: Chapter 1

“AND SO BASICALLY THE interview was just a formality. My dad knows the guy who owns the company, so I’m pretty much a shoo-in, but you know…gotta keep up appearances!”

Brian, my app-date for the night, holds up his beer for a toast which I don’t return, then skulls the remainder, a very pleased-with-himself look plastered across his face. I force a smile across mine, doing my best not to show just how revolted I am by basically everything about him.

Is nepo baby a strictly Hollywood only term, or does it apply to jerks like this who are also just born one giant step ahead of everybody else because of who their parents are? It’s strange he never mentioned any of this on his profile. If he had, I never would have agreed to go out with him. I guess maybe he wanted it to look like he’d gotten his current job as an accountant on his own merit. But now that he has a few drinks in him, the truth is coming out.

“Yup, gotta keep those appearances up,” I reply with a half-smile as I text Riley, my roommate.

–

She writes back immediately.

My phone vibrates in my hand.

I laugh as the next text comes in.

I tuck my phone back into my purse and look up.

“Hey, so my roommate just texted me and says she’s not feeling well,” I lie. “I think we’re going to have to cut this short sadly.”

Brian’s smug, drunk face sinks as he looks back at me over a freshly ordered beer that’s just arrived at our table. “You serious?”

“I am.” I nod as I get to my feet. He’s looking back at me like he can’t believe any girl would ever bail on him early. So entitled. So arrogant. Like he’s never had anyone say no to him in his entire life.

I only even swiped on him because I liked his haircut and his profile said he was into Hunter S. Thompson, but then when we met up at the restaurant, it turned out he’d actually shaved his head and he only claimed to have liked Hunter because he’s a Johnny Depp fan and liked , the movie, but hadn’t actually read any of his writings.

Talk about a bait and switch.

I didn’t even want to go to begin with, but Riley kept telling me that I couldn’t be “

” And she did have a bit of a point. I’ve been so focused on school since getting into the University of New Hampshire that my dating life has been basically non-existent.

Not that it was existent in high school either.

I was that girl who was always focused on her schoolwork because I actually had a goal in mind for where I wanted to be in five to ten years. People interpreted that as being antisocial, but I’m really not. I’m not creepy or crazy shy, I don’t hate being around people or anything, I just prefer working on my main focus in life: journalism.

And my date tonight, Brian, could not care less about anything I have to say on the subject. I knew five-minutes in that things were not going to work out between us. But I’m not sure that he’s got the message even now.

“Ah, come on,” he protests, following me as I make my way to the door. “I’m sure your friend can hold out for a little while longer. Why don’t you stick around? I’ll buy you a drink.”

“I’m not even old enough to drink, Brian. Remember?”

He pauses. “Oh, right…well, we could get some food. You like Parmesan fries? Brussel sprouts?”

“I’m fine.” I smile, nudging my way out the door into the night. It’s a bit chilly, and I glance at my phone to see where my Uber has parked, but it looks like the driver has somehow managed to end up around the other side of the block.

“You sure are, Nina.” Brian grins, throwing his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. I can smell the alcohol on his breath. “Which is why I think you need to stick around a little bit longer.”

“I appreciate the compliment. But I’ve got a car waiting for me one street over, so thank you for the night,” I say, trying to keep my tone as level as possible and my face as jovial as I can. “But I’ll say good night here.”

I shrug out from under his skeevy arm and turn to head down the side street.

, I think as my heels echo off the buildings around me. I can’t believe I even wore these tonight. I never get all girlie’d up, and the one night I do, everything backfires on me.

I pull my cardigan closer against the evening chill and glance down at my phone again. According to the map, my ride should be parked just at the end of this street to the right. I pass a dumpster on my left and pick up the pace as the scent of rank trash and rotting food enters my nostrils, and that’s when I hear it.

The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching behind me.

I turn just in time to see the fist coming at me like a meteor out of the darkness.

I try to duck or move or throw myself out of the way, but I can’t. All I feel next is the pain in my face, and I’m stumbling backward over the cobblestones.

One of my heels snaps off my shoe, and I fall and land heavily on my back, knocking all the air from my lungs. Gasping, I look up at the dark night sky and see a blurry face come into view, looming over me like a monster licking his lips.

“You’ll say good night, huh?” Brian asks, standing over me like the conquering general of another country. His eyes are flaming, filled with anger as he looks down at me like a hungry animal. In a flash, he’s seated on my chest, pinning me down with all his bodyweight. “I think decide when you say good night, bitch!”

With a single stroke of his arm, he tears the front from my dress. I’m not wearing a bra beneath, so my breasts are completely exposed to him, and his face lights up as he drinks them in like the vicious pervert he is.

I fight to cover myself, screaming out for help, but he silences me instantly with a backhand to the lips.

I taste blood.

“Shut up,” he growls, leaning in so close I can smell the stink of his sweat. “Unless you want me to go harder on you.”

He reaches down and begins to unbuckle his pants.

“Or maybe you like it like that?” he suggests.

Panic floods through me, accompanied by a wave of adrenaline.

“Hey!” A voice rings out from behind me, and I crane my neck back to look, and although my view is upside down, I’m able to see a group of four old guys staring at us. The one in front raises his arm at Brian. “Get your fucking hands off her, pal!”

Brian leaps off me and instantly starts running back in the direction of the restaurant. The four guys give chase best they can, but there’s no way they’re going to catch him. They’re well into their 60s. One of them stops when he reaches me and immediately throws his jacket over me, covering me up.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asks, sounding a lot more tender than he looks. “What did he do to you? Did he–?”

“No, no.” I shake my head, slumping forward into his arms. “You guys showed up just in time. I’m all right.”

“Looks like he hit you a couple of times…son of a bitch…” he grumbles to himself. “You don’t have to stay with a guy who hits you, sweetheart.”

I almost laugh. “Trust me, I never would. But he’s not my boyfriend. Just a bad date that went off the rails.”

“You need to file a police report.”

I sigh and shake my head. “Maybe later. I’ve got an Uber waiting to take me home. I just want to get back and shower and go to bed.”

I can see by the way the man’s looking at me that he disapproves, but he nods anyway and walks with me to the end of the alley and puts his number in my phone.

“My name’s Greg. You need me to testify or make a statement, or you need anything at all, you call.”

“Thank you, Greg. And tell your friends thanks as well.”

I give this man I’ve only just met a hug and hop into my Uber, apologizing to the driver for making them wait for me for so long. I skip the story on telling them why or what happened, but I can see the man driving has noticed my broken heel and my torn dress under my cardigan, but he doesn’t say anything as he takes me back to the dorm. Probably just thinks I’m another crazy party girl out on another crazy drunken night. But I don’t care. I just want to get home and put all this behind me.

Riley is on the couch when I get back. Her attitude instantly shifts from playful and ready to girl-talk to concerned and ready to mom-mode when she sees the state of me.

“Oh my God, Nina, what the happened to you?” she asks, immediately leaping up from the couch and going to the freezer for ice.

I slump down in my favorite comfy chair as she wraps up some cubes in a dish towel and brings them over to me, her eyes filled with concern.

“Thank you.” I smile, feeling so much safer and at home as I place the pack on my cheek.

“Nina, what “Riley, you are not going to believe this.”

I go over the events of the night, from the bait and switch pulled on me by Brian to him straight-up attacking me in the alley after I tried to bail on him at the restaurant, to the universe somehow intervening and saving me with a bit of luck when those four older guys showed up and scared him away. When I’m finished, she’s got both of her hands on my knee and is staring at me like she can’t even believe I’m alive.

“What have I told you about carrying mace on you?” she asks.

“I know, I know,” I laugh. “And I should have listened.”

“I’m buying you some after this.

.”

“Fine. That’s totally fine.”

“You know what else you’re doing?” she asks.

“What?”

“Self-defense classes.”

I frown. “Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

“Nope.” She shakes her head. “You’re like a hundred and fifteen pounds, Nina. You need a guy to teach you some tricks to defend yourself if this ever happens again. And I know .”

“You don’t mean…”

Riley nods. “I sure do.”

I groan. “No . He’s cocky, abrasive, he’s sexist, he’s full of himself, he thinks every woman in the world wants to have sex with him–”

“He’s one of the toughest men on the planet,” Riley interrupts. “He’s a former middleweight MMA champion and could probably take a lion apart with his bare hands. He’s just what you need to show you how to handle yourself, and you should consider yourself lucky that you even have access to him through me. If my cousin wasn’t friends with him, there’s no way we’d even get to set foot in the gym where he trains.”

I sigh and lick the blood from my lip.

“Fine.” I smile. “But if this ends up going off the rails, it’s gonna be I’m blaming.”