His Nasty Virgin

VIVIAN

I asked Wally to meet me at a coffee shop on campus. A huge wave of relief washed over me when I spotted him seated at the back table, the one furthest from the front entrance near the glass display case full of cakes and cookies fresh from the bakery. It was our old spot, where we used to share late-night coffees and last-minute study sessions when we were still seeing one another.

We texted on and off since our breakup a couple of weeks prior, but this was the first time seeing each other in person since then. I thought it would be awkward to see him again, but it wasn’t. He smiled wide when he saw me, standing as I approached. He hugged me tight, like two old friends reuniting after years apart.

I shouldn’t have expected anything less. Wally was always easy to be around. He is a good listener and a kind soul. He was a genuinely wonderful person.

I knew lots of people would probably take issue with us just being friends. Exes who could maintain a platonic relationship and an above-average level of decency were rare in this day and age. But nothing ever happened between us that warranted maliciousness.

The truth was, Wally and I broke up because we wanted different things. I wanted to stay in Chicago and build an investment firm from the ground up. He wanted to travel the world and immerse himself in other countries’ cultures, specifically interested in their foods. He wanted to cook, to one day run his kitchen.

Our paths were heading in different directions, and we both knew it from the start. I couldn’t fault him for wanting to follow his dreams, just as he couldn’t fault me for following mine. When we broke up, we promised to support each other no matter what. It was the mature, adult thing to do.

“How’re you doing, Einstein?” he asked, a twinge of concern in his words. “You freaked me out over the phone. Is everything alright?”

I glanced over my shoulder. I could have sworn someone was watching me. “Molly’s missing,” I whispered. “And I think… I think I’m next.”

Wally blinked, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “Sit down. Tell me everything.”

I sat on the edge of my seat, knees bouncing, wringing my fingers together. “Friday at work, I noticed something. Money was missing from one of the client accounts. Lots of it. At first, I thought it was an error in the system. Molly volunteered to bring it up with our supervisor. She didn’t show up for drinks that night like we’d planned, and I couldn’t get ahold of her all weekend. Then, when I came in to work today, she was gone. They told me she was transferred to a different department.”

His brow furrowed. “You don’t believe it?”

“Fuck no,” I mumbled hurriedly. “That much money. Gone without a trace? And then Molly disappears without a word? She’d never not tell me something like that, and she’s not answering my texts. That’s not a coincidence. I think something terrible happened to her, and Blue Cloud

Financial is covering their tracks.”

Wally paused, staring at me like I suddenly grew a second head. And then he started laughing. “Hilarious as always,” he said, wiping the moisture from his eyes. “Have you finally made the leap from genius to insanity?”

I gripped the edge of the table and leaned in close. “I’m not crazy, Wally. I wouldn’t lie about something like this. You know I wouldn’t.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Okay,” he said softly, patting me on the forearm.

“Okay.”

“You believe me?”

He sighed. “I mean, I believe you believe you’re in trouble.”

“Wally-”

“Do you have proof?”

I attempted to swallow, but my throat was squeezed tight. The encrypted files. All the proof I needed was there, but I couldn’t get to them without the password. I left in such a hurry that I didn’t even think to make a copy, but the thought of going back to work made my heart race. What if they caught me? What if they did to me what they did to Molly?

“No,” I mumbled through gritted teeth. “No, I don’t have any proof. Except that Molly ghosting me is not normal.”

He sighed, running a hand through his dark curls.

“That’s not ideal.”

I slumped in my chair. “I know, but I-”

The soft chime of the bell just above the coffee shop’s door reached my ear. I looked over Wally’s shoulder and saw a man standing at the entrance. Any other day, any other time, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. But the alarm bells in the back of my mind went off, a deep-rooted impulse that told me there was nothing ordinary about him.

He was tall, intimidatingly wide with an oddly small head. He wore sunglasses even though it was an overcast day. He wore an all-black ensemble -black shirt, black pants, black shoes- as if that wasn’t the universal uniform for bad guys everywhere.

“Hi!” the barista behind the counter greeted me with a chipper smile. “What can I get for you, sir?”

He didn’t answer. He scanned the inside of the coffee shop, his gaze stopping on me. The man took a single step toward me and I knew I was in trouble. I grabbed Wally by the hand and dragged him out of his seat, dashing toward the back exit.

“We have to go!” I exclaimed, heart pounding in my ear.

“Viv, what-”

There wasn’t time to explain. I pulled Wally through the narrow back exit and out into the alleyway around the back. It was filthy, with commercial garbage bins full and awaiting pickup, and graffiti all over the place. We ran as fast as we could, reaching the main road and slipping into busy pedestrian traffic.

My heart was in my throat, blood rushing loudly past my ears. My chest burned, my calves cramped. We made it a good five or six blocks before taking a sharp right corner, hiding behind a massive concrete building. Wally bent forward, hands on his knees as he panted harshly.

“What the hell was that?” he wheezed.

“We were being followed!”

Wally looked incredulous. “By who, Viv? No one’s even here. What’s gotten into you?”

I turned. The man was nowhere in sight. We either lost him or…Or he wasn’t following us in the first place.

“I could have sworn that he…” I took a deep breath.

Wally put his hands on my shoulders. “You’re being paranoid, Vivian. No one’s after you, alright? Whatever you’re going through, I promise to help, but you’re safe. Do you understand?”

My mind swirled. None of this made any sense. Maybe Wally was right. Was I losing it?

I nodded slowly. “Okay,” I whispered. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

“Let me walk you home. Come on.”

A storm was brewing in my chest. My stomach churned, threatening to make me ill. Maybe what Arty and Alistair told me was true. Maybe Molly had been transferred. It just didn’t make sense that she wouldn’t tell me, or that she would ignore my texts. Did our friendship mean so little? The thought stung more than I wanted it to.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly normal explanation,” Wally said as we walked back the way we came. “Let’s stop by Molly’s apartment, hm? Did you think to check in on her in person?”

“I… No. I didn’t.”

“I’m sure everything’s fine. She probably just lost her phone or something. You know how forgetful she can be.”

“That’s true.”

We took another few steps but stopped short when a man halted in front of us. He came out of nowhere, silent like a shadow. There was nothing particularly memorable about his features. If I were tasked to pick him out of a lineup, I wouldn’t be able to do it. The one thing that did stand out was the snake tattooed on the side of his neck. It curled around the front of his throat, slithering behind and circling back like an ink noose. Most notable of all were the deep crimson of the animal’s eyes.

He loomed over Wally and me, staring down his nose at us. “Vivian Jones?” he asked, voice low and gravelly.

I shook my head, taking Wally’s hand to try and go around. “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong person.” “She’s lying,” came another man’s voice.

I turned and saw the man from the coffee house. He somehow got behind us. Now that I got a closer look, he also had a snake tattoo wrapped around his neck. Was this some sort of gang symbol?

It was then and only then that I realized Wally and I were standing next to a big white van next to the curb. It’s side door slid open. A third and final man appeared, approaching with an alarming amount of speed. He was trying to shove us inside.

I whipped my messenger bag at him, smacking him across the side of the head with enough force to knock our attacker off kilter. I kicked his knee with all my might and watched him tumble to the ground.

“Run!” I shouted at Wally.

This time, I didn’t hear a lick of protest.

I hit my second wind, dodging other pedestrians on the sidewalk as we evaded our assailants. They were hot on our tail. No matter how many turns we took, no matter how fast we ran, they continued their pursuit. Considering they were willing to make such a scene in public, I knew I was in bigger trouble than I’d originally thought.

“What the hell’s going on?” Wally demanded. “Who are these people?”

“Less talking, more running!” I snapped. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the ascending stairs that led to the train. “This way!” I shouted at Wally.

We shoved past people trying to get through the ticket stall.

“Come on, come on, come on,” I said, mostly to myself in a panic.

The train was seconds away from leaving. Wally and I practically tripped into the last car as the doors slid closed, sealing us in and separating us from the platform. The men with the snake tattoos came up right to the door, one of them pounding the glass window in frustration. The train pulled away with an electric screech.

We were safe.

For now.

I nudged Wally in the ribs with the tip of my elbow. “Do you believe me now?”

He nodded, catching his breath. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“We need to call the police. We need to-” I reached for my phone in my messenger bag, but grimaced. My bag was gone. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I threw my messenger bag at them. I lost it all.”

“All?”

“Everything, Wally. My phone. My wallet. They have everything.”

Wally hushed me gently. “Hey, it’ll be okay, Vivian. You’ll come with me. You’ll be safe.”

“I don’t know. I’ve already dragged you into this. I don’t want you to be in more danger than you already are.” “You’re forgetting something very important, Viv.”

“What?”

Wally smiled. “My father’s a bonafide badass.”