Faced with what he said, she didn’t feel like she had much choice. She couldn’t let him pee on the front seat of her car. She thought for an instant if she felt safe letting him use her apartment for a pit stop, and she decided that she did. He was a decent kid and they had known each other for several weeks now. He had never done or said anything out of line, other than the blow job comment when she picked him up at his hotel.
“Okay,” she agreed, slowed the car, and parked on the street, as she always did. She hopped out of the car, and he followed her. He acted like it was urgent, so she hurried to get her keys, and ran up the stairs to her apartment, unlocked the door, and pointed to the bathroom. He rushed in and slammed the door. He was out a few minutes later with a big grin on his face.
“Thanks, Antonia. That was a real emergency.” He sat down on the couch then without being invited, and patted the spot next to him. “Why don’t we hang out here for a while. I’m in no rush to get home. I don’t have AC, you do.”
“I need to get to bed, or I’ll be dead in the morning,” she said apologetically, and he reached out with a long well-toned arm and pulled her down next to him.
“I’m not stopping you from going to bed.” He grinned at her, and she didn’t like the look on his face suddenly. “That actually sounds like a good idea to me.” She stood up again and looked down at him sternly.
“Come on, Jeff. Let’s go.” She left no doubt in his mind that she wasn’t interested, or playing with him, which made no difference to him. He grabbed her hard then, pushed her onto the small couch, dropped his full body weight on top of her, and pinned her down. He was crushing her, and he was a big man. He was six feet three or four with broad shoulders and strong arms. She couldn’t move an inch as he held her down and pulled up the skirt of her sundress, got to her underwear effortlessly, and started to pull it down.
In an instant, she knew that she was in trouble, and he wasn’t going to free her. There was a heavy chipped glass ashtray on the narrow coffee table, which she didn’t use since she didn’t smoke. She grabbed it, and hit him on the side of the head with it. He let out a scream and loosened his grip enough for her to escape, run to the door, open it, and head for the stairs. “I’m calling the police!” she shouted as she ran down the stairs, and he followed her a minute later. She turned and could see blood trickling from his forehead. She realized that she could have killed him, but it had never occurred to her. She was just trying to avoid getting raped.
“I’m calling them first, and charging you with assault,” he shouted at her. They were both on the street by then. He had left her door open, the keys on the table, to chase her down the stairs. He lunged at her and she ran away. She was faster than he was and lighter on her feet and he was hurt. She could see that he wasn’t bleeding much, but he was definitely injured. “I paid for dinner, you bitch!” he shouted after her, and he stumbled into the street as a passing cab slowed to see if he wanted a ride. The taxi stopped, and he grabbed the door handle. “Fuck you, Antonia Adams,” he shouted back at her, as the cab pulled away and she ran back into her building and up the stairs on shaking legs. She ran into her apartment, locked the door behind her, and sat down on the couch. There was blood on the ashtray and the coffee table, but it had been the only thing that saved her. She was shaking all over, and too shocked to even cry. She was sure he would have raped her. She didn’t know what would happen next, or if he would report her to the police, but she’d had no other choice to protect herself. She realized how fortunate she had been that he hadn’t, and she realized now how stupid she had been to fall for his bathroom ploy, and take him to her apartment. She didn’t know him as well as she thought. And he thought that the price of a Mexican dinner justified having sex with her, whether she wanted to or not.
She lay awake for most of the night afterward, and wondered what would happen if the police showed up at work, if Jeff pressed charges. But she went to work on time the next day anyway. She was quiet and subdued, accepted her assignments to take things to the set. There was no sign of the police. At lunchtime, her supervisor advised her that Jeff, her student intern counterpart, had had a family emergency, and had to leave and go back to Ohio. He had said he wasn’t coming back. She wondered if he was as afraid of her calling the police as she was of his accusing her of assault. It had been self-defense in her case, but who would believe her? Women’s claims of rape were dismissed all the time. It would be her word against his, and he was visibly injured, she wasn’t. He hadn’t even torn her dress or left a mark on her. But it had been a powerful lesson to her to be more careful in the future, and not so trusting.