the café at night

He went into the before coming back to meet me where I still stood in the living room.

“you’ll stay here for the night” he said pointing to the room he just came out from. I nodded. “there’s going to be a storm. Make sure not to leave your room.” I nodded

I watched him leave before I allowed myself take in the scenery of the room. It was simple but decent. Back home, I was given the used things of my sister. Her mattress, old room, everything.

This place was more spacious. The house looked luxurious, like he didn’t need to work. So why did he own a café?

I took a long hot shower before I placed my head on the bed and was out.

I was first woken up with the thunder along with the lightening that accompanied it.

It never bothered me. I’ve faced more fears than a little lightening.

I was preparing to go back to sleep when I heard painful cries from the next room.

Ben told me not to go out’ I reminded myself as I tried to lay back down. The cries got louder and I could not ignore it.

I went To where the sounds were coming from and there, I saw Ben on the floor. I got closer trying to help him up.

“no! Do not to come any closer! I told you to stay in your room! Don’t you fucking listen?” on a normal day, I would have thought he was being mean or just being his normal cold self. But now, I heard a little desperation, along with embarrassment.

“You’re on the floor, you need assistance” I said moving to him a little slowly, scared of how he was going to react.

“I said get the hell away from me! I don’t need you, I’ll be fine on my own” he said trying to get up to lay on the bed.

I got closer to him and noticed where he laid was wet. I looked at the window. There was no way the rain from outside could have reached where he was. He peed himself.

I think he mistook my frozen position for something else, because he sneered at me

“I can do it myself you can go back” I ignored what he said and proceeded to carry him up, his drenched trousers seeping its liquid into my clothes.

I didn’t mind though. I could clean it up later.

“The rags? Where are they?”

“Just help me get the chair closer. You don’t need to clean my mess.”

“I know. Where’s the rag.?” He didn’t answer me so I went to find it myself. I came back with some rags and a bucket of water and started cleaning.

“You know you don’t have to do this” he said again, the look of embarrassment evident on his face. “There is absolution reason why you need to help me.”

I said as I cleaned thee floor.

“You’re wrong. The day you cleaned my wounds. You were the first person who didn’t look at my scars with disgust. Even I look at them sometimes with absolute disgust. But you, you acted like it was no big deal. You didn’t even ask questions. I owe you for that” I said honestly. That was one thing b I could get over. Apart from the apparent shock that was on his face to find the scars, there was nothing. He didn’t look at then in irritation or anything like that. I remembered that day, how I got a warm feeling in my chest.

“You may be mean to me sometimes, but you’re the only one that has actually ever shown me true kindness.”

He didn’t say anything after that, he did not need to. I packed up the supplies and took them to the washer and went to sleep. I was sure to drag the wheelchair to his side this time around.

**

As the week went on, Ben was a little softer, he threw fits here and there but not as bad as before. He would do nice things like buy me a new dress or just randomly say something nice about me. At work, he just let me do my own thing. Although the last three days, I noticed that he was always looking at me.

“Did you do something to Ben? He always seems to glare at you.”

So it wasn’t only me that noticed “I think it’s just Ben being Ben. I am used to it” i said shrugging of the feeling I was getting

I thought we were cool after that night? He even asked the maid to prepare a meal and we ate together in silence.

More importantly, why did it bother me that he might hate me? I shrugged off the feeling and got back to work.

That night as we were closing up I looked at him

“why do you hate me?” I felt stupid for asking that question but I needed to know.

“What?” he looked at me. “Why would I hate you?”

“I don’t know, you’ve been looking at me with cold eyes. Through out the week. I just thought..” I was starting to feel stupid for it blurting out. “sorry, i just.”

“do you want to go out this evening?” he said cutting me off from embarrassing myself further.

“sure.” I said trying to hide the blush from my face. I tried in vein not to be delusional, but it was hard not to.

He was asking me out, it might be a dinner date. I blushed further thinking about it.

“great. Let’s go home” the drive home was quiet. We both sat at the back, looking at the window. I practically rushed into the house to get dressed. It’s not like I had something elaborate so I had to do with the cute floral gown I had. It was what I got with my money on my sixteenth birthday. It was armless, so I grabbed my turtle neck and pulled it over before wearing the dress.

I tried as much as I could to make my face presentable with the little I had.

“Let’s go?” I said coming out of my room and seeing him waiting in the room, already in a tux.

He looked dashing. I got the same feeling I got in my chest and stomach the day he picked out the broken pieces of the cup out of my hands and knee.

“don’t stared too much. You might fall for me” he joked giving me a wide smile. If only he knew how true those words might be.

“Let’s just go” I rolled my eyes trying to joke it off.

“Allison” he called my name making me look at him. I realised then, that it was the first time he called my name. There was no need to call my name at work. There was a buzzer for that, and we really didn’t see at home cause he was busy most of the time or he just wasn’t home.

“I got you something” he said and turned in his chair to get something that was apparently beside.

I took the paper bag from him, looking at him suspiciously.

I opened it. And I was shocked. In the bag was a Samsung S22 and a shiny jewellery.

“Thank you” I said trying to hold the tears that threatened to flow. This was the first time anyone ever gave me a gift and it wasn’t fairly used or a ‘hand me down.’

“I figured you might need a phone in case I wanted to reach you out of work.” He looked anywhere apart from me.

I handed him the jewellery but he looked at me. “oh, i thought it would look pretty. If you don’t like it I could return it.” I didn’t think I was at the level where I could tease him, so I kept quiet.

“it’s pretty, help me wear it?” i asked awkwardly.

“sure, but I don’t think I would be able to reach, you know” you gestured to his legs.

I bent down to his level and pushed my hair to the side for him to be able to put it on me with ease.

“I love it, thank you” I said touching the necklace like it was a rare germ. For me, it was.

“Let’s get going.” He said not looking at me. I could have mistaken the expression he had on for being shy. But we were talking about Ben. He didn’t care for those type of emotions.

We went to the restaurant, and to say I felt under dressed was an understatement. I felt soo out if place

The conversations between us moved so easily. He told stories about his childhood and i could not help myself but to laugh out a few times causing people to stare at us and make me want to burn myself in the grass, but that didn’t stop me from laughing each time he told a funny story.

“I hope you don’t mind, my girlfriend would be joining us”

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