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“This can go theeasyway, beauty…” He watches his finger twist the strand of hair around and around as though hypnotized. “You come back to my place andgiveme what I want…”
His finger drops from my lip, down my chin, and along the seam of my blouse, covering my heaving chest, flickering at the top button. His eyes follow his actions with intensity.
“Or…I can justtakeit.”
He pops open the first button, followed by the second, baring my old off-white cotton bra to his avid gaze.
“P-p-please, Mr. Freemont—”
“I said it’sChad!” His nostrils flare as he cuts me off to grip the cheap material of my blouse, ripping it halfway off my body. My cry of pain puts a smirk on his face that widens enormously when I feel tears crest my lower lashes of their own volition to streak down both of my flushed cheeks.
“Ohyes, beauty. I like it when they scream.”
Planting his hands on either side of my head, he effectively cages me in as his features take on a predatorial look.
My heart hammers against my rib cage as sweat beads on my brow.
He leans closer until his chin rests on my shoulder, and his words ghost across the shell of my ear. “The next time your superiors honor you with their attention, you’ll know to be grateful for the privilege.”
I cry out in pain when he roughly nips my earlobe as my knees threaten to go out from under me. He presses a firm close-mouthed kiss to my arched neck, and my eyes flick around the small space, frantically trying to find a way out.
He grips my hips, pressing me back against the wall of the elevator, and chuckles darkly. “I’m going to take my time with you, beauty.”
NO!
My fight or flight kicks in at that, and before he can take anything else from me, I bring my knee upwards to drive it full force into his unsuspecting groin.
He falls to the elevator floor with a howl, and I waste no time hitting the emergency stop button. The floor indicator immediately changes to zero, with the doors opening an instant later.
“You’ll fucking pay for this,bitch!” Chad’s words are a pained hiss at my fleeing back, sending a jolt of fear clear through me.
I run from the elevator without looking back, tossing my light jacket over my shoulders and pulling it closed over my ruined blouse as my feet fly across the lobby, out into the cool spring night.
My heart is still pounding in my ears when I make it to the parking garage around the corner on William Street.
“Everything okay, Reyna?”
Leonard, the parking attendant, steps outside of his office with a worried look on his face when he catches sight of me trying to go unnoticed.
I keep my eyes on the ground beneath my feet as I murmur, “I—I’m fine. Truly.”
Thankfully, he keeps his distance, allowing me to slip into Lita’s beat-up, much loved, dark blue Toyota Corolla without any further questioning.
The thirty minutes back to my shared rental house in Staten Island feels like it takes forever. I’ve just gotten the trembling in my hands to stop when I pull into the driveway, only for my world to tilt on its axis for the second time today.
I get out of the car, instantly recognizing the luggage outside the front door as the set I’d bought for moving to the city when I joined Pearson.
My clothes and a handful of other belongings are strewn along the porch of the house I’ve been renting with three other girls from somewhere in Europe who have barely a word of English between them.
As I get closer, I spot a notice hanging on the front door, and my stomach drops along with my spirits when I read the heading.
Notice of Eviction
Without warning, my stomach revolts, emptying its little contents on the threadbare brown mat outside my old house. I retch again and again as defeat takes over my body.
When I feel like I have nothing left inside of me, I straighten and run my hands down the sides of my hair, attempting to fix my dishevelment.
I inhale deeply, the cool air filling my lungs and bringing a modicum of peace to my fraught mind. Scrubbing my palms down my face, I wipe away the evidence of my distress and face the small pile of belongings that amounts to everything I own in the world.
