24 Hour Coffee

chapter 7

I woke up in one of the booths in the corner of the shop. There were a few people in there, I sat up and saw that they were a few police officers and Vivian. She was talking to one of them. After a few seconds, she saw me.

"Ethan!" She said running over to me. "Are you ok, does your head hurt?" 

"A little bit," I sat up and said. My forehead was throbbing. 

"I'm gonna get you some ice." And then she ran behind the counter to the ice machine. An officer came to talk to me, about the man I assumed. I explained what had happened, him coming in yelling, calling Vivian a bitch, then coming behind the counter, getting violent. I didn't even realize until after the women walked away and Vivian came back that I had left out the part where she came in and ran to the back. 

"What happened?" I asked as Vivian started to put the bag of ice on my head.

"You fell dumbass."

I took the ice from her, "To the guy I mean."

"He's outside with another officer."

"Oh," I looked outside, his eye was purple. Did Vivian do that?

"I heard you fall, he started to open the door so I punched him." She knew what I was wondering. "The rest is unimportant."

We closed around an hour after the officers left, it was around 3 am. Neither of us felt like staying after what had happened. We didn't talk a whole lot on the way to her place. 

"Did you know that guy?" I asked when we were around a block away from her apartment. 

She opened her mouth like she was going to say something but nothing came out. "I-"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I interrupted her, and she started to slow. "I just need to make sure you're safe." I turned to her.

"He was one of my regulars at my old job," She said after another moment. We were coming up on her apartment building.

"One of your regulars?"

she hesitated again, "I was a sex worker."