Chapter 21: Building Walls

With a contented sigh and the hope that almost everything would turn back to normal, Roxanne walked through the familiar doors to see Barry standing behind the bar, currently filling a glass to the brim with beer. She couldn't see anyone around that she knew by name, so she hoped that she would be able to avoid anybody grilling her about her absence. But then again, Barry hadn't noticed her yet. She decided that she had a minute to spare, and so walked over to the area right of the bar, where the bistro part of the venue was. It had its own entrance on the street about thirty meters along the building from the doors to the bar. The building had recently undergone some refurbishing, and a deck had been added to the side of the bistro, so patrons could enjoy their meals outside in the cool air. There was also another smaller bar situated out on the deck, that was so new that they hadn't opened it up yet. Roxy could see through the glass doors that it appeared to be ready to be used, but there was nobody out on the deck at the moment anyway. She turned back around and was surprised to see Adrian walking over towards her, a friendly smile on his face.

"Roxanne," he greeted her, "How are you? Everything alright after the other night?" he asked, a slight hint of concern in his voice. This was what Roxy liked about her boss, he wasn't uncaring to his employee's personal matters, and that made it a lot easier to work there.

She gave him a reassuring smile, "Yes, I'm fine, just had an unfortunate run in with someone who isn't very fond of me," she chuckled to show that she didn't need any concern or sympathy, and Adrian gave her a pleased nod. She internally sighed in relief. That afternoon she had spent a while trying to do her hair so that the slash down the side of her face wasn't visible. With a bit of make-up and hairspray, the bruise was less visible, and the cut was covered by hair. She smiled to herself, she must have done a good job if Adrian didn't say anything about it.

"Great," he said, sounding pleased. "Now, I have something slightly different planned for you from tonight onwards, if that's alright," he explained. Roxy nodded, so he continued, "I'm sure you're aware of our new renovations, so now we have another bar out on the deck there," he explained. Roxy nodded once again, "Well, recently our main bar has gotten quite crowded with patrons from the bistro ordering drinks, so we've decided to open up the new deck facility to try and take the load off of Barry over here," he pointed behind him where Barry was still serving drinks to customers from the Bistro, very well proving his point. "So, how would you feel about being the first staff member behind the new bar?" he asked.

Roxy shrugged, "Sounds great," she said, "I've got no problem with that."

"Great!" Adrian beamed, "I know there aren't many people here at the moment, but just go over and make yourself comfortable, you'll start getting customers soon hopefully." Roxy nodded and Adrain thanked her, before she turned and walked back through the bistro and out onto the deck. It was really nice out here, she thought. There was greenery surrounding the deck, with tables scattered everywhere, and the bar sitting at the end, surrounded by vibrant blue and green lights. I could get used to this, Roxy thought as she walked over behind the bar. It was a much smaller space than the main bar, but she probably didn't need that much space anyway.

She had a decent look around and found that the set up was much like the main bar, and so she set to work pulling glasses out from under the bench and putting them somewhere more accessible for when she started getting customers. A few of them had gathered a bit of dust by the looks of things, so while she had nothing else to do, she filled the sink up with soapy water and began to clean the glasses one by one. Of course, she didn't need to do this, they had an industry standard dishwasher back in the main part of the building, but she had nothing else to do, so she cleaned them herself. After a few minutes, there still appeared to be nobody out on the deck, anybody eating meals were all inside, so Roxy hummed to herself as she washed the glasses, her head down and eyes focused on the object in her hands. She was sure that if anybody approached she would hear their footsteps on the polished wood, but it appeared not.

Roxy was in the middle of washing a glass, when her wonderful hairspray job fell into her eyes, and she lifted her hand to push her hair back, trying not to get soapy water on her face in the process. What she had temporarily forgotten however, was why she had used so much hairspray on her fringe, and when her hand swept across the side of her face, she winced slightly upon pressing against the bruised cut at her temple.

"Ouch," she murmured to herself, feeling stupid for forgetting about it. She was then caught by surprise when she heard someone audibly gasp in front of her, and she snapped her head up, amazed that she hadn't heard someone approaching. Who she saw standing in front of her however, made her heartbeat quicken considerably. She wasn't sure if it was because of her attraction to the man, or the fact that she had hoped she wouldn't see him any time soon. She told herself it was the latter.

Yami stood in front of her, having approached the small bar without her noticing, and he was staring at her with wide eyes. As soon as she had noticed him, the glass had slipped from her hands and landed in the sink, though luckily it wasn't much of a drop. The clank echoed through the surrounding area as the two stared at each other, both just as surprised, though for very different reasons. Roxy suddenly realised why Yami looked so shocked, and she ducked her head down, letting her fringe fall back over her face. Dammit, she cursed, why the hell is he here?!

Yami lifted his jaw back up as he finally managed to find his voice, "Roxy..." he stared at her with wide, concerned eyes, "What happened to you?"

Roxy kept her head down as she picked the glass back up and continued to clean it. "I'd rather not talk about it," she huffed, "What are you doing here anyway?"

Yami was still shocked about the gruesome slash down the side of Roxy's face, but her attitude surprised him even more. He tried to push his paranoid thoughts to the side and told himself she had just had a rough few days. "I wanted to see you," he said with a soft smile, moving forwards and sitting on one of the bar stools.

"Well I'm busy," she retorted, avoiding looking straight at him as she continued cleaning, though she knew it was a terrible answer. She hated the thought of hurting Yami, which was why she preferred to just avoid him and never have to end up in this situation, but here she was, pushing him away and acting like a bitch just to get rid of him.

The smile on Yami's face disappeared as his expression dropped, and he sighed. "You've been avoiding me." It wasn't a question, Yami knew that Roxy had been back home for the past few days, but he hadn't seen her in a week, since the night they slept together. Roxy stayed silent as she continued to clean her glass, though Yami was sure it was clean enough already from how much she was scrubbing at it. "You haven't been answering any of my calls, and the few times I have run into Jay, he says he's got no idea what your intentions are." Roxy wasn't giving him any sign that she was listening, and he sighed in frustration, "Will you tell me what's going on?" he persisted. She still didn't look up at him. "Roxy, please talk to me."

She sighed and lifted her head, but she still didn't look at him. "Yami, I can't, I have to work."

"There's nobody even here," he replied, gesturing around him, "All I need is five minutes, just tell me what's going on. Please."

Roxy dumped the glass back in the sink, and looked up at him, finally meeting him eye to eye. "Fine," she said, "You want to talk? Let's talk." She swiftly turned and walked out from behind the bar, and without looking over her shoulder to see if Yami was following, walked through the small pathway that lead to the back alley. She reached the opening and saw just 30 meters away the back door from the main bar, where she had encountered that creep a few weeks back. Hearing the steady footsteps behind her, she guessed that Yami had indeed understood and followed her, and she turned around with her arms crossed, preparing herself for an unpleasant conversation. Just be a bitch and this will all be over soon, Roxy thought as she took a deep breath. "Alright," she said to Yami once he had reached her, "What is it that you want to know?"

Yami let out a breath of air, glad that at least she was going to give him answers. "Well, for starters, I want to know what happened to you," he said, indicating to the bruised cut that Roxy had tried so hard to cover up.

Roxy decided the best thing to do was to not think before talking, and so said the first thing that came to mind, "Your fucking ex-girlfriend, that's what happened," she snapped, making Yami step back in surprise.

"What?" he said, his eyes wide with surprise, "She did this to you?" He couldn't believe it, the thought that Roxy had been attacked at all had surprised him, but it was Sherry who had done it. He suddenly felt a wave of guilt surging through his gut, but before he could address it, Roxy was talking again.

"She was stalking us Friday night, she's a downright psychopath. If Seto hadn't have found me then I don't want to know how long I would have been lying in that alley for."

Yami could hear his heartbeat in his ears. No wonder Roxy was in such a horrible mood. He tried to reach out to her, "I...I'm so sorry, just let me-"

"No."

The look on Yami's face in that moment was almost enough to break the wall Roxy was putting up. Almost. "Yami, I can't do this. I don't want any sort of relationship with anyone, okay?" Roxy turned slightly to the side, making it easier to avoid looking at him, her arms still crossed.

"But-"

"Please, Yami. I know how this will end, and it's not pretty. It's better if we just forget last Friday ever happened." Her eyes were idly wandering over the bricks of the neighboring building and the ground, but she couldn't miss the defeated slump of Yami's shoulders as he dropped them with a sigh.

There was a moment of silence, before he spoke up, "You really feel that way?" he asked, his voice nowhere near as strong as it was before.

Roxy's throat was tight, and she was intensely staring at one brick. "Yes," she forced out. She then lowered her voice, "I'm sorry." A set of footsteps from the street echoed between the buildings, and whoever it was seemed to stop for a moment, before walking into the alley. Roxy turned her head to see in surprise that it was Seto walking towards them. The CEO narrowed his eyes at Yami as he approached.

"Everything alright?" Seto asked Roxy, still looking straight at Yami, who couldn't be bothered to glare back at this point.

"I was just getting back to work," she muttered, glancing in Yami's direction only once, before turning and walking back to the deck. Yami and Seto stayed where they were, and as soon as Roxy was out of ear shot, Seto spoke up.

"You lose, Sennen. Go home," he said, a victorious smirk on his face.

Yami walked up to Seto as he moved to leave the alley, "Don't toy her around, Kaiba. I may not have known her for that long but she bites back hard. And if that's not the case, if you break her, I break you."

Seto laughed as Yami walked out of the alley, calling out to him, "I'd like to see you try."