The Week After the Canceled Nuptials

Gino pulled up to Leah's apartment building. He put the car in park and turned to her. "Here we are." 

She smiled at him. "Thanks for a fun evening, Gino." 

"The pleasure was mine." He leaned over to kiss her and to his credit, he didn't go overboard on the tongue or anything. It was her first date after ditching Luke on their wedding day a week ago and she was in no big hurry to start something new just yet. Gino said, "Sit tight," and got out and came around to the passenger side. He opened the door and held a hand out to her, and helped her out of the car. 

They stood on the sidewalk and he gave her another little kiss. He touched her leg and said, "Nice stockings, by the way." 

Leah laughed. "Thank you." Since she'd broken it off with Luke, she'd been feeling a little more adventurous. She'd met Gino in the coffee shop earlier in the week and when he asked her out, she had said yes. She'd decided to wear an LBD and fishnet stockings on their date tonight, and she was glad she did. 

Gino said, "No...thank you." He put his forehead on hers and said, "Can I see you again?"

"I'd like that." 

He smiled. "Great! I'll call you this week, okay?"

"Sounds good. Good night, Gino." 

"Good night." He watched her get into the building safely before getting into the car and speeding off, giving her a little honk on the horn as he did so. 

She waved and went into the lobby. She decided to take the stairs rather than the elevator and as she walked slowly up to her apartment, she thought about the previous week. Ditching Luke had been the best thing she'd ever done. She felt like her own person again. Last night, she'd gone to Happy Hour with her friend Raquel who had told her that she was like a different person. She'd said, "Glad you ditched him. He was a total dick. You know that, right?" Leah had said, "I do now!" They'd both laughed and ordered another round. 

Leah made it up to her fourth-floor apartment and unlocked the door. She went inside, looking around to make sure everything was cool, once again appreciating the little home she'd made for herself. She was fortunate that her place hadn't been leased out and she was able to re-up after she'd split with Luke. She had a job, she had an apartment, she had a car, and so what if she no longer had a fiancé? She was better off on her own. 

She kicked off her ankle boots and grabbed a beer from the fridge. She headed into her bedroom and sat down on the bed. She peeled off her tights and flung them towards the hamper, then pulled her dress over her head and off of her. It ended up fairly close to the tights. She put on a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt and grabbed her beer and headed back to the living room. She turned on the TV and went into the kitchen to grab a snack. Gino had taken her out to dinner, but that was a few hours ago and she'd danced most of that off. She needed a little something. 

As she waited for her bag of popcorn to finish in the microwave, she thought that if Gino asked her out next week, she was pretty sure of the "little something" she needed. She said to no one in particular, "Based on our slow dances tonight, it's not so little," and then she cracked up. She'd have to tell Raquel that one when they talked this week. 

The microwave beeped and she grabbed the bag out of the microwave and dumped the popcorn into a bowl. She liked to be fancy like that, rather than eating out of the bag. She snickered to herself and went out to the couch. She settled back and clicked around until she found something mindless to watch. She munched on her popcorn and felt genuinely content and happy. What would her life have been like if she'd actually said "I do" last weekend? She'd probably be fluffing Luke right now so he could get hard enough to procreate with her. She snorted again and said, "What a fucking dick you were." She had talked to herself often this past week but she didn't care. She was free. 

She heard a rattling at her door and stopped munching the popcorn for a moment to listen. Probably the guys next door coming back from a party and trying to get into the wrong apartment. It wouldn't be the first time. When she heard the lock disengage and the door ease open, she jumped up off of the couch, the bowl of popcorn falling to the floor, popcorn flying everywhere. She reached into the space between the couch and the end table and grabbed her baseball bat. You didn't live on your own without some kind of weapon, and she could swing that bat if she needed to. 

The back of the living room was in shadows and she stepped back into them. She had her cell phone and punched in 911. She laid her phone quietly on the end table and watched the hallway to see who might appear. She hoped whoever it was would go away, that maybe the TV being on would make the person realize that someone was home and they would leave. 

She watched from the shadows as someone emerged into the light of the living room from the dark hallway. It wasn't a stranger. It was Luke. 

She stepped out of the dark and said, "What the fuck are you doing here? How did you get in?" She was gratified to see him jump like a startled cat. 

He quickly regained his composure. "I'm here because you're my fiancée. And I got in because I still have a key." He held it up and jangled it. "Remember?"

She gave herself a mental kick in the ass. Why hadn't she thought to get the key from him? She regained her composure, too. "I'm not your fiancée anymore. Remember?" She put a nice sarcastic spin on that last word. "Get out of my apartment, Luke." 

He stepped closer to her. "No." 

She gripped the baseball bat tighter. "Get. The fuck. Out." 

He laughed. "What are you going to do? Hit me with that?"

"Don't tempt me." 

He didn't say anything. He just looked at her. "Look at you." 

"What?"

"Tight t-shirt. No bra. You look like you're just asking for it."

She rolled her eyes. "That's right, Luke. I'm lounging around in the privacy of my own apartment, not wearing a bra, 'asking for it.' If I'm asking for anything, it's a little comfort and some fucking peace and quiet!" 

"Quite a mouth on you." 

"Fuck off." 

He stepped closer to her. 

She raised the baseball bat a little higher. "I'm serious, Luke. Get out. This is my place. Not yours. I gave your engagement ring back, remember? In fact, I left the dress with you, too. By the way, have you worn it yet?"

His eyes narrowed. "Shut your whore mouth." 

Despite knowing him and how he was, that startled her a bit. She was starting to realize that he was more than a little off. 

He wasn't done. "I saw you with your boyfriend tonight. In your whore clothes. How was your night of drinking and dancing? And...fornicating?" He spat out the last word. 

She knew it was probably a bad idea but she couldn't help it. She burst into laughter. "Fornicating? Seriously? It was my first date with him. What do you think I am? Oh, that's right. A whore. His name is Gino, by the way. And if I have a second date with him, yeah, we'll probably fornicate. In fact, we'll probably fornicate all fucking night!" She laughed again. 

Luke clenched his fists and took another step towards her. "Jezebel." 

Leah put on a puzzled face and pointed at herself. "Me? No. LEAH." She laughed again. She saw that every time she laughed, he got more and more pissed off, but she couldn't help it. A couple of years of pent-up rage and oppression were finally coming out and for her, it was coming out in laughter. 

As she was laughing, he moved towards her lightning-fast and grabbed her. The baseball bat dropped to the floor and she struggled with him. He spun her around and she managed to break free and run to the kitchen. He ran after her and she tried to paw through the drawers to find some sort of weapon. His eyes weren't normal and she saw nothing in there of the man she had almost married. He was gone. He slapped at her hands and tried to punch her. She managed to duck in time to avoid one to the jaw, but he connected with her left shoulder and her arm went slightly numb. 

She fell against the wall, a little "oof" escaping her, and she realized that if she didn't do something, he was going to kill her. He'd probably rape her first. Or maybe he'd kill her then rape her. 

That wasn't going to happen. 

As he wrapped his hands around her throat and pushed her against the wall—she was disgusted but not surprised to realize that he had a raging hardon—she summoned every ounce of strength and shoved against him, just enough to get him off-balance. In the split-second she had, she grabbed her cast-iron Dutch oven off of the stovetop, the lid falling to the floor with a loud clang. She gripped the bowl of it by the handle and swung it with all her might towards his head. 

She connected and he went down like a ton of bricks. She didn't think she'd hit him that hard but on the way down, his head hit the corner of the countertop, and when he fell to the floor, his head hit with a definite 'splat' sound. She looked down at him and watched the spreading pool of blood under his head. She was gasping for breath, and when the door burst in and a couple of police came in, she looked up at them. They held their guns on her and yelled, "Drop it!" 

She dropped the Dutch oven and it fell right on Luke's head, with another 'splat.'

She put her hands up and said, "No...I...I called you. He attacked me." 

The cops holstered their guns and the taller one said, "We know. It's okay. Just...step away, okay?"

She did. 

The tall cop said, "Are you okay?"

She nodded. 

"We're going to have to take you down to get a statement, okay? And...well, we'll need a forensic crew to come in here. But it's pretty obvious what happened. We heard everything on the phone call." 

She nodded again and walked to the door. The cop held her back. "Wait. Do you want some socks and shoes? Maybe a jacket?"

She looked down at herself and said, "Oh yeah." 

She walked to her bedroom and got those things as the cops waited for her. As they walked her out of her apartment, the forensic team was on its way in, and she nodded at them. 

As she walked down the hallway, seeing all the neighbors peeking out of their doorways, she wondered if Gino was going to call her this week and if she'd see him this weekend. She hoped so. She thought about how much she'd tell him about this and decided to just play it by ear. 

She straightened up and tossed her hair back. Her kitchen floor needed a good mopping, anyway, and now it was going to get a professional cleaning. Maybe she'd invite Gino back to her place next weekend. 

She smiled. Yes, she liked that idea. 



**Note** This is for my friend Raquel who wanted a little more murder and mayhem. I hope this does the trick, my dear friend!