As the more regular and attentive readers will know, my partner Jimmy owns a cafe. His typical customers are builders, tradespeople etc. It's good quality food, but nothing fancy. He opens at five and closes at three.
This morning he had just opened, and other than his friend, Bobby, who had given him a lift down, there were no customers. Two men walked in, one of them brandishing a knife, and demanded money. Being a cafe, he had sharp knives handy. He picked a couple up and waved them around, knowing the law on self-defence, but knowing not to make the first move. He told them to fuck off.
Meanwhile, Bobby (who is not a young man) stood up and made a noise to confuse and distract them. They left, but not before they had begged for 'just ten pounds'. That made him flip and he told me he ranted at them that it was his cafe and he worked hard for his money and he wasn't handing it over to scum like them.
I spent most of the day alternating between feeling relieved that he had got rid of them, and worried about 'what if...' It was only on the way home that I realised that, actually, he's a hero, repelling an attempted robbery at knife point.
