nowhere, torrential downpour that had soaked my casual business wear in less than five seconds. My heels flooded with water and my feet slid around in them until I had to take them off.
There I was, drenched and holding my shoes, when I’d glanced up and watched my boyfriend come out of the building next door. It was strange because he lived with me and had no reason to be in the building he was exiting. What was stranger was that he was supposed to be out of town, visiting his sick mother. The thing that put the icing on the strange cake? He was lip locked with a girl that wasn’t me.
I’d like to say that I reacted with fury or a crazed determination to rip his penis off. I didn’t, though. Instead I just stood there and watched as the girl locked her legs around Paul’s waist and then they disappeared back into her building. The only thought that was going through my head was that I should’ve asked him for his spare key so I could go inside our one bedroom apartment and call in sick for the day.
I turned and began my trek to work without any sadness over the end of that relationship. Paul was a loser with a tendency to laugh at my ideas when I actually spoke them aloud. Seeing him and his oversized Star Wars poster go wouldn’t be heartbreaking, to say the least. It actually put a small pep in my step, despite the fact that I was having a horrible day. Even the fact that the construction workers had called it quits because of the rain and I could see my breast tracks still on the city sidewalk, quickly filling with water, didn’t bother me quite as much.
I was just outside of work when the rain stopped. Perfect timing, as always. I glanced up and watched as a guy raced towards me. I tried to step out of his way, thinking he was just in a rush, but he just grabbed the strap of my purse and tried to yank it out of my hands as he raced past. Normally I would never think of fighting back against a mugger. I’m a quiet girl from a suburban home. I never even witnessed a fight until I was a senior in high school and two girls got into a slap fight over a guy named Billy.
My day had been too awful already to let it keep going on that way. I braced myself and yanked back with all of my force. I wasn’t losing that purse without a fight. It had everything I needed in it, including a flash drive that held my newest ramblings that would hopefully become a popular blog post soon.
The mugger wasn’t huge but he was bigger than my petite frame. My force was no match for the forward momentum he’d built up. My feet left the ground and I sailed through the air when he kept running after grabbing my purse. I refused to let go, though. I hit the ground hard and dragging my dead weight seemed to finally slow the mugger down. He spun around and yanked hard at the purse.
“Let go, you crazy bitch!”
I fought hard to pull the purse back to my chest and glared up at him. “You let go, you piece of crap!”
He looked incredulous but that didn’t stop him from reaching down and slapping me. My mouth fell open and I blinked back tears from the stinging pain. He’d slapped me. I fought to my feet and pulled even harder for the purse. Mr. Mugger gave up being nice and I watched as he closed his fist and pulled it back.
I braced for the impact but instead a leather clad hand appeared out of nowhere and caught the guy’s fist before it connected to my face. I peeked up and followed a leather covered forearm up to a leather covered shoulder and finally to an angry face that made something south of my belt heat.
My hero was sex-on-two-feet sexy and I couldn’t help but blush. His hair was covered by a wet bandana but it looked dark. His eyes, currently menacing, were bright green and surrounded my thick, dark lashes. His mouth was one hundred percent stern, only broken up by a thin white line that cut through his upper lip.
I had to tip my