Drew didn't see Hailey until the cantina started getting packed. As she had the night before, she had come to fetch her black waist apron whilst he was serving drinks. He hadn't been able to talk to her since she had pulled that stunt on him earlier and it had left him incomplete and somewhat confused.
By midnight, the place was in full effervescence. There was music and the alcohol was flowing, but regardless of how many people were in the cantina, both he and Hailey managed to keep up with the demand and keep the customers happy. Carmen went from table to table, mingling and easily manipulating them into buying and drinking more.
He often noticed that Hailey talked to a group of 5 Mexicans, they seemed to know each other, and Drew deducted that they were regulars. It was the only thing he was able to deduct. One of them had the hots for Hailey and each time she would leave their table, he would look at her and make comments to his pals. Being a man, Drew knew what kinds of comments they were making, and he didn't like it. He found it vulgar and disrespectful.
Around 1 in the morning, half of the customers had left, and things were a bit quieter. Hailey came to the bar and took the tray with a double round of shots for the 5 men. She walked over under Drew's vigilant eye and served them. As she removed the shot glasses from the tray to the middle of the table, the guy that had been making the comments earlier, took his hand and placed it on Hailey's ass and pinched it. As he had been leaning against the back counter of the bar, Drew took a step forward.
"Rafael, hands off", said Hailey in a low but firm voice as she swept his hand off her butt cheek.
The guy looked at her smiling and winked. As she finished placing the last glass on the table, he proceeded to place his hand in between her legs rather high up, too high for comfort.
"Rafael, I think you've had a bit too much to drink, knock it off", said Hailey as she grabbed his hand and forcefully pushed it away.
Drew took a step in the direction of the bar door, fist clenched.
Rafael laughed as he grabbed Hailey's hand and placed it in a very convenient part of his shorts.
What happened next, launched a series of events that would change Drew and Hailey's relationship.
Hailey slapped Rafael across the face with her free right hand, sending him into a fury. He stood and slapped Hailey across the face so hard that it sent her crashing into a nearby table and chairs, breaking empty glasses along the way and ending up on the floor.
Rafael slowly walked over to her. He was just warming up, but he wasn't expecting was to find Drew in his path as he placed himself between Rafael and Hailey.
Drew looked at him with an icy stare. "Where I come from, we don't sexually aggress women or hit them. And if I were you, I'd leave before I give you a taste of your own medicine, man to man".
Rafael laughed. "What are you going to do gringo? There's five of us and you're alone. Go back behind your bar".
"Ain't happening".
"It's none of your business".
"Actually, it is", said Drew as he kept his eye on Rafael and his friends who had stood and placed themselves like a wall next to Rafael.
"Your business is serving us drinks, so I can finish what I started with this bitch"!
That had been the tipping point for Drew. He punched Rafael in the face, easily and forcefully, sending him stumbling backwards. As he recuperated, his friends tried to neutralize Drew, but he was quicker, smarter and more experienced than they were. He grabbed bottles, chairs, empty trays and anything he could to hit them and bring them to the ground. Realizing that they were no match for him, Rafael's friends, quickly escaped through the front door, leaving Rafael alone. Rafael was beet red from anger and rage. He put his fists up, showing Drew that he wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Drew smirked. "Show me what you got", he said as he waved Rafael over to defy him.
Rafael flung his fist at Drew, who caught it without blinking. In one swift move, he was behind Rafael holding his arm behind his back and pushing him out towards the door. Rafael was moaning in pain as Drew gave him the final shove out the door.
"You come back here, and you'll end up with more than just one broken bone"!
With that Drew closed the door and locked it, he walked nonchalantly back to where Rafael had sent Hailey to the floor. She was still down on the floor, still trying to digest everything that had happened. He knelt in front of her and quickly looked her over. Her lip and nose were bleeding, and her left thigh more than it should have been.
"Are you alright"? he asked as he looked at her thigh closer.
"Uh huh… I think so". She put her hands down on the floor indicating that she was going to stand up when he stopped her. She was apparently in such a state of shock that she hadn't even noticed that she was bleeding.
"You've got pieces of glass in your left thigh. You shouldn't walk until we get them out".
She removed her eyes from his and looked down at her leg. "Shit"!
She watched him as he took off his t-shirt and use it as a tourniquet just above her wound. She tried really hard not to, but it was nearly impossible for her not to look at his muscular chest and stomach. He stood up and bent over, placing one of his arms underneath her legs and the other around her back. He picked her up from off the floor so easily it struck her. He had been in a brawl with 5 guys and picked her up and he hadn't even broken a sweat.
"What are you doing"? she asked as they headed towards the kitchen door.
"I don't trust Mexican medicine. The last thing you need is an infection".
When they arrived at the second floor, he turned left in the direction of his room. He opened the door with the hand that was under her legs and placed her delicately on his bed. As he went to close the door and turn on the light, she looked around. There wasn't much to see. He had just as much furniture as she had. A pile of books was on the dresser next to a laptop, a pair of sunglasses and a set of keys. He too lived simply apparently.
She turned her attention back to him as he brought the chair next to the bed and a flashlight, that she had no idea from where it had come from.
Drew looked at the wound meticulously from all angles and then stood.
"I'll be right back".
She heard him scurry down the stairs and then back up less than five minutes later. In his hands, a pair of latex gloves, that Santos wore when handling food, a first aid kit, a bottle of vodka and needle nose pliers, that she had seen before underneath the bar, in a tool box.
Her eyes opened wide upon seeing the artillery he had come back with, yet she didn't move an inch. There was something about his tranquil and collected attitude that made her feel safe.
He slipped his hands in the gloves and took the flashlight again.
"You've got 2 big shards of glass and three smaller ones, no major vein or artery seems to have been touched, its safe to take them out", he said without looking at her.
"Are you a doctor by day and a bartender by night"? she asked trying to remain calm through humor.
"No. But I've seen a lot of these kinds of wounds".
"Where? At war"?
He looked up at her.
"I saw how you hit those guys, you don't learn that in high school".
"You could say that, yeah".
He leaned towards the desk, and grabbed the bottle of Vodka, he opened it and handed it to Hailey.
"This is a bottle of Spirytus Delikatesowy, a Polish Vodka almost a 100% proof alcohol. Take a sip, it'll take the edge off".
Hailey looked at the bottle. "I don't drink".
He looked at her in disbelief. "Cut the crap and take a fucking sip, this is going to hurt like hell".
"I just told you I don't drink! I come from a long line of alcoholics alright, so thanks but no thanks".
It all started to make sense to him, her Coke Zero the other night. Yet it pained him, because he knew that what he was about to do wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
"You might want to find something you can bite into. Personally, I'd prefer not waking Carmen up and having to explain what happened, at least not right now".
She grabbed the first thing that was in her reach, his pillow and bit into it as she watched him move the Vodka bottle closer to her leg.
"Do you trust me"? he asked her gently but firmly.
Did she trust him? Trust was a big word but then again, so far, he hadn't done anything for her to not trust him.
She looked at him with soft eyes and nodded. He finally saw, that vulnerability he had suspected when he had seen her on the beach.
He tilted the bottle and the vodka poured itself on her open gash.
He looked at her again as he poured another round. Her jaw was locked tight, her hands had grabbed his bedsheet and she was holding them fist tight. She was moaning from pain and tears were running down her eyes.
"Just breathe threw your nose, in and out. I know it's hard, but try to accept the pain you're feeling, it'll soon all be a distant nightmare".
He took the pliers and removed all the shards. When he was done, he saw her fists loosen and release the bed sheet. At that moment, he thought about her clenching his bedsheets but for an entirely other reason.
He opened the first aid kit and placed a sterile gauze pad over the wound then wrap a bandage around her thigh. He removed the gloves and threw them in the garbage bin.
Hailey removed the pillow and looked at it, it had a few blood stains on it. She looked at Drew with a mix of worry and apology.. it was his pillow after all.
He looked at her. She was still breathing heavily, but it was slowly getting back to normal. He grabbed a sterile disinfecting pad and wet it with some of the saline solution from the first aid kit. He shifted from the chair to her side on the bed and wiped and cleaned the blood away from her nose and mouth. She kept quiet, but he could tell she was watching every single one of his moves.
As his fingers accidently brushed her lip, she shivered, and he noticed.
"Are you cold"? he asked genuinely concerned and worried she could be in a state of shock.
"A little", she answered, knowing it was a lie. Her body was burning.
He rose to his feet and took one of the blankets from his wardrobe.
"I should go back to my room", she said as he did so.
"You should stay here. I'd like to keep an eye on that wound for a couple of hours".
"I don't mean to burden you, I'm sure I'll be fine".
"You're not being a burden". He paused for a moment. "Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot yesterday and I'm sorry. But that injury needs to be checked regularly, please stay".
She said nothing but simply nodded.
He helped her settle down in his bed and covered her.
He grabbed one of his books then sat down on the chair.
"You're not going to sleep"? she asked.
He smiled at her. "I'll sleep tomorrow".
"Drew"?
"Yeah"?
"Thanks for coming to my rescue back there and for taking care of me".
He gave her a genuine smile. "I owed you one. Let's just say we're even", he said as he winked at her.
It made his heart skip a beat when he saw her blush.
"I think we're far from even", she said as she closed her eyes.
Very quickly, her breathing become more regular and he knew she was sound asleep.
He grabbed his laptop and turned it on. He entered his password and went for a very specific program on it. He typed something and then looked at the screen.
The pointer was on the execute button and his finger was on the touch pad. He looked at her then back at the screen again. He tapped his finger on the touch pad sending the software the command to search anything and everything that had to do with Hailey Wade. He needed to and wanted to know everything about her, even the things he felt she would never tell him.