As she stood, I guided her toward the exit. With the other couple already gone, we went that way instead of past the preppies still horsing around in their seats.
The theater had filled to capacity by the time the movie began, making it slow to exit even though we’d waited for a little while before getting up. It didn’t help that another movie was letting out at the same time as well.
As I tossed our trash, Roanna danced from one foot to the other. “I have to pee so bad,” she groaned.
“Go,” I urged her. “Just push through these assholes.”
She bit her lip, considering it, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to hurry.”
“The line will be long. Just take your time.” I glanced toward the men’s room once we were in the corridor outside our theater. “I’m going to make a pit stop too. Meet me by the front entrance when you’re done.”
“Who says ‘pit stop’?” she teased.
I winked down at her. “I grew up in Bristol.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“One word, NASCAR.”
“Huh. I didn’t take you for a redneck,” she said with a sly grin.
Laughing, I kissed the top of her head. I loved that she was teasing me, that even after letting me touch her earlier, she wasn’t being shy now. If I was being honest with myself, I’d been afraid I was moving too fast with her. I took a huge chance, but I needed to prove to her that pleasure wasn’t something she should ever be afraid of.
“Go to the bathroom. I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay.”
I stood there, making people walk around me as I watched her slide past other moviegoers to get to the bathroom. Once she was inside, I turned for the men’s room.
The line was long but moved fast. After washing my hands, I headed for the women’s bathroom instead of the front entrance as we said, knowing she was probably still waiting in line.
Another movie was letting out. It must have had a full house as well, because there were over two hundred people pouring out into the corridor. Grunting when someone bumped into me, I pushed my way through the crowd toward the women’s bathroom.
“Get the fuck off me!”
Hearing Roanna’s voice, that note of fear threading through it, propelled me into a higher gear, and I was suddenly jerking people out of my way in my rush to find her.
“Hey!” someone complained as I jerked them back so I could move around them. “Watch where you’re going, asshole!”
“Aww, come on, beautiful. You know you want to come out with us. I promise you’ll have fun,” I heard someone jeering and recognized the voice as one of the preppies from the movie. “I’ve got some coke and some Oxy back at my place. You can get high with us and suck our dicks.”
“I wouldn’t suck your dick if you paid me a hundred grand, sleazeball. Get your hands off me!”
They were touching her.
I saw red.
They were dead. Every single one of them. I was going to stomp them all into the ground.
“Don’t play hard to get, baby. You know you want us more than that loser you’re with.”
Finally, I saw the top of her head. The three guys had her surrounded right outside the women’s bathroom. It was obvious she was in trouble, and not one motherfucking person was trying to help her. They walked widely around the group, men and women alike, watching the scene transpire between the rich assholes and the terrified woman.
“I said, don’t touch me,” she yelled in one guy’s face, pushing him back. The other two only moved in closer, crowding her personal space even more.
I was only a few yards away now, but there were still at least thirty people between us. I bulldozed through them, grabbed the first preppy I came to, and planted my fist in his face. “She said don’t fucking touch her, motherfucker.” He fell on his ass, making people scatter back like ants.
As drunk as they were, the other two were slow to react. I pushed the next one up against the wall, punching him in the stomach so hard he bent over, puking on his five-hundred-dollar sneakers.