HE WASN’T COMING.

Sat in the living room, my skin ice cold as I watched the minutes tick by. It was past eight. We both were supposed to leave for dinner two hours ago but I hadn’t seen or heard from Rushan since he left for work that morning. My calls had gone to voicemail and I refused to check in with his office like some random acquaintance begging for a minute of the great Rushan Sharma’s time.

I was his wife, dammit. I shouldn’t have to chase him down or guess his whereabouts. Then again, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was doing right now.

Working. Always working. Even on our tenth anniversary. 

I finally had a good reason to cry, but no tears came. I just felt…numb. A part of me had expected him to forget or postpone, and wasn’t that the saddest part?

The numbness still hasn’t gone away and my mind kept telling me that I did this to myself, knowing he would do something like this or completely forget. I decide to leave the house.

I had no idea where I wanted to go. I just can’t stand being in the house right now. It’s too quiet. With no destination in mind, I just put one foot in front of the other and kept walking. The sky was getting darker, and the city wasn’t the safest at night to be walking alone, but I didn’t care.

The hurt was so much that I didn’t even realize where I was going. It was so heart-pinching that I didn’t even admire the beautiful moon. I walked and walked not knowing where I was going. 

I look up, finally taking note of my surroundings. I was downtown, and it was getting darker by the second. It won’t take long for the lights in the skyscrapers to flicker on, and I knew once night fell it was best to stay away from this side of town. I was about to turn on my heel and head home when I heard voices down the sidewalk.

I look towards it just to see a group of three men approaching.

“oh shit”, I mutter as I turn around and speed walk. I pray in my head for protection from these vultures. 

“hey there pretty girl-“ one catcalls from behind me, and I speed up my walking. I could hear fast-approaching footsteps and knew they were following after me. Just perfect, what a best day to die in an empty area raped on anniversary day!! I thought in my head. 

“come on, don’t be in such a rush.” one of the men says, catching up to me and grabbing my arm. And that was the most scariest thing possible. They all chuckle as I try to pull away, but he tightens his grip. “we just wanna talk, no need to be shy.” the first man says, as the one holding my arm tugs me back towards them, i so wished to be dead at this point. “Leave me!!” I scream as I try to pull away. 

They continued to chuckle, as they dragged me into an alley between two of the skyscrapers, and pushed me into the wall. “why are you in such a hurry sweetheart?” the second guy asks as he looks me up and down. I hated the fact that I was wearing my pink short dress for Rushan to impress him. I should have changed before coming out. I push him away but to my luck, that trick is not in my favor. 

“feisty one too, aren’t ya?” the first man asks as he walks over. he grabs me by my hair, and roughly pulls my head back as he looks down at me. His buddies laugh as I try to claw at his hands. They were strong and were only getting more excited the more I struggled. God, I hate man! All of them, even Dominic. The man holding my hair leans in close to my ear and speaks in a mocking tone. “if I play nice we’ll make this quick.” his breath smelled like alcohol as he spoke. Dear god! This was horrible so so horrible this morning I had woken up all excited ready to have a romantic night with Dominic, and here I was hoping to die. 

And right at that moment, it all lay on me. How hopelessly lonely I was all this time. How much I wanted to feel loved by my husband, how much I hoped and expected from him. And I got just pain and heart pinches in return. Maybe something was wrong with me, maybe I was not as exciting and perfect as I was before. And maybe I was the problem and it was my fault that I was in this situation. I sob as I feel helpless and hopeless. 

And to my pathetic luck, the one guy standing in front of me chuckles again as they all move in closer to me, but they all suddenly. The man’s attention was on the sound of Dominic’s ringtone coming from my pocket as he called me. I sign in relief, finally some help.  The man standing in front of me smirked before reaching into my pocket to take the phone out i wince as he touches me he answers the call.

“what is it?” he asks as he puts the phone up to my ear. I am hardly able to say a small “Hello.” I can hear him pause as he finally realizes that I was the one on the phone. “Adira? What do you want?” And I realized He called me accidentally of course. How can the mighty Rushan Sharma get the time to call me? But thank god for the accident I will be safe now. 

“Dominic-” and he cut me off. And He cut me off with the words that broke every bone in me.  “do you know what time it is? I’m busy.” he scoffs, already annoyed. I lean back against the wall frustrated, of course, it was all my fault to hope for help. All my fault why do I even hope or expect? 

On Dominic’s side of the call, I can hear him shuffle through paperwork and set the stack down on the table before sighing heavily. he was irritated at having to deal with my call before saying gruffly, “Well are you gonna say something?” I open my mouth to tell him, to tell him how much I need him. But Before I can my hair gets pulled and I wince as the man from earlier pulls my hair and twists my head to look up at him. He’s still holding my phone to my ear with the other hand, as Rushan continues to wait for a response.

The man chuckles before speaking for me in a mocking tone similar to before. “she can’t talk right now. She’s…preoccupied.” it felt so disgusting and so cruel. His buddies laugh as Rushan asks from the other line “What do you mean she can’t talk?” how can Rushan be so dumb and naive as to not realize the tone and meaning behind the words?

 The man scoffs, not bothering to change his tone or take the phone away from your ear. “well she’s in the middle of something right now, so if you could call back again in about half an hour once we’re done here. Thanks.” the other men chuckle as the man starts to hang up the phone, but Rushan speaks louder this time as he realizes the situation. "don't you dare hang up”

But it’s too late as the call ends. The men all laugh, enjoying the game they are playing with him. One of them pats me on the face mockingly as he says, “I knew the call wasn’t going to last long, but I didn’t expect it to be that short.” I can't even react to the way things just occurred. The only man who was my Superman till now just couldn't save me. 

Mustering all my courage I say, “What do you want?” they all laugh again as the man from earlier finally moves closer, putting a large hand on my waist. He leans closer to my face as he speaks. “from what I saw, not much. Just a good time.”  

His friends chuckle again as he brings his other hand up to my face and starts to trace my cheekbone with his thumb filling me with disgust. His hand on my waist tightens and presses me against the wall as he presses himself against me, my throat clogs due to the anxiety I feel. “I know exactly what to do with a pretty little thing like you.”

All my thoughts of Rushan and my broken anniversary are suddenly forgotten as the situation I was in suddenly became very real. The group continues to snicker amongst themselves, as I continue to try and struggle against the one standing in front of me. He looks at me like prey as he runs his thumb against my bottom lip. “you’ve been so disobedient. Maybe I should fix that.” the men chuckle again as the hand on my waist pushes me against the wall harder, pinning me. He leans in closer to my face, almost touching my nose. “if you don’t stop struggling I’ll make this even worse for you, understood?” 

I push him desperate to be free from him. he frowns slightly as he speaks. “that wasn’t a smart decision, sweetheart.” he roughly grabs my hair again, and pushes my head back against the wall as I wince. “now, have you learned your lesson or shall we try that again?”

"Okay, okay I will play along." I say "Just give me space so I can remove my dress." I hope they Buy my lie. I so hope they will just be dumb enough to fall for this. And for the first time, my pathetic luck works as these three are dumb enough to buy my lie. He grins as he lets go of my hair and steps back from me. The other two men chuckle as they also step back. 

As soon as the three of them move back. I pray to my dear god in my head and run for my life. I take off running down the alley, the men calling after me. They start chasing me, clearly not taking kindly to my antics. “oh you little brat-”

I bolt out of the alley and down the sidewalk, not daring to look back as I can hear the men’s footsteps getting closer. I could hear their heavy footsteps get closer to me as they got more angry and desperate. I kept running, turning every corner I  could in hopes of losing my pursuers.