Paying Debts

Do you want to know how pathetic I truly am?

That thing that happened to me yesterday has been the most interesting thing that’s happened to me since my mother died. I wish I had friends only so I could tell them that I saved a guy from a pack of werewolves, but I only have one friend and he hasn’t answered his phone all damn day.

“There have been more werewolves around lately, have you noticed?” Mrs. Audrey asks me as she waits for me to finish making her coffee. Usually, I’d be annoyed by her trying to make conversation with me, but not this time.

“Have I noticed? I had three of them in here yesterday,” I tell her, making her gasp, “They were chasing a poor guy, so small and helpless, he begged me to save his life… I had to be brave, so I stood in front of those animals and said: Stop right there! Leave him alone!”

“My goodness,” she murmurs and clasps her hands to her chest, holding a rosary, “I can’t believe you’re so brave. And, what happened? Did they leave?”

“Yes, they just turned around and left. The poor guy was so scared, he kept hugging me and thanking me for saving his life,” I lie, just because I obviously want to make myself sound more interesting, “It was worth it.”

“Wow, you’re really the bravest girl I know…” the door opens suddenly and I get excited thinking I’ll have two customers in here at the same time, but when I pay attention to the person who just walked in, my stomach shrinks to the size of a raisin.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“Hello!” he replies, walking slowly towards us. Audrey turns back to look at him… then she has to look up. Because this morning he looks much taller than he did yesterday while lying in a fetal position. In fact, he looks very tall. And strong… And handsome, for some reason.

But I still know he’s the same guy from yesterday, the one who begged me to save his life. He’s wearing the same clothes.

“I just wanted to come by and thank you for helping me,” he says, and when he reaches the counter, the bastard jumps up and sits right there, “She saved my life yesterday.”

Mrs. Audrey can’t close her mouth. She’s looking at him like he’s bread and she’s hungry. I finally finish her coffee and hand it to her, but it takes her a couple of seconds to function again.

“THIS is the guy whose life you saved?” she asks, looking him up and down before turning to me and looking me up and down too, with judgy eyes. I guess it’s obvious that this guy is probably around six four and his arms are bigger than they seemed yesterday… meanwhile, I stopped growing at five three. I’m chubby on my best days, fat on my worst. I don’t have a gram of muscle on my entire body, just fat, “You couldn’t save yourself, young man? Why did you endanger a woman who is so much smaller than you?”

“Well, I knew they wouldn’t hurt her… but they were going to hurt me. Oh, yep, they were going to,” he murmurs with a grimace and raises his hand to scratch his head before looking at me, “That’s why I wanted to come and thank her, she was very brave yesterday. Not just any human can stand up to werewolves, you know? But she did. For me.”

Mmm… more for myself, because he decided to enter my coffee shop and they were going to kill me too, so I had to be brave or die.

“That’s just how I am, selfless,” I lie and shrug, trying to stop a smile when Mrs. Audrey nods while looking at me with admiration, “Well, there’s nothing to thank. Just don’t run towards me again if you’re being chased.”

“Okay,” he says and looks at me with… amusement? Does he find this funny? His green eyes are sparkling. AS IF there’s anything in this fucked up world for any eyes to sparkle like that, “Do you need help around here?”

“Huh?” I ask, looking at Audrey and then at the empty tables, “Obviously not.”

“Well, I don’t have money or anything, but I’d still like to pay you for what you did yesterday. Do you have something I can help with? Something I could fix?” he offers.

“Good boy,” murmurs Audrey and sips her coffee, “Delicious as always. See you tomorrow, Jolene. Good luck.”

“Thanks, Audrey!” I say, and as she walks out, leaving me alone with the vermin, I start thinking about what I can make him do to pay for yesterday, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Leo… Lion. Lion Smith,” he says, making me frown. How can someone be unsure of their name? It’s literally the only thing I know about myself. The guy extends his hand towards me, so I grab it, and he shakes it with almost too much force, “You’re Jolene, I already know.”

“Jolene Duvarak,” I reply, trying to save my hand from his grip, “Owner of this establishment and Ass Saver.”

Lion laughs.

“Well, I don’t own anything and I don’t have a job at the moment… I’m just Lion. Ass Saved Lion.”

“A Lion who runs from werewolves,” I add, making him laugh again, but he nods, “What the hell did you do to make them angry? I haven’t seen them attack a human until now.”

“Oh, just… you know,” he murmurs and shrugs.

“No, I don’t know,” I reply, looking at him with narrowed eyes, “What did you do?”

“I think they confused me with someone they know and are looking for, something like that. I tried to tell them I’m not him, but they didn’t listen. They wanted to take me by force, so I started running and running until I got here. It was the only place with the lights on.”

I need to leave earlier, then.

“How the hell could you outrun them?” I ask, unable to understand anything he’s saying, “Aren’t they supposed to be super fast? How could you escape from three of them?”

“They might not want to show all their power away from their territory to avoid scaring humans even more,” he explains and shrugs, “Besides, I’m a good runner. Anyway, the thing here is that you helped me and I feel indebted to you… but I have no money. Just my hands.”

“Mmmh,” I murmur, thinking of ways to take advantage of this guy, “Well, you can start by sweeping and mopping. I hate doing that.”

Lion frowns and looks at me as if he doesn’t understand my words.

“Don’t you need anything else? I’m strong, I’m tall… unlike you,” he murmurs. If I had issues with my height, I might have been quite offended by that comment, but I only feel slightly annoyed, “You can ask me to do something you can’t. Get somewhere you can’t… reach. No offense.”

“I own a ladder. I don’t need a tall guy to get a glass from a shelf. I need someone to do what I don’t want to do, like sweeping and mopping,” I repeat and walk to the service room to get the broom, then walk up to him. Damn, he really is tall, “Here you go.”

Lion stares at the broom as if he’s never seen one before.

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Or do you have money?” I ask, Lion gives me a tired look, “Exactly. I risked my life yesterday because of you, so start sweeping and shut up while I listen to my podcast.”

Lion sighs but he starts sweeping while I clean up the counter and listen to my podcast, as I do every day. Occasionally, I look at Lion to see what he’s doing and frown because he’s extremely bad at sweeping. But at least he’s here, paying his debt. That’s enough.

Besides, it’s not like I really need to sweep, it’s not like I have many customers.