Come on, Karma, don’t screw with me today. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this punishment, but today is stacking up to be completely craptastic. First, I spill coffee in my lap on the drive in to work, so I’ve got a dark stain in my crotch that looks like I pissed myself. With my shirt tucked out, it’s not really noticeable. But the extremely wrinkled shirttails that I’m now sporting aren’t much better to look at than the stain. And then, I realize the tracking file I spent four hours updating yesterday didn’t upload properly, and all the work I put into it was totally lost. So I’m already half a day behind on my new job at it’s only the second day of my internship. Talk about pathetic.

But I’m excited for my meeting with the UX consultant. Chris said the guy knows his stuff and has a great concept for the new website. Chris also warned that this guy is a friend of the big boss, so I should just listen to what he says and try to learn something from him. And that’s fine by me because that’s exactly what I came here to do. I’ve always liked to draw, and the theories behind digital design are really interesting, but designing for the user experience is fascinating to me. I can’t wait to absorb as much as I can from this guy.

Jude Taylor is having lunch with the boss, so I set up my laptop in the conference room right at one o’clock and get back to my spreadsheet while I wait for Mr. Taylor to come in. I’m facing the door so I don’t miss the guy, but I’m trying not to look up every time someone walks by because that comes across as too eager. Although I am eager, I don’t want everyone to know it.

When I the elevators open at a quarter after one, a strange stirring in my belly stops me short and I sniff the air around me. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but something definitely is. Something is wrong…or right. I’m not sure which. Not until the man I’m supposed to be working with fills the doorway with his massive frame and looks straight down at me.

It’s him. The man who raped and beat me at a club is now standing in my office, blocking the only exit route as I break out into a cold sweat.

His eyes are wide as he inhales deeply, looking almost as surprised to see me as I am to see him. “Andrew Carson? You work here?”

I reach for my phone and stand up, backing around the other side of the table as I pull up my video app. “Please don’t hurt me. I promised not to tell anyone. I still won’t.”

“I swear I won’t hurt you. Can you please just listen to me for two minutes?” The man’s surprised expression falls, and that strange stirring is back in my belly. Okay, it was definitely a warning. I’m going to have to get better about listening to my intuition.

I don’t know what to do or say. I don’t want to just scream in the middle of the office, but if he gets any closer, I will.

“Please?” he pleads. “Just a few minutes.”

I’m now at the far end of the room, but I’m still completely trapped. He must be able to see my fear because he backs out until he’s completely outside the room again.

“I don’t want you to feel trapped in there but we need some privacy.” He points to the chair I was just sitting in opposite the door. “How about we trade places? I’ll walk around the back of the table and you can come by the door. That way you can leave when you want to…but we’ll still have some privacy to clear things up.”

I would like to have some clarity around that night. For the first few days I didn’t remember a thing. But I’ve had a few dreams that seem like they could be memories. And in all of them, this man is helping me, not hurting me. So I think I need this time with him as much as he seems to want it. “Okay. You walk slowly in that direction.”

He does as I ask, slowly entering the room and circling the desk clockwise as I walk toward the door from the opposite side. When I’m right by the entrance and he’s a good ten feet away from me with a huge table between us, I can finally breathe again. And as much as I don’t want to hear it, I know I have to get the full story of what happened that night. “Okay, talk.”

He gives me a sad smile and sits down, making himself even more vulnerable while making me feel ten times safer. “First of all, it wasn’t me. I saw a group of alphas take you to the back room and you looked frightened.” He stares down at his hands as he speaks quietly. “After a few minutes, I got worried and decided to go make sure everything was okay. I heard you scream from behind a locked door so I busted it down. By the time I got in there, the guys all hopped out a window and were gone. But you were bloodied and unconscious on the ground.”

I try to contain the tears that are building up in my eyes as he completes the puzzle that I only had a few pieces to until now. “So you didn’t…”

“No.” He shakes his head vehemently. “Of course not. I would never… I swear, I helped you get dressed and called a car to take you home. But you didn’t want to go, and I couldn’t leave you, so I took you to my place.”

That doesn’t sound unfamiliar. In fact, telling him I would just walk home is one of the puzzle pieces I’d been mulling over in my head for the past week. I’m not sure why I didn’t want to go home, but I believe what he’s saying is true. “I believe you.”

“Thank you.” He exhales and lowers his chin to his chest as if relieved. “This has been weighing on me since you left.”

I nod, knowing how he’s felt because I’ve felt the same way. Not being able to remember how my body got so bruised has made me feel even more vulnerable than when I was first turned out into the street by my parents right after I turned eighteen. “Me too. And, I guess I need to thank you for saving me.”

The man looks at me with intense eyes that are almost turquoise as they focus flit between both of mine. “I didn’t save you. If I had saved you, you would have walked out of there with a single bruise or…anything else. I rescued you too late.”

“Well, whatever you want to call it, no one else was there. If you hadn’t been, I’m sure things would have been much worse.” A shiver runs down my spine as I imagine what five guys could have done to me. “I think you saved me.”

He clears his throat and clasps his hands together. “Did you get to the hospital? I wanted to take you but you started to freak out. But you need to run tests for…everything.”

I close my eyes and nod, unable to look him in the eye through my shame. “I did a full workup at the campus clinic. Didn’t tell them what happened but everything came back negative. I have to get tested again in three and six months, but if you were only a few minutes behind us, they probably didn’t get a chance to, you know, finish.”

It takes a moment for him to answer so I look back at him. His jaw is clenched and he nods when he meets my gaze. “Let’s hope.”

We sit in awkward silence for a few minutes before we’re both ready to move on. I clear my throat first. “So, you’re the UX designer Chris has been telling me about?”