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Mindy

A muscled man with a gun sitting on his hip opens the door as the cab comes to a stop.

“Um. Are you sure this is the place?” My voice is barely a whisper.

“Yeah. That guy is there to keep you safe.”

Please be telling me the truth. This place just looks like a massive office building surrounded by trees.

And an impressive fence.

I fight to open the door. My body just doesn’t have much more left in it.

The guard steps forward as he says, “We need medical out here. Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?”

The cabbie shrugs.

“No hospital,” I struggle to say. There’s no way I can afford to pay the bills. “I’m okay.”

“Uh-huh. I’m going to lift you out of the cab. It’s going to hurt. I’m sorry about that.” The guard steps forward.

“Everything hurts. You can’t make it worse.”

He leans in and whispers. “Keep up that bravado for a few more minutes. Then you can fall apart.”

“I don’t fall apart.” Often.

“Good to know.” He winks, then lifts me up.

THAT HURTS! I bite my lip to hold in the scream as several women run out with a gurney between them.

“Pretty sure she’s got a cracked rib or two.” He tells the women as he sets me down.

Pain shoots through my body, and waves of nausea roll through me.

“Stop.” One of the women feels like she shouts, but never raises her voice. “Lift her up again.”

The man does what she says.

“There’s glass all over her backside and lower back.” She picks one up off the gurney. “It looks like a beer bottle.”

“I dropped the bottle. I’m sorry.”

The woman gets in front of me. “And did you punch yourself in the face?”

“No. He was drunk, and I thought I could handle it.”

“Do you want me to contact the police? They will want to collect evidence for a restraining order.”

“NO!” I can’t lose my job.

“It’s your choice, but think about it.” She turns back to the man. “We’re going to need to put her on her stomach. And someone call me in reinforcements. I’m going to need help getting all this glass out of her.”

“On it.” Someone says in the background.

“Can you set her on her side? Then we’ll shift her onto her stomach.”

The pain wins, and everything goes black.

***

The light wakes me up.

Why am I lying on my stomach?

The pain… It isn’t gone, but it’s bearable.

“There you are, back with us. How’s your pain?” the same woman from before asks.

“Better. How is that possible?” Everything hurt so bad before.

“We got an IV in with some pain meds.”

Drugs rock.

“We didn’t notice any medical alert cards or bracelets. Are you allergic to anything? Have any medical conditions?”

Does an allergy to family count? “No. I’m generally very healthy.”

“That should make the recovery a little easier. But you’re not going to be moving around much for a week or more. The good news is your ribs aren’t broken.”

He hit me that hard?

“But they’re very bruised. You’re going to need to take it easy for three to six weeks.” She moves away from my face. “We should be done in a few minutes. I’m Delia, and the doctor on the other side is Barb.”

A few minutes? The sun is up! “What time is it?”

“Almost seven,” Delia answers. “Why?”

“I need to call in sick to work.”

“Well, at least you weren’t going to try to convince us you can go to work,” Barb says.

Other than the fact that I feel loopy as all get out and can’t seem to feel much down my back. Speech is important for my job. And though I’m happy I can talk, I don’t really sound like a human being. “Even I’m not that stupid.”

Barb steps over so that I can see her. “It’s not stupid to trust the wrong person. Though it is not to file a police report. Just saying.” She slides back.

They’re pulling glass out of my body. But if I pretend hard enough, it could be a new massage that Greer keeps insisting on trying. The massages she picks always end up hurting.

Like that deep tissue one. I thought I was going to cry.

What they don’t understand is that I can’t lose my job. Not only do I actually enjoy it, but I can’t survive without it. Especially since Maddox is probably going to fire me the next time I see him. “Could you hand me my phone? It should be in my purse.” Unless I left it in the cab. Time got a little fuzzy around then.

There’s some movement, then Delia says, “Sorry, there isn’t a phone in here.”

Where could it be?

The coffee table. Dahlia and I were looking up wedding stuff. “Can I borrow a phone for a minute?”

“Sure. You don’t need to worry about anyone finding you with this number. The ID is blocked. Even the best hackers haven’t been able to break it.”

Well…that’s comforting and more than a little scary.

How many women end up at places like this that they need to have blocked numbers? I don’t want to think about that either.

Even loopy, it’s not too hard to remember my work number. With an old cell phone that’s glitchy, it’s always smart to memorize important phone numbers.

Pit’s number slid out of my mind.

He only gave it to me yesterday.

What am I going to do? I can’t face calling Maddox this morning after the big deal Pit made about being my boss now and taking care of stuff like this. How do I get Pit’s number?

Fiona!!!!

She seems to know everyone around there. Maybe she’ll have Pit’s number or someone who has his number who she can connect me with.

“Hello.” Fiona’s voice is muffled by all the chatter and laughter in the background.

“Fea, it’s Mindy.” There’s no way she’d be able to recognize my voice. I don’t even recognize my own.

“Mindy? Is something wrong?” The background noise evaporates.

Lie! “I’ve just got a cold. Nothing to worry about. Do you, by chance, have Pit’s number? I need to call him to tell him I’m not going to be in to work today.”

“Of course. He’s right here. But do you want to talk to Maddox?”

NO!!!!!!!! “I don’t want to bother him. If I could just get Pit’s number or talk to him for a moment.”

“Are you sure?”

Positive. There’s no way I want to be fired today. “Yes.”

“Okay.” She sounds leery. “Hang on a second.”

It’s a long second of complete silence.

Did the phone disconnect?

“Hello.” His gruff voice booms through the phone.

“Hi.”

“What happened to you, woman?”

I was throttled by a drunk man that I trusted. “I’m not feeling well.”

“That’s an understatement. You sound horrible.”

Thanks for pointing out the obvious. “I won’t be at work today.”

“You sound like you need to be in the hospital.”

People keep saying that. “I just need a little rest.”

Delia snorts softly in the background.

“Do you want to talk to Maddox?”

No! Why do people keep asking that? He clearly didn’t want to waste any more time with me. “No. Thank you. I don’t want to bother him. Look, I’ve got to rest.” That’s the actual truth. “Sorry about calling in sick.”

“Want me to send a doctor over?”

He knows doctors who do house calls? “No. I’m fine. All I need is some rest. Thank you.” I hang up the phone before he can ask any other weird questions.

“You know, it’s not a good idea to lie to your friends at times like these. Their support can help you heal at times like these.”

Don’t I wish Barb’s words were true. “They aren’t my friends. That was my boss.”

“You called the man that did this to you and apologized for not coming in?”

“No, that was my other boss.”

“How many jobs do you have?” Delia asks.

“Three…no, right now I only have two.” This conversation is too hard. I pretend to fall asleep until the world fades away.