Running Rings

by Ruth G Juliano

  She hurried into the bathroom still wondering what was going on and how the four men got a key to her apartment. She was due to move out on Sunday because that’s the soonest she could get a new place. She only had to pack her clothes and a few possessions and she’d be gone. She washed her hands and put on another pair of underpants. She sat on the bed where she began fidgeting. She needed to know if Adrian was okay. She stared at the door, waiting for him to come back. She looked over at the clock and over at the door. It was feeling like forever because not knowing what was going on was scaring her, a lot.

  “Verity?”

  She smiled, jumped off the bed and went to the door, “Can I open the door?”

  “Yes, babe, open the door.”

  Verity opened the door slowly and Adrian was there. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her off the floor as he hugged her. “Are you hurt? I was worried about you, Adrian. Are you okay?”

  “Me? Are you okay? I’m not hurt, babe, just in shock. I’ve never seen that happen before,” Adrian replied, “I’ve read about it, I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never seen it.” Verity’s feet were still off the ground and Adrian was holding her and breathing deeply. He walked into her bedroom, still holding her up, and closed the door with his foot.

  “Thank you, so much,” Verity said, kissing him on the lips, “Thank you.”

  “I’ve seen a lot of shit, but that was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. That was you about to be raped by four armed men,” Adrian said, allowing her feet to touch the ground. He put her head on his chest and held it there with his hand, resting his chin on her hair. “Verity, Verity, Verity. If I wasn’t here…if you hadn’t changed your mind about me coming over … I mean, what would have happened?”

  Verity held him tighter, “I probably would have been raped and murdered. Why me, Adrian? After what already happened to me, why me? Do I have victim written on my forehead?”

  “This was a targeted attack. I wasn’t going to let the Police take them away until they told me how they got a key. Apparently they did this on behalf of someone called ‘Matthews’. Do you know who that is?”

  Verity nodded, “He’s the man with the ugly sex who assisted in my shower rape. We worked in the same bank. Brad Matthews.”

  Adrian shook his head, “And they let him off. Fuck. That won’t happen twice. When are you moving out?”

  “Sunday. I already planned to move out because I’m scared of my shower. I didn’t know he’d stolen and copied a key. Damn. I think he knew the combination to my locker at work. He could have had a copy of the key for months waiting to find out where I lived.”

  Adrian rubbed Verity’s back, “I want you to learn self-defence. I want you to let me teach you so you can look after yourself better and get a bit of strength. I run a class for disadvantaged kids, you should come.”

  Verity smiled until tears came to her eyes. She felt very safe in his arms. He was her mind-blowing one-night stand, he was her hug in the courthouse, and now he was her knight in shining armour. Verity felt a wave of guilt wash over her. She couldn’t allow herself to feel for Adrian. As much as she needed him right now, her heart belonged somewhere already. “You should probably go now.”

  “What? I don’t want to let you go. I feel sick for you.”

  “I love being held by you, but you can’t stand here holding me all night, as lovely as it is,” Verity said, “Do you have to go to work?”

  “Eventually.” He let her go and tilted her face up. “I want you to be okay. I really do.”

  Verity nodded, “I could go to a hotel.”

  “How much stuff do you have?”

  “A suitcase and a box, and my handbag, and some toiletries and linen. All the plates and stuff were here when I got here.”

  “Okay, I’ll help you pack, let’s go now. You can stay in my spare room.”

  Verity shook her head, “I can’t let you do that, Adrian. You don’t even know me and I’ve caused you nothing but trouble. I don’t want you to be caught up in the disaster that my life is, and, I don’t know, I’m so grateful to know you and I just…I can’t put this on you. It’s not fair to you.”

  “No, what just happened wasn’t fair. I thought I heard a scream, I thought maybe you’d seen a spider or a cockroach or something. I wasn’t expecting to see you in that position. I felt… I don’t even really know what I felt. I know it’s unlikely that anything else will happen to you tonight, but I would feel better knowing you were safe.”

  “I’ll go to the hotel two blocks away. You have to go home and get some sleep and go to work tomorrow. I don’t. I’ll come here in the morning and pack, and take my things to the hotel and then on Sunday I’ll move to the new address. I’ll be fine. I’ll have a girlfriend help me. I’ll be okay.”

  “Verity, I’m not willing to leave your side until I know you’re safe. I’m not scared of anything, I’ve dealt with a lot of shit and I can handle myself, but when I walked out and saw … I’m usually there in the aftermath hearing about it, not witnessing it happening. I was so determined not to let you get hurt that I dislocated someone’s shoulder, broke a guy’s arm, broke a guy’s nose, and the other one may never procreate.”

  Verity hugged him hard, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Are you going to be in trouble?”

  Adrian shook his head, “But I wouldn’t care if I was. Unless someone has been in that situation then they have no idea what it’s like or how they’d react. You were my priority, and I did what I had to do to make sure you were safe.” He rubbed her back with both hands.

  Verity almost felt like her heart had given an extra beat. He was a wonderful man, but he wasn’t hers. She let him go and rubbed her hands together. “Um, I know you’re busy, and I don’t want to hold you up. I’ll just grab a few things, and go now.”

  “Okay,” Adrian said.

  Verity threw items in a bag and collected up all of her pictures and albums from around the apartment. “Adrian, I’m so sorry.”

  “No, come on, this wasn’t your fault,” he said.

  “You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met and I’m just… so sorry. I feel so happy to know you and I’m honestly so sad for you that you ever met me.”

  “Babe, that’s your self-esteem talking. I’m not sorry I met you. Let’s go,” Adrian said. “What’s that noise?”

  Verity looked at her watch, “It’s an alarm on my watch. Happy birthday to me.”

  “What?”

  “It’s my birthday,” Verity shrugged, “I was born at one fourteen in the morning. I’m officially twenty three now.”

  “Shit,” Adrian said, shaking his head.

  “Oh well, definitely better than last year. I don’t even remember which day it was out of the eighty four.”

  Adrian took Verity in his arms and held her tight. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Verity, happy birthday to you,” he sang slowly and softly. “Hip, hip, hooray!”

  Verity laughed and shook her head, “Thank you. You already made my day just by being here. Thank you. It’s insufficient for how I feel about you, but thank you. I’m so grateful for everything you are.” She kissed him on the lips and sighed.

  Chapter 16

  Verity had been attending Adrian’s self-defence classes for six weeks. He didn’t show her any special attention, and that was fine by her. He advised everyone that it was the last class for a while and everyone seemed sad. They’d been attending a lot longer than she had and it was obvious the children thought Adrian was a superhero. Verity watched the boys and girls thanking Adrian and giving him high fives. She had a drink of water and asked Adrian if he needed any help to pack up.

  “No, it’s fine. There’s someone else coming in to use the stuff in an hour.”

  Verity nodded. “I know you don’t want to talk to me. I know you just want to teach me and send me on my way every week, but I’m really grateful that you had me here with the kids. It’s been a lot of fun. I th
ink that you’re an amazing human being, Adrian, and I can’t thank you enough for being who you are. If I’m lucky, I’ll bump into you in the city. Thank you again for my birthday flowers.”

  “You already thanked me for the flowers, several times. That was weeks and weeks ago. It was your birthday, it was the least I could do, especially under the circumstances,” Adrian said.

  “No, the least you could have done would have been nothing,” Verity replied, “You made sure I got safely settled into the hotel and then I woke up to a delivery of flowers. You had barely any sleep and you had to go to work, and yet you arranged flowers for me. And you chose the perfect flowers too.”

  Adrian shrugged, “They’re one of the few that actually need to be cut.”

  “Exactly,” Verity said, “You’re marvellous. You don’t know how marvellous, but I have to tell you now in case I don’t see you around.” She picked up her bag and headed for the door.

  “Before you go,” Adrian said, “I’d like to be really sure you’ve been paying attention and that you can defend yourself. I know it’s free, but I want to make sure you got some benefit out of it.”

  Verity smiled and put her bag down. “Okay, shall we act something out? I’d like to be really sure that if it’s going to be a sexual attack I know what I’m doing to help myself.”

  “Anything you can do to help yourself would be good, but being outnumbered four to one is bullshit, that was bullshit. They’re all serving time and I really hope they get some of the same kind of punishment while they’re there.”

  “I hope they can be rehabilitated and learn from it,” Verity said, “So shall we try something?”

  “Yep, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I put my own spin on it using some business concepts that I actually know.”

  Adrian laughed, “Okay, now I’m really curious. Let me get some padding on and we’ll test what you know.”

  Verity watched Adrian get some things out of a bag and put them on over his singlet top and track pants. He put padding on his head and face like a boxer and rotated his shoulders. “Okay, I’ll attack you, and you defend yourself.”

  “Alright, I’m going to use my swot analysis technique,” Verity said.

  “Swat, like s-w-a-t?”

  “No, s-w-o-t.”

  Adrian smiled, “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Verity walked away from Adrian across the mat and he suddenly put his arms around her from behind. She said ‘strength’ and hit her head backwards onto his head, she said ‘weakness’ and stood down on his foot. When he released her to grab his supposedly injured foot, she turned and kicked him in the groin as she said ‘opportunity’ and when he fell on his side she raised her foot and said ‘threat’ and pretended to kick him.

  Adrian got to his feet and applauded. He laughed, “That actually fit really well with what you were doing.”

  “It just helped me remember the steps I wanted to take,” Verity said.

  “So what is a swot analysis normally?”

  “You mean strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat? It’s used in marketing for changing weakness to strength, matching the strength with opportunities and converting threats to opportunities. It helps when you make a marketing plan. Would you like to attack me again? I can show you my five c’s and my four p’s and my S T P,” Verity said, moving her hands around as if she was a karate expert.

  Adrian stepped to her, kicked her legs out from under her and put himself on top of her. “Now what?”

  “Now you kiss me,” Verity said, “And I let you.”

  Adrian smiled and kissed her on the lips. “What if I sit down on you like this?”

  “I would have to throw you off with my hips and get on top of you, show you who’s boss,” Verity said.

  “I don’t think you can,” Adrian said, pressing down on her.

  Verity thrust her hip up and sideways, making him fall forward onto his hands. She wrapped her arm around his arm, slid under it and flipped him over. She sat on top of him, “I think you let me get away with that.”

  “Are you going to attack me now?” he asked.

  Verity took his hands and held them over his head. She looked into his eyes and moved her face close to his, “No.” She stood up and offered him a hand to get up. He took her hand and pulled her down on top of him. He kissed her and rolled over so he was on top of her again.

  “Oh my god, what’s that,” she said, pointing over his shoulder. He turned to look and she shoved his shoulder to push him over, and got on top of him. She sat on his hips with her feet planted on the floor and rested her elbows on her knees.

  “That’s a good position,” he said, “You might like that.”

  Verity tilted her head and bounced her bottom towards her heels, “Wow, I never thought of that one. That’d squeeze you pretty tight, wouldn’t it?”

  He nodded, “But it pumps all the blood to your thighs so you can’t do it forever.”

  “Hmm, what about this one?” Verity asked and moved to sit on his chest.

  He looked up at her face and back at her crotch then gestured her to move forward. She moved forward and he lifted his head. “Yep, that works.”

  Verity laughed and stood up. She began walking away when Adrian pushed her from behind and she fell to her hands and knees. He moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. Verity lifted her heel to kick him in the groin but he moved his legs so they were between hers instead. She flattened herself, bringing him with her then rolled over on him and used her heel in his groin gently as she stood up.

  “You’re pretty good,” Adrian said, “I guess you were paying attention.”

  “I always pay attention to you. I hang on your every fascinating word and mesmerising movement.”

  Adrian smiled, “I haven’t seen your new place.”

  “I haven’t given my new address to anyone, but I would gladly give it to you. Or you could always follow me home.”

  “And what would I do when I got there?”

  “Anything you like, but if you need to have a reason then you could teach me something. You’re good at that.”

  Adrian nodded, “Sure, what would you like to learn?”

  “How to have the passionate sex I want to have with you, without feeling degraded.”

  “I hope that I would never make you feel degraded.”

  “I know you wouldn’t. I’ve never had passionate sex, but you make me want it, Adrian. I want you like I’ve never wanted anyone.”

  “We’re just talking about sex right?”

  Verity looked beyond Adrian and nodded, “Yeah.”

  “No problem, sex I can do,” Adrian said.

  Chapter 17

  There was something about Adrian following Verity to her apartment that was making it hard for her to keep the smile off her face. She unlocked the door and welcomed him in, then gave him a guided tour. She pointed out all of the features in the lounge, dining and kitchen areas, and the two bedrooms each with ensuite and the separate toilet room. She said she was excited to have three toilets, even though she was just one person, which made Adrian laugh. As both bedroom ensuites had a shower, she offered Adrian the opportunity to shower and change. He said that would be great.

  “Okay, I’m pretty sure they’re not connected so we won’t freeze or burn each other,” she said, handing him a towel.

  “Thanks. See you in five.”

  Verity came out of her bedroom, showered and dressed, and Adrian was already dressed and sitting on the couch. She was curious about how his bottom looked in the jeans, and assumed it would be a very nice view based on how he looked naked.

  “So, you wanted to know something about passionate sex?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’d like to know if it’s actually possible. If what Brad did was supposed to be sexy then I’m really disappointed.”

  “You want me to teach you how to have passionate sex?’ Adrian said.

  “I know, it
sounds stupid, but my sex life is obviously complicated. I only ever had very gentle and very loving sex in one position. Then I was raped about a hundred times in that position. Now with what’s happened to me, I want to know that I can feel okay in other circumstances that aren’t that one position.”

  Adrian nodded, “The first and only other time we had sex, it was about you wanting to have sex that made you feel loved. Now what you want is sex that makes you feel sexy and passionate without feeling degraded and used.”

  “Exactly. You remember our first time?”

  “Of course,” Adrian said, looking around the room. “Is anything here expensive or particularly fragile?”

  Verity looked around, “No, not really.”

  “Okay, let’s try it then.”

  “What, now? We’re just going to spontaneously have passionate sex by planning it?”

  Adrian smiled, “Let’s use your imagination. Think of a time when someone grabbed you or you grabbed them, and you wanted them badly but couldn’t have them right then and there.”

  Verity closed her eyes and thought about Adrian on the mats at the hall. She smiled, “Yep got one.”

  “Okay, now let’s imagine we’ve had lots of moments like that, we’ve been building up to it, and it’s finally our moment to get it on.”