Chapter 2

“Thank God” Catherine stood up and ran to the other end of the counter.

“Who do you think you are?A savior?”

“You should be ashamed of yourself, harassing a helpless lady?, You should face one of your kind, someone in your caliber”

The man said nothing but he walked up to the harasser.

“Why don't you mind your business and keep on going, this should not be your concern”

“It is my concern and standing there watching you disrespect a lady will not be easy to let my business interrupt what I should in fact interrupt”.

The man said and stood in confidence as he spoke.

“You’re only talking gibberish, and I think you should leave” The man insisted.

“Why don't you face me, someone in your level”

The man went in to punch him.

He dodged it and planted a punch on the harasser's face. The man fell to the ground.

“You're a sick person you know” He stood up and ran out the door.

Catherine came out from where she was, timidly but intentionally she walked up to him and wanted to thank him.

“Thank you so much,” She quietly muttered.

He paused for a while and finally said,

“Be more careful how you drink and how late you stay out at night, you must be new to this place, but this should be a waking call to what New York City's low-lifes are”

That was all he said before picking up his keys and phone, then left the bar almost immediately.

“What's wrong with people out here in this city?He didn't even wait to hear me show gratitude” Catherine nagged to herself and took position back where she sat previously.

She really wanted to leave the place but having nowhere to go made it a very tough decision for her to make.

“What happened?, I heard your shout from the back room” The bar man rushed out from the back room.

Catherine gave him an awful side eye and he stopped in his step.

“Why is your bar less effective in the security of the customers?, I was almost raped, right here in your bar, right on this counter.”

“We've never had or recorded any scenario like that in this bar”

“Well you have now and your security should be tightened to stop riffraffs from entering the bar”

“Yes ma'am”

“That man,”

“Who?”

“The one that just left here,” “tall, dark hair, I think his eyes were brown” Catherine tried to remember his physique.

“Oh him, I've never seen him, this was the first time”

“So you knew when he was here and you didn't bother to come out until after he took care of the situation”

“I'm an ordinary bar man, ma'am, not Anthony Joshua's incarnate.” The bar man retorted.

Catherine stretched out her glass and he added another shot.

The argument between Catherine and the bar man came to a halt when the doorbell rang indicating the entry of someone. Catherine realized that the man who saved her was already inside the bar and was already provoked before he took action, because she didn't hear the bell sound when he came in.

He was a huge, tall man, probably in his early forties, gray hair was on the side of his light brown hair, his nose was slightly big but pointed, he wore a suit but she couldn't see his eyes due to the shades he wore, which added a little mystery to how he looked.

Catherine saw the bar man's face light up and immediately suspected that he was one of their loyal customers.

“Good day sir,” he hesitated a little bit before talking.

“Good day,” The man's voice was husky and full of power.

Catherine sat up straight in the chair and was impressed at how one man's presence could hold so much valor.

“Welcome here sir, what drink will you have today sir?” The bar man asked.

“The usual,” He answered and unbuttoned his suit jacket before sitting on the counter where Catherine sat. She became uneasy.

He noticed it but chose to say nothing. Catherine kept on glancing over. She attributed that to the alcohol she was taking, nothing else.

“Alright, here you go sir” he slid the glass and he caught it.

It was the same drink Catherine was taking.

Catherine strained her eyes to see if it was really what she was taking.

“I don't bite you know,” he said as he took a shot, his face was straight, looking forward and not turning to look at her.

It gave her more opportunity to soak his profile in. His jaw was as sharp as a knife and she could clearly see the gray hair on his sides.

“Maybe he's in his forties,” Catherine thought to herself. She shook her head yet again to clear thoughts of him that were oddly appearing in front of her.

“It must be the alcohol,” she muttered to herself but it was loud enough for him to hear her.

“What?” This time he turned to look at her this time.

“No, not you,” “didn't expect you to hear those things”.

There was an awkward silence. They sat for a while, he took many shots and Catherine was getting suspicious.

“Are you ok?” She blurted out.

“What?”

“Are. You. Ok?”

She repeated herself.

“Of Course I'm fine, why'd you ask?”

“You look like you're trying to forget something, something that's bothering you, what are you trying to forget?”

“What gave you the impression?”

“I've been in this bar for over five hours, almost got harassed and you, in one sitting have drank more bottles than I have in that five hours”

“Maybe some of us just have really high resistivity to alcohol”

“No, maybe some of you have things that bother you and feel it's ok to bottle it up” Catherine retorted.

“What were you saying about harassment?”

“Don't try to change the topic” “look I know I'm a stranger and we need to be careful who we give out information to, but, you really don't look ok and saying something will help reduce stress” Catherine raised her hands to touch his cheek.

His shades were no longer on his face and she could see his ocean blue eyes more clearly.

He was way older than she was but she didn't mind. Her palm was on his face.

“What are you doing?” He jolted backwards.

“I'm sorry” Catherine wanted to remove her hands but he held her hands back in place.

“Maybe I have things bothering me,” He stared at her, “with your consent, I'd like you to drive them away”

He was already drunk and Catherine knew she needed this, being celibate for five years was a hard thing to keep up with.

The bar man was not at the counter and nobody else was in the bar.

He leaned in for a kiss. Catherine was more at ease now, he wasn't forcefully acting, he was being gentle with her.

She took his lips into hers as she was on the chair and gently bit his lips.

His hands wrapped around her and he drew her close to him.

“Can we go in?” He whispered into Catherine's ears.

“One night with you wouldn't hurt.”