Learning To Trust Again

But much to Rebecca relief, the tall man didn’t look like he was going anywhere. He glared at the man who had spoken to him and with an edge of steel in his voice, he said ‘not yet.’ Turning his head, he looked straight at her. As he took another step forward he said ‘are you okay?’

Rebecca pulled the strap of her bag back onto her shoulder. She glanced at the young men surrounding her and said ‘um, not really.’

‘Right’ the tall man said ‘that’s what I thought’ and directing his attention back to the group of men, he ordered ‘then I’d say it’s you that needs to piss off.’

‘So are you going to make us?’ the man with the good teeth asked turning to smile at his friends. His doubt of the man’s capability to do that was clear in his mocking tone.

Without missing a beat the tall man said, ‘if I need to.’ His voice was cold and hard as he took another step forward.

Rebecca’s heart was pounding as she watched. She prayed this guy wasn’t kidding because she was sure he was her only hope of getting out of this unscathed.

But something about the tall man’s confident tone seemed to stop any further glib reply from the shorter man. He just looked at him for a minute in silence, his eyes narrowed. It seemed to Rebecca that he was trying to assess whether the other man was bluffing about taking them all on or not. However before he could make up his mind about it one of the others did it for him. Perhaps deciding it was time to cut their losses, one of the other men moved away from her. ‘Come on Al’ he said ‘let’s go, she’s not worth the trouble. Let’s get a drink.’

The man with the good teeth, whose name she now knew was Al, ignored him and just continued to stare at the tall man.

Glaring at Al, with a look that Rebecca realised would make her run for cover if it was directed at her, the tall man took another step forward. He was only about a meter away from him now and much taller than Al. To Rebecca it seemed as if he was purposely trying to intimidate the shorter man with his size and his self-assurance. But while it didn’t seem to have an immediate effect on Al, it appeared to be working on the other men

His eyes on the tall man, Al’s mate grabbed his arm and said again ‘come on.’ He at least didn’t look like he wanted to take the tall man on. Neither, it seemed, did the other two men, who had also stepped away from her now. Perhaps they had been after an easy mark and the tall man had just made it too much like hard work. Rebecca didn’t know and she certainly didn’t care, just as long as they went.

But Al just shrugged off his friend’s hand as he continued to stare at the tall man. It seemed despite his mate’s desire to retreat, he wasn’t ready to concede just yet. While dismayed, Rebecca wasn’t really surprised, Al had to know they had the upper hand in the situation with four of them to just one of him.

However much to Rebecca’s relief, the tall man, didn’t back down either and for a few seconds there was a tense standoff with neither man willing to give in.