“Come back when you’ve calmed down.” The burly man says to me and walks back inside.

“What just happened?” I ask Ashley and feel pain beginning to set in my fists and shoulder. I look down to see them bright red. The door of the café opens again and I see Cole walking out, bent over and holding her stomach with her left eye almost swollen shut and other various places of her face red from the beating. Ashley and I don’t say a word as she walks out and looks over to us, then turns and starts to walk in the opposite direction without saying a word.

“You just beat the shit out of her, that’s what just happened.” Ashley says and points down the road in the direction Cole went walking. I can’t help but almost laugh at Ashley’s expression. She looks like she just won the lottery. “Thank you so much for doing that!” She wraps me in a bear hug and I’m not quite sure why she is. “Do you really not remember?” She asks as she pulls away from me and I shake my head no. “You just beat the shit out of Nicole Porter; she was like God in the world I used to live in. No one has the balls to rebel against her. You just made history.” She sounds like I’ve just found the cure for cancer.

“You’re welcome?” I didn’t know it was such a big deal.

“Why did you do that?” She asks, finally calming her nerves.

“I just could stand all that stuff she was saying about you, and seeing how it seemed to get to you like that. I just couldn’t take it anymore.” It seemed like simple math to me. I didn’t like what she was doing so I did something about it; although I am surprised that I went to that extent. I’m normally not a very physical person and can handle things by talking them out. But this time was different.

Ashley looks me in the eye and nods her understanding and I think I see tears welling in her eyes. “Thank you. No one has ever done that for me before. It really means a lot Spence.”

“It was no problem.” I say giving her smile and pulling my arm around her and start walking towards her apartment. “So is it cool if I stay the night?”

She gives me a smile and a simple nod of her head. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Cole, but I figure now’s not the best time to deal with that and we’ll talk about it later. For now, I’m going to enjoy the time I have with Ashley and no one will get in the way of that.