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“Oh, that would be nice, thanks!” I say, looking at him and heading for the door, I can feel him close behind me as we walk out together.
Mike hands me a drink of champagne when I walk out of the door. It tastes wonderful. Standing with Mike and a couple of the girls from the bar while we have a drink and chat about general stuff. It’s nice, I feel sort of… normal again.
Before we know it, we have to put the champagne glasses down as it starts to get busy and we are rushed off our feet. I keep feeling a little light-headed as I make the rounds, but carry on. I think the drink may have gone to my head. Being tired probably doesn’t help; I’ll rest up tomorrow.
The whole night seems to be going in slow motion, every time I look around the pub, there he is, always watching me, like he’s trying to figure something out, watching me work and chat with the people that come in. Maybe I’m talking too much, maybe that’s his problem, so I stop chatting to the customers and just nod at people when they try to talk to me.
When I hear shouting and a few screams, I look over my shoulder to see a fight that’s broken out between two guys. The guy by the bar has been punched in the face; both of them are drunk, you can just tell by the way they stumble around each other when more fists start flying. One guy hits the other and stumbles over towards me. Before I can move out of the way, I’m knocked over. As I try to get up, I see a fist flying towards me, as the other guy moves out the way. I know it’s not aimed at me, but it sure does hurt when it hits me square in the chest and I fall into the table beside me. Sharp pain spreads across my ribs as I land on the floor. I can’t breathe, I keep trying to stand to get out of the way as the fight continues around me, but it hurts too much. I can’t get up. I can’t suck enough air in… my head spins, I can’t focus... I know I’m starting to panic. I need to get out, bad memories flood in, I can’t deal with this. Everyone’s looking at me, I hear my name being shouted, but I can’t focus on where it’s coming from. Before I know it, one of the guys has fallen on me, he’s so heavy, like a dead weight… it feels like he’s crushing me, I can’t catch my breath, it hurts too much, the pain…
Chapter eight
The Fight
Jack
Walking back into the bar, I hear shouting, “I step out for two minutes to take a piss and look what happens,” I mutter under my breath. My first official night as owner, now look what I’ve got to deal with. I was kind of hoping it would be a slow night so I’d get a chance to talk to Millie again. She seemed almost scared when I touched her arm earlier out the back, the way she flinched again, and almost withdrew herself… there’s something wrong, I just need to find out what it is.
I look around while I walk over to the fight to help try and break it up, I can see some locals trying to help but the fight is bad; these two really have it out for each other. I look to see if all the staff are okay, but I can’t see Millie, maybe she’s out the back, I wouldn’t blame her.
As I get closer to the guys fighting, I see her, she tries to move but she’s not fast enough and the guy punches her in the chest full force, fuck… I start running, almost shoving people out of the way as they watch what’s happening. I watch as she smacks into the table beside her. She clutches her chest and lets out a cry of pain. I start running faster towards her, “Millie,” I shout,but she can’t see me. She tries to focus, but the guy lands on her, shoving her back down onto the floor. She can’t move, she can’t breathe. I move in and grab the guy by his shirt and haul him off her, letting everyone else deal with him. Kneeling down on the floor, I go to pick her up but she flinches away from me.
“Millie, it’s Jack, let me help you?” I ask. I can see the fear in her eyes as she tries to get up but can’t, struggling to get a full breath in. When I move closer, I can see she’s panicking, still unable to catch her breath. I need to get her away from all this and see how badly she’s hurt. When I pick her up, she cries out in pain but then curls up in my arms as I carry her through the crowd and into the office. I’ll call an ambulance when we’re inside. She feels so small in my arms, so fragile. All I want to do is protect her. Glancing at her every few seconds, I notice the bruising on her arms showing just underneath her shirt. They’re a lighter shade of purple, but some are yellowy. All across her wrist like a band. I can see them on her neck too.What hell has she been through to get these? She’s tried to cover them up but they still show. Are they from the accident Dan told me she’d been in?
When I place her on the small sofa in the office, she winces. She’s in so much pain, her breathing is staggered, like she can’t get enough in.
“Millie, try not to move, I’m calling you an ambulance, we need to get you seen too.”
“No...” her eyes dart to me, “Don’t call…”
“But you’re hurt real bad Mil, you may have broken something, you can hardly breathe.” I pull out my phone and dial 999, I go through the motions and one is on the way, or should be soon.
“Why… did you do that?” You can tell each word she says hurts, but she carries on, “It’s only a fractured or bruised rib…” wincing in pain.
“I don’t understand, how do you even know it’s a fracture? They’ll be here soon anyway, so you have no choice but to see them”.
“It’s nothing… I’ve not dealt with … a few times before.” She lets out a steady breath
“What the fuck does that mean?” I can feel myself getting angry, but my words come out calm.What does that mean? She has dealt with broken ribs before, a few broken ribs? Was it the accident?
“Nothing... I mean… um… I was in an accident a few weeks back… I broke a few ribs, that’s all.”
Bullshit, I know what Dan meant now when he said he could tell she was lying. I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach like dread. I want to help her, but I’m not sure she is going to let me.
“Was it bad, this accident?” I walk over and sit next to her, her breathing a little more even now.
“Yep, it was bad.” She starts to cry, tears streaming down her face. Reaching out, I put my arm around her, she tries to move away and screams in pain again, so I move away. “Sorry, I just… don’t want to talk about it,” she says, looking at me with such sad eyes.
Mike knocks on the door and walks in.
“Ambulance has just pulled up, how are you Emilie?’” Unfortunately it’s not the first time someone has been hurt in the pub when a fight starts, not usually staff though. Mike looks as concerned as I do, when she doesn’t speak, we both glance at each other, not knowing what to do. I watch as her head falls to the side and suddenly, she slumps over, passing out. I grab her before she falls off the sofa and lay her down just as the paramedics walk in.
“She’s just passed out, she was fine, well not fine, but talking, she was struggling to catch her breath, but then she slumpedover,” I tell them, moving back so they can do what they need to do. Mike does the same, we both just stare at her.
“What happened to her?” One the paramedics asks, I tell them everything I saw, then they ask us to give them a few minutes with her, so we both leave the office and wait outside, letting them do their thing.
“Mike, how much do you know about Millie?” I ask him. She may have told him something that could help me understand what’s happened to her in those six years.
“Not a lot really, I know she has just moved here, moved into her new place today. She looked exhausted when she came in today, but she said it was just from the move. I think it’s more than that though, I have a feeling she is running from something or someone, why do you ask anyway? How do you two know each other?”
