"You don't need to protect me."
Tessa loved her job.
The cafe where she worked was small and frequented by regulars. They weren't the most interesting bunch, but she had come to know them and know their orders by heart.
There was the elderly couple who were the first to come at the cafe at exactly 9 am when her shift began. They spent three hours every day sipping from the cups of tea she provided for them and arguing over whatever was new in the newspaper.
The college student who sat by the window struggling to make her way through her textbooks. The only thing keeping her going was coffee, which Tessa made sure she always had plenty of. One time she'd been caught up with other customers and she'd found the other girl with her face buried in the pages of her textbook.
The drunkards who somehow ended up at the same table and started monologues from time to time. The twins who fought over who got the last chocolate doughnut. The business man who always rambled about the importance of coffee in one's life whenever she handed him his order. The guy who went through a messy breakup months ago and still cried over it.
There were times, though, when they put Tessa in awkward situations. The older customers tried to flirt with her, touch her, and they sometimes gave her offers for "private services". They made her uncomfortable, but she still managed to smile at them and shrug it off with a joke until they went on their merry way.
She couldn't do anything about them, because the job paid well. So she was friendly to all of her customers, drunkards included. In return she received numerous tips and didn't complain about it because she needed the extra money.
One morning, though, Tessa was surprised to see a new customer walking in.
She stared at him for a moment. Tall, well-built, black hair falling on his forehead. Eyes like the sky moments before nightfall, so beautiful she could write about them. White shirt, jeans, new shoes and a book in his hand.
Tessa plastered a smile on her face and took his order. Green tea, some honey and a bottle of water. When she was done, he chose a place in a distant, quiet corner and sat down with his book and cup of tea. He spent the next hours alone, not talking to anyone. When he was done, he left without even saying goodbye.
He came back every day after that, until he was a frequent customer. He struck Tessa as odd. He was surprisingly unsociable, didn't even try to get to know her or anyone else and never spoke more than he had to. He was new to the city, Tessa found out from the college girl, and friendless.
Several days later, when one of the drunkards was awkwardly flirting with her, Tessa caught his gaze. He was watching her with a glint of amusement in his eyes. She raised her eyebrows at him and he pointed his chin at the guy in front of her. The drunkard was speaking more to himself about something he saw the other day. He was not steady on his feet and he stumbled on the way to the exit. Tessa laughed and shook her head and she caught him smile before going back to her work.
It went on like this during the next weeks until it became a habit of theirs. They bonded over humorous glances and the eye contact and body language became their only way of communication. She wanted to get to know him more but for once she enjoyed this strange way of befriending someone.
One night, Tessa was the one in charge of closing the cafe. The foreign guy left at the same time she did but he didn't stop to say goodbye and she headed home. On her way, she noticed one of the drunkards leaning against the wall. She hesitated before she approached him.
"Are you alright? Can I help you?" Tessa asked.
The man didn't react. Instead he approached her and she began backing away from him until she felt the cold surface of the wall against her back. She had nowhere to go and he kept coming closer until they were inches apart.
"Aren't you a pretty thing?" he said more to himself. His hands went to her hips and he reeked of alcohol. Tessa tried to push him away gently, excusing herself, but he got violent. He gripped her wrists and pressed her harder against the wall despite her efforts to get away.
Tessa was released from his grip when a fist connected with his jaw.
The man stumbled back and fell on the ground. Tessa turned around to find the foreign guy standing there. He had been the one who had punched the drunkard. He took a step towards her and placed his hands on her shoulder and she realised that she was shaking.
"Are you hurt?" he asked her. He was definitely foreign. His voice was pleasant and she picked up the trace of an accent behind his words.
She shook her head and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders before leading her away. Tessa didn't pull away from him. She was suddenly very aware of the smell of his cologne and the warmth radiating from his body.
When she looked up at him he said, "I'm walking you home."
"You don't need to protect me," Tessa said but he didn't look convinced and she didn't complain further. She held to his waist and let him hold her but she didn't talk until they reached her apartment building.
"Thank you," Tessa said when she pulled away from him. "For everything."
She was halfway to the door of the building when he said, "Wait."
Tessa turned around.
"I waited for you today," he said, stuttering a bit, "because I wanted to ask you out."
"But you didn't ask," she pointed out.
He looked adorably perplexed. "What?"
She took a step towards him. "You said you wanted to ask me out, but you didn't actually ask me. You just stated your intentions."
He let out a startled laugh before asking, "Will you go out with me?"
Grinning widely at the nearly rhetorical question, Tessa grabbed her pad and pen from her bag. She felt him staring at her while she scribbled her phone number for a second before tearing the sheet of paper and stuffing it unceremoniously in his hand.
He glanced down in confusion, eyeing the numbers scrawled across the stark whiteness of the page. It took him a while to realise what she'd just given him and by the time he looked up, she was already walking into the building.
"Does this mean yes?" he called after her.
Tessa gave him a smile over her shoulder and said, "I'm free on Thursday night," before going up to her apartment. She didn't need to turn around to know that he was smiling just as much as she was.
Author's Note: This was born out of a prompt I received on Tumblr. It was meant to be an angsty ficlet at first, but then I decided to have some fun with it so this was born.