Jo gets out of the taxi, lifts her head up to the sun for a second, and grabs her backpack from the back seat. The leather bag holds everything she owns, which is not much anymore.
She subconsciously touches the fresh scar on her cheek as she starts walking towards the boardwalk. Venice Beach... What the hell has she gotten herself into now?
This destination wasn't high on her travel bucket list but for some reason, she was drawn to this place. Besides, the first flight out of Schiphol Airport that wasn't within Europe was one to LAX. And God knows she needed to put a lot of distance between herself and what used to be her home.
She tries to calm her mind while walking on the boardwalk, surrounded by happy people. But horrible memories rush in, making her legs shake and knees buckle.
"Damn, I better find a place to sit down before I make a complete fool of myself".
She looks up and sees a cafe a few steps ahead. Taking a deep breath, she walks towards the entrance slowly, her legs shaking uncontrollably. She holds onto the door handle as she stumbles in, drops into the first chair she sees, and slowly breathes out.
"Made it", she softly whispers to herself.
Sitting there with her head in her hands while trying to stop her body from shaking, despair creeps in, as she feels the burn of tears behind her eyes.
She hears someone come up to her slowly, with soft footsteps, like they are afraid to scare or disturb her. Once the footsteps stop at her table, the stranger takes a breath and speaks in a calm, deep voice.
"You look like you could use a hot cup of coffee."
She looks up nervously and her eyes meet warm, brown eyes in a friendly face, belonging to a man who gives her the feeling that she can trust him. She slowly nods at him and tries to smile. As the man saunters off, she can't help but wonder why he feels trustworthy, he is nothing but a stranger to her.
Stupid brain playing tricks on me. I should know by now that trusting a man only causes a lot of pain. She takes her glasses off to wipe her tears and sits up a little. At least the shaking has stopped, now to start breathing normally again and to keep these damn tears from spilling out.
She softly scolds herself. "You've shed a lifetime's worth of tears on the plane over here. Pull yourself together already! What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Remember?"
She mumbles part of some lyrics to give herself some courage. "This is my fight song, take back my life song..."
As she mumbles the last word, a cup of coffee appears in front of her. She thanks the man with a crack in her voice and quickly takes a sip. He nods and walks away. The warm, black fluid brings a bit of calm as it slides down her throat, warming her stomach. She takes in the aroma of the coffee and a small smile appears on her lips.
This is some good coffee. I better remember this place.
She grabs her journal and looks at the menu on the table to find the name. It says 'The Sidewalk Cafe' on top of the bright-colored, laminated paper. The pen in her hand moves to write the name down and draws a tiny mug of coffee with a heart next to it.
She takes another sip, her body and mind relaxing more and more.
Lifting her head to put her glasses back on, she looks around, quickly realizing she ended up in a very masculine place. She giggles to herself as she notices a huge marble bar with a bunch of screens above it to watch sports on, even the furniture screams manly men.
Yet for some reason, she doesn't feel uncomfortable.
Of all the places I had to literally, stumble into.
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Fight Left In Me ✔
Romantik[completed] ⋆ Fight or flight? Jo chose flight. Literally. Ran away from the man who abused her and got on the first airplane to 'far away'. She ends up in Venice Beach and that's where she finds out there's still fight left in her. She ends up fi...
