Chapter 4

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Over one year later...

Emma watched her granddaughter sleeping and shook her head, before sipping from her glass of bourbon. The ice tinkled against the side as she finished the amber liquid. Beatrix was bruised from head to toe, she suffered two broken ribs, a dislocated wrist, and was lucky she was not injured worse. The doctor said she would be fine physically, but Emma worried about her spirit as Trixie's boss, Charlie told Emma what happened.

Two guys came up to the coffee kiosk at closing and forced their way in as Beatrix hit the panic button. They planned to sexually assault her, but Beatrix fought back like a lioness. Scalding one of the men and breaking the other's arm before they fled. The security camera caught the whole thing, but by the time the police arrived, the men had driven off and no one was caught. The cops on the scene actually asked Charlie if Beatrix was asking for it because of the way she was dressed.

Emma was ready to commit assault on those cops herself, and they should be sure she would be showing up at the next town hall meeting to file a very vocal and very public complaint and to ask why girls who work at the Risqué 's Coffee Shops deserved less protection than women who did other jobs. Emma firmly believed what they wore for work didn't change the fact they still had rights. But first, her girl needed her. She was so proud of her grandchildren, they made up for their mother in so many ways.

"Hey, grandmum, are you creeping on me again?" Trixie's tired but amused voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes, I am, dearest. I was very proud of you tonight. You handled yourself like a true Austen woman. Can I get you anything?" Emma offered.

Beatrix reassured her, "No, Grandmum, I'm fine. Still buzzing off the painkillers the E.R. docs gave me." She took a drink of the water by the bed then painfully laid back.

"Well, then... Are you sure you don't want me to call Bernadette?"

Trixie shook her head. Emma's worry was one thing, but Bernadette was overwhelming when she worried.

"No, she has finals and is working until Christmas. I'll be healed up before she gets home. She drives me crazy when she worries." Trixie silently prayed her grandmother would listen and not call her sister.

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Trixie hadn't answered Bernie's calls for almost a week. Mary told her more of what was going on. She was horrified to learn two men had broken into the coffee shop where Trixie worked and tried to assault her. That was how Bernie learned her sister's job was at Risqué's Coffee Shop where the uniform was lingerie and sexy costumes. She was worrying about her sister instead of trying to focus on studying for the next day's final and didn't hear Alex walk up.

"Hey, coffee angel."

It had been a busy night and Dr. Mahdif sent him to fetch them each an espresso before Bernie closed up for the night.

Bernie jumped up with a frightened squeak.

Her hand pressed over her heart as he chuckled out an apology. "Sorry, Bernie. You okay?"

"Your usual, Dr Marvillis?" She asked.

"Yeah, and two for Dr. Mahdif." He insisted, "Please call me Alex, we're practically the same age."

"No, you're older by at least five years and going to be a doctor." Bernie reminded as she made him a cinnamon caramel double espresso. Her hand shook slightly as she opened a food box of meat filled pastries made from a mixture of rice and quinoa flour. "I made you extras, I may have to go home for a few days or maybe forever if I lose my scholarship."

"Bernadette... What's wrong?" He implored, suddenly worried she would leave before he figured out how to ask her out on a date.

Her chin trembled then she just blurted out everything at once. "My roommates are moving out; I don't know who I will get next semester. I have four parties I am working as the barista for a college catering company, and I can't go home to check on my sister because the stupid regulations of the scholarship have me working here for three more weeks."

"What happened to your sister?"

"Last week... She... um... She was attacked when she was closing up the coffee kiosk where she works. I mean, she fought them off, but she was still beat up pretty badly, and one got arrested when he showed up at the E.R. the next day 'cause she broke his arm, but the cops might not even press charges, and..."

"Woah... wait... the cops aren't going to press charges? That can't be right." He said in shock as she put his coffee next to his snacks.

"Well, Mary... a friend we grew up with... She told me the cops think that because Trixie works at one of those sexy coffee huts where they wear lingerie that she was asking for it." Bernie scowled.

Alex thought she looked adorable with the little frown lines around her prettily pouting lips despite the information she was revealing.

"Grandmum told me not to come home when I called them after Mary called me. But what... what am I supposed to do? My last exam is tomorrow, and except for the six hours I am here from 9pm to 3am, I am going to be sitting in an empty house all break." She slumped on her stool defeated and lamented, "With Ruth going home, I won't even have anyone to go running with."

Alex suddenly saw the thing he had been looking for since the first month of her semester working at the kiosk. An opportunity to get to know the shy reserved barista outside of the hospital lobby. As casually as he could he offered, "I could run with you. I go almost every day... I mean... If you want, I haven't had a running partner since I started my residency and my brother changed schools to finish his master's degree."

Bernie eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then said, "If you try anything funny, I will make you so sick you will wish

you died. Never mess with the person who feeds you."

He laughed at the threat, assuring her. "I would never risk it. I was sick enough growing up. So... where and when do you run?"

"Five PM, Hillview Park Trails." She chewed her lip nervously.

The time was two hours before he normally got up for his nightshift, but he agreed. "See you tomorrow then. Have a good night and don't worry about your sister. She sounds like a force to be reckoned with."

"Oh, she is," Bernie assured him.

"See you tomorrow." He took the coffees and box of treats and hurried back to the E.R..

In the break room, Dr. Mahdif and two other residents were sitting over charts. "Oh, my dear boy, you have no idea how much I need this," the older doctor said as he gulped the first of his two triple shot espressos with honey.

"You two should switch to Red Bull, then you can get it from the vending machines," Mike Mason said as he tossed an empty can into the corner trash.

"Um, no thank you Dr. Mason, I prefer the flavor of my stimulant of choice and I like my kidneys and liver the way they are," Dr. Mahdif retorted. "And Dr. Marvillis prefers his stimulant made fresh by our stimulating auburn-haired coffee angel and not from some factory. Did you ask her?"

"Yes, we are meeting to go running tomorrow," Alex announced.

"Running? What kind of date is that?" Mike sounded grumpy; he had asked the night barista out at least once a week for three months.

"The kind of date that wins the race. The slow and steady

pace that will someday make her Mrs. Dr. Alexander Marvillis," Alex said smugly.

"Pshhhh, what do you know about her really?" Mason demanded.

"Bernadette, or Bernie as everyone calls her, was raised by her elderly grandmother after her mother was killed by a drunk driver. She has a sister named Trixie, who is also a barista. Her best friend back home is Mary, and her roommate and running partner here is Ruth. Bernie wants to open up her own coffee shop and bakery when she graduates. She is on a working scholarship and moonlights as a baker and barista for the college catering company on the one night a week she has off from the coffee kiosk. She likes classic movies, electro-swing music, and historical romantic fiction. She has never owned a pet other than a canary which her sister let escape out a window, and she hates strawberries."

As Alex regurgitated all the tidbits of information about Bernadette he learned over the semester, he was rewarded with a surprised and shocked look on the arrogant panty ripper's face. Girls all over campus swooned for Mike Mason, and Alex had seen more than he could count making the walk of shame from Mike's room in their frat house, but not Bernie. She was completely resistant to his charms.

Alex stood up in triumph with a glance at his watch, "Now, if you'll excuse me, Dr. Mason, I need to check on room 103 and see if we have a baby kidney stone yet."

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Bernadette left her house and jogged to the parking area of Hillview Park, she was happy to live only a block away from such a beautiful place to run. Alex was sitting in his car, he was early, and he was asleep. He was so handsome he made her heart flutter, but she knew it was just a foolish crush. He probably had dozens of girls to date and was just being nice to his coffee lady. She tapped lightly on the window as it was starting to drizzle.

His eyes popped open, and he yawned before getting out. "Hey, sorry. It was a long night last night. You ready?"

"Sure, if you don't mind running in the rain... I mean... you don't have to, if you don't want to," she stammered.

He shook his head, then frowned slightly as he looked around. "Where's your car?"

"I walked. I just live a block away, in a boarding house for girls." Bernie flushed as if embarrassed.

She stretched her legs to have something to do, trying not to notice how he assessed her body from head to toe. She reminded herself he was a doctor, and it was part of his nature.

He stretched too as he memorized her curves. "I wish I could live off campus, I live in the Phi Delta Epsilon house. My uncle was a member. It's great, no rent, but the parties every other night make me glad to volunteer to work overnights. Next year, when I have afternoon rotations, it is going to suck. Shall we?"

What he said surprised her. "You don't want to work afternoons?" While they jogged, she plied him with questions about why he became a pediatrician. He told her about his lifelong battle with severe allergies. He explained that he wanted to find ways to help other children suffering from what he called urban environmental allergy syndrome, which was a complex collection of micro-allergies that resulted in a cascade effect on the immune system, causing symptoms like an auto-immune disease. He was inspiring, and Bernie knew he was way out of her league by the end of the run, so she talked herself into just being friends. It was pouring rain by the time they got back to the parking area, so they stood under a tree and talked for a moment. The pitter-pat of the rain on the leaves created a serenity as they caught their breaths.

"You know I could help you," she offered. "With my cooking knowledge, maybe I could help you put together a cookbook or something that would make other children's lives more pleasant. I mean, it must have been hard to have so few things to eat and... if you want... I was slow roasting a chicken for dinner. I could make you your first ever chicken and dumplings."

Alex eyed her, a single strand which came loose and clung to her wet face as water beaded of her raingear. He wanted to kiss her, but something seemed to caution him that now wasn't the moment. "I have a twelve-hour shift starting at 7:30 but if you want to feed me tonight, I'll happily try anything you make. I think a cookbook would be a great idea. My mom wasn't a very creative cook and some of the stuff she got from the Organics Grocery was horrible."

She nodded and they stood there for an awkward moment, then he offered, "Can I give you a ride?" as she said, "I'm gonna go." They both laughed. And he opened the passenger door.

"But your car will get all wet," She protested but her heart stuttered a little at the gesture, no one had ever opened a door for her before.

"It will dry, besides, the sooner I get you home, the sooner you'll make me food that I can actually eat without fear of dying or feeling like I'm dying," he declared cavalierly.

A block later, she invited him in. As he sat with a towel around his neck, he listened happily as she described the ingredients for chicken and dumplings while she made him an omelet. He felt giddy as he tasted the first bite. He never ate omelets because they were made with milk.

"This omelet is amazing; I've only ever eaten scrambled or fried or boiled eggs."

"Technically, it's a frittata. No milk, just a little broth." She corrected as she mixed the batter for the dumplings.

He watched her cooking and found it to be the sexiest thing he had ever seen. Alex forced himself to eat, so he wouldn't stare at her. He noticed she tended to get very nervous when she felt someone was creeping on her.

"You better go or you're going to be late," She chided, "But first, have a sample, is it okay? Does it need anything?"

Alex wouldn't have known one way or the other, but the taste of the savory chicken and the almost pasta flavor of the dumpling made him catch her wrist because he had only bitten half of it, and he wanted the rest.

He chewed slowly, swallowed, then took the rest in his mouth with a moan of pleasure. "It's perfect. The one and only time I had this was before they knew I was allergic to gluten and I was sick for days, but this... How did you do this?"

She trembled slightly and pulled her wrist free. Something in her eyes changed and he didn't know why. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to touch you. I just... I just never tasted anything like it."

"No... it's not your fault... I... I just have this thing about being touched... Don't worry. I'll see you tonight," She smiled at him brightly, but it didn't reach her eyes, "Midnight and ten till three as usual?"

"See you then," he tried to sound just as cheerful, but when she shut the door behind him, he cursed silently.

As he raced back to the frat house to shower and change for his shift, his mind went over every interaction he ever had with Bernadette. Suddenly, he realized with horrified clarity what her thing was. He knew without a doubt, that at some point in her past, she was sexually assaulted by a man she trusted. Alex realized none of the normal rules of dating applied, he was going to have to move very carefully to gain her trust and never break it.