4

It had been three days and there had been no sign of Ivan. To Yao, it seemed rather sudden. Ivan had seemed to be stalking him and now he seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.

As he made it into the cafe he thought to himself how sad it was that the first two weeks he had lived here he didn't see Ivan once and no one seemed to care. He wondered if the large man ever got lonely.

He couldn't help but worry. He admitted that to himself within the first few hours of realising that Ivan really wasn't going to follow him around anymore he had started to get anxious. He didn't understand what had made Ivan suddenly decide to stop. If he had still seen Ivan around then it wouldn't be so bad- in fact it would have been the perfect scenario... But he wasn't just not around Yao, he wasn't around anywhere.

He hung up his coat and tied his hair in a bun so that it didn't get in the way, he would make sure he spent most of his time in the kitchen- each time Olga told him to go serve people he was met with a constant stream of questions about Ivan, who he was to Ivan, was he in love with Ivan, on and on and on until Yao was worked up enough he had to go and take a bathroom break so that he didn't throw cake at anyone.

"Hello, Yao!" Olga appeared for the first time, already slightly breathless despite the cafe not even being open. She always rushed around at this time of day, fixing things she had put off the night before and making sure the place was fit to see customers. Luckily she never insisted that Yao come the hour early like she did to help and as much as he asked if she would like the helping hand she refused. She didn't show any remorse of declining the offer as she smiled over to Yao, turning the sign on the door around to declare that the cafe was open for business.

"Good morning!" Yao greeted her enthusiastically, showing her that he was ready for the day.

She dusted her hands together and swiftly headed for the kitchen, "I'll make tea for you." She told him, "I really need a coffee..." She grabbed the mugs that she always saved to make the two of them hot drinks, "So if you could make me some miniature carrot cakes and at least ten shortbread hearts by... Let's try for mid morning?"

Yao nodded and went to wash his hands. Olga was always a kind boss, never putting too much pressure on Yao and just letting work at his own pace.

He started working once the tea was made. He had taken his time getting ingredients and utensils but after he had his tea put down beside him he got going. He worked with vigour, knowing that he was working to impress customers always got Yao to throw himself in the task. Olga left him to it as the bell rang for the day's first customer.

But even as he tried to lose himself in work he couldn't help but think back to Ivan. It was ridiculous, he scolded himself, he had pushed Ivan away so much and now he was pining like little girl. He didn't even like Ivan, any shred of respect he had for his neighbour had gone the moment he realised that Ivan was some pervy creep and he had told him repeatedly to keep good distance away from Yao. He didn't want Ivan anywhere near him... But he didn't want him to just vanish.

He slammed the shortbread dough on the work top. That stupid big fool! He cursed Ivan; he was taking over his life just the way he didn't want him to. He made an angered noise with gritted teeth; he hated that man for this.

Plunging his hands in the dough he clenched his fists and closed his eyes. He let himself stop for a moment to calm down. He straightened and carried on. Ivan would only control his life if Yao let him. And he wasn't going to let him.

No way.

.oO0Oo.

Once he forced Ivan out of his mind, Yao's morning went by quickly enough. Olga hadn't put him out to serve people and he was more than happy to sip tea and bake all morning, even putting off lunch to decorate birthday cake that had been ordered by a lady in the larger town a few miles east from there. The Rosemary Cafe, he had realised, was quite popular with those who weren't local and they would often receive visitors from further afield than he first guessed. And Olga confirmed they got orders for speciality cakes more than once a blue moon.

Olga joined him, it was the first time he had seen the young woman since she left him to his work when the cafe opened. She dusted her hands on her skirt, "I think you can give it a rest for an hour." She told Yao as he moved over to grab a ribbon for the birthday cake that he was so close to finishing.

"Right!" Yao wound the ribbon around the fondant, "Isn't this beautiful?" He grinned, stepping back to admire his creation.

Olga put an arm around his shoulders and looked at the cake that stood tall with its two tiers and pastel pink decoration, drizzled in dark chocolate shell that looked as if it had melted down the sides. Simple but gorgeous. Yao loved it.

"Well done." Olga said, and despite being a self-confessed lesser baker than Yao, and younger than her colleague she sounded genuinely proud of him, "Don't box it yet, I'm taking a few photos of this for the blog. Should get even more orders in."

Yao clasped his hands together, "I'm glad I could do this! It will make a young lady very pleased!" He was smiling ear to ear.

Olga patted him on the back, "I know... Now listen, now that you've done so well with this..."

Yao grimaced, he didn't like where this was going

"Will you man the cafe out front while I call in next month's order?" She was looking at him with pleading eyes, oozing with hopeful sweetness.

Yao felt the tension he had been working up disappear, "I can place the order!" He tried.

Olga tried to be assertive, "Yao you can't hide back here! You have to greet people!" She had raised her voice, "Isn't that what you came here for!?"

Yao was disheartened, avoiding Olga's eyes, "Well then he showed up."

"The Big Man?" She blinked, "He's not been around for days!"

Yao lowered his head, "They still talk to me about him. Constantly."

Olga paused before speaking again with more sympathy, "Then just take orders and don't talk about other things..."

"People can be pushy." He spat.

"Just don't let them get on to it! Yao, you can't just stay home and in here. It'll die down, they've never known the Big Man to talk about anyone- and you're the newcomer he suddenly took an interest in. In fact, maybe indulging them is a good thing! Get it out their systems." She laughed.

There was a ding from the front counter as someone apparently entered and wanted service. It came again.

Olga shot a look at the kitchen door, "Impatient." She remarked, "Go get this one. Go for it."

Yao turned to the birthday cake, "I was actually going to dust this with icing sugar..." He laughed nervously.

"Yao!" Olga was firm, "I can do that! Go deal with that guy!" Another ding, "Just a minute!" She yelled through to whoever was waiting, "As your boss I'm telling you to go serve that person."

Yao opened his mouth to protest, "...Yes, boss." He said disheartened and threw his apron aside, making his way to the front cafe with Olga watching him.

He tried to look cheerful as he entered out to see the old man who had been waiting, "Sorry that you had to wait!" He put his hands together, "What can I get you?" He knew this man well enough to ask how he was. He was the father of Oleg, the shy boy that often spoke to him when Charlotte greeted him and he owned the florist. Though he was doing just as Charlotte said, straight down to business.

Oleg's father held no grudge for the few moments of standing there and placed an order, paying before finding a seat and leaving Yao to fix his order for him. A double shot Americano coffee with a splash of fresh milk. Easy. Olga was right, he could do this.

True enough that this man was a quiet soul and not one for gossip, but as he got a no nonsense thank you when he served the coffee and hurried back to the counter he did feel better. He was not just the man Ivan had become interested in, he was still Yao Wang. Another member of the community.

He pulled out the stool that sat behind the counter and sat. Often customers could be few and far between so taking a sit down was nice as he waited. Really, this part of the job was incredibly easy and suddenly he felt worn out from all the cake baking... Maybe a few hours here wouldn't be so bad.

Yao sat back and allowed himself to zone out... He should have brought a book or knitting if he knew that he'd get all this time out here. Olga left to get her order and returned, went to do paperwork, blogged Yao's birthday cake, made, cooled, and iced a sponge cake and in that time only one person came for coffee and cake. The person who ordered the birthday cake was due to pick it up an hour later, but there were no other prospects of action on the cafe. It was one of the rare days when Charlotte and the children didn't make an appearance but that was fine. Yao managed to feel very relaxed after kicking up the fuss earlier.

That was until one lady arrived, notorious for gossiping with her two girl friends in tow, He knew that she was a mother to one of the children in the day are but he had yet to figure out which. His best guess was Diane. Those two shared the same sort of vain aura and both chatted about others as if they knew all.

Yao stood; Olga was doing something with the money in the back office so it was up to him. He cleared his throat, grabbing a paper pad to take down their order.

He noted down the order as it was given rapidly, "Thank you!" He told them as they chatted amongst themselves.

"Oh this coat?" One of the women patted down her jacket as Yao went about fetching things, "This old thing?" She laughed, "Yes, its real fur- I've had it for years."

The woman who Yao had pinned as Diane's mother stroked the lapel, "My... Did you get it from abroad? I must show you my snakeskin purse."

The third one laughed, "Girls, you make me jealous!"

It was the other two's turn to laugh and Yao turned around but still opened his ears to the conversation, one of them reassured their friend, "Honey! You can't say that when you have a complexion to die for!"

Snakeskin woman spoke was Yao stirred hot chocolate, "That is true! You know my husband can buy me all these things but darling I can't compete with you!" She laughed again... Ai yah... Yao winced, so high pitched, "You could get even the most frigid man all over you! I'm surprised The Big Man hasn't flirted with you too like all the other men here!"

Yao stiffened at the sound of Ivan's nickname.

"Oh my!" The lady being complimented seemed taken aback, "No thank you!"

"Such a strange man." Agreement came.

"Doesn't belong here." More support, and Yao blinked a few times... He was actually getting a little angry.

The woman who first mentioned Ivan nodded knowingly, "That's right. I heard that he kept a woman as his sex slave once."

"That's awful, you don't want that."

Yao felt himself grow hot... Ivan didn't do any of this! He would never do those sorts of things. Sure, he was a bit of a stalker to Yao but he didn't try to kidnap him or anything! They didn't even know Ivan.

"The Big Man..." One of them sighed.

And what exactly was with that name. If anyone here cared to ask they would probably find out what Ivan's name was with no bother at all! It was bad enough that the children called him such a name, but the adults! What a bad influence.

He barely noticed when he let one of his points slip out of his mouth, "You can't talk about him as if he doesn't have feelings." He said before looking up at the three, deciding that speaking out to these three was a good thing and would be prepared to defend his argument.

The three women looked at him, wide eyed and blank expressions, with no idea why Yao had spoken.

"Well," he shrugged, "You can't..." He looked down and felt his anger growing still, "None of you are fair to him you know! And he has a name! Why doesn't anyone ask what his name is instead of treating him like some kind of monster!? You three are bitches!"

It wasn't until he stopped did Yao realised he had been shouting. He swallowed who looked at him shocked, their mouths hanging open. One of them coughed and avoided his eyes.

But he was still bubbling with anger. He pushed one of the coffee cups off the counter and listened to it smash. One of the women yelped as hot coffee splashed her leg and Yao stormed off to the kitchen, letting Olga deal with the aftermath.

He made inside the kitchen and stopped. He didn't even know himself what got him fired up all of a sudden, and as he calmed down he realised how stupid he had been, it wasn't his place to yell at those ladies and now he had made a scene at work.

"What was that!?" Olga entered the kitchen after ten minutes of what Yao assumed was dealing with the mess and situation he had left in his wake.

Yao played with his hair, "I don't know." He said quietly. He really didn't know.

There was an exasperated sigh, "That was a really bad idea Yao." She sounded mad and Yao stiffened.

"They were saying all kinds of horrible things about...!" He stopped himself, he too had been harsh to Ivan and now he was trying to make a case of these women doing the same? He had called Ivan a creep and to never come near him. How hypocritical, "It wasn't fair." He finished. He did suppose the women were making assumptions based on nothing. Hey, at least Yao had said these things after he met the guy.

Olga grumbled as she dropped shards of dropped coffee cup into the trash, "I thought you hated that man just as much as they did."

Yao sighed, "They've never spoken to Ivan."

She moved closer to Yao, "And you've only just come here. You've got no clue how odd it seems when you've been here since you were seven and have barely seen that guy."

Yao supposed that in some respects she was right. He and the three women were both at fault. And his reaction by breaking a cup was too far.

"I apologise."

"Thank you."

"Are they okay?" Yao wasn't sure if he wanted the three women to be well or not.

She got up, back to business, "Fine. Yao, you should go home."

Yao stood, "What?!" Was this some kind of suspension?

"Go." Olga insisted, "You did well today but I don't want to keep you here if you're so volatile!" She ushered him to the door, "Calm down, reflect, and come back tomorrow." She grabbed his coat from the stand and pressed it on him.

Yao opened his mouth to say something but didn't. Perhaps he did need some time at home. He also had a feeling those three would talk about that scene to others and he would get some looks. It might be best if he had a time out.

"I'll be on better form tomorrow!" he insisted. Olga smiled and moved back through to the front cafe, letting him collect the rest of his winter clothes alone.

.oO0Oo.

Yao did feel bad for his behaviour at work; he wasn't helping himself by suddenly defending Ivan so vigorously. But it was too late to consider that now; he decided that he would put it out of his mind until tomorrow, when he would deal with any consequences. He was sure if he made up a story about being tired and angry about some obscure thing and said sorry he would be fine.

He just wanted to get home now and have a lie down.

But that wasn't happening; it wasn't the end of Yao's troubles. He heard crunching of feet on snow and looked up. Abram was coming over to him, probably escaped from Charlotte. Yao had started to suspect Charlotte wasn't the most responsible of women.

He tutted, "Why are you out here alone?" He snapped. Despite the town being so small and closed, it wasn't impossible to get hurt.

Abram sped up a little, "Yao!" He said excitedly, smiling from ear to ear, "Charlotte says you're in love with the big man!" He put both his hands over his mouth and giggled gleefully, "But you're a boy!"

Yao pressed his lips together. Charlotte... His mood dampened further, he knew that she was just teasing but he couldn't help being irritated at Charlotte for telling the children something so daft. Especially as it wasn't even true!

Yao kept walking, Abram following like he was glued to Yao's side, "That's ridiculous!" Yao told him, looking straight ahead.

"But Charlotte said so!" Abram insisted, "She said you love him!" Of course Abram would take Charlotte's word over his. That was so much more fun.

"She lied." Yao was sharp, "Now leave me alone." He was in no mood for this.

Abram was silent for a second, "...But Charlotte-"

Before Yao knew it, he was doing it again- losing his temper and shouting at the boy, "I don't care what Charlotte told you! I don't like that man and never have! Now go and bother somebody else!"

He had just let the last word ring our when Yao realised that he had made another mistake. Abram looked at him for a moment before his lower lip wobbled and he started to cry.

"...Oi..." Yao tried a little to console the young boy.

Before he knew what was happening the boy started to run, away from Yao and out towards the main road that ran through the village.

Yao's heart dropped to his stomach... That was dangerous! "Wait!" He yelled out at Abram.

But he was too late.

Abram, blinded by upset was out on the road and a truck was coming right at him.

Yao yelled out again, he felt sick as he watched things in slow motion. He fell to his knees and covered his eyes.

There was a thump and Yao winced. It took him a moment to realise that wasn't the sound of a truck slamming into a boy. It was something else.

He uncovered his eyes and looked out to the scene.

Abram was looking up at the man who saved him with a face as pale a sheet. It was Ivan who had pushed Abram out the way and now was sitting up in the snow, frowning as he rubbed where he had grazed his wrist in falling to the ground.

"Ivan!" Yao exclaimed. He had never been so happy to see anyone, let alone Ivan. The relief was overwhelming, "Oh my God!" He crumpled over as he choked up with graciousness for the child's saviour.

Abram was still staring up at Ivan. This was obviously not something he had been expecting. The man who he was scared of the most had saved his life.

"Oh!" Ivan looked up at Yao, apparently unfazed by the looks he was getting from Abram, "Hello, Yao." He smiled.

Abram wriggled free, Ivan's hand was still on him from catching him. He ran straight to Yao, obviously forgiving him for shouting and hiding behind him.

Yao turned to Abram, "That was very silly! You thank Ivan for helping you!" That was too much of a close call.

Abram stepped out in front of Yao, "Thank you!" He said quickly and nodded his head before moving back behind Yao. Yao knew that this whole event would talked about amongst the kids for days.

Yao looked back at Ivan, who was slowly getting to his feet and moved closer to Ivan. Carefully he reached out and touched his arm, "Thank you... I don't what would happen if you didn't..." He trailed off and shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if not for Ivan's intervention.

Ivan just smiled as what he had done was help Yao put away groceries, "It was easy!"

Yao looked at him for a moment. What Ivan had done was extremely dangerous and could have gone disastrously wrong, "Just accept my thanks."

Ivan nodded.

Yao looked behind him at Abram who was looking at them confused, "I'm going to find Charlotte... Do you want to come with me?"

To his surprise Ivan shook his head, "She won't want to see me with that little boy."

Yao paused to think and realised he was right.

He bit his lip for a moment before deciding what he wanted to do, "I need to thank you." Yao told Ivan, "I'll let you take me on a date."

He didn't know why he was nervous; he knew Ivan wasn't going to say no.

Ivan gasped, "Yes!" He grabbed Yao's hand, "Yes, when are you free?!" He was immediately excited by Yao's resolve.

"Tomorrow night." He prised his hand away from Ivan, "Take me for dinner or something."

Ivan nodded, "I will! Thank you! I love you, Yao!"

Yao blushed but couldn't help but find the excitement endearing, "Okay... Whatever. See you then."

Ivan was shining with joy as Yao turned and left with Abram to seek out Charlotte.