When Souls Collide

Too bad his gate didn't swing in her direction, she mused.

She indulged in the comfort that his arms offered, needing something nice to dispel the bubbling anxiety and help her through the rest of the night. He tickled her playfully and she crumpled against him, laughing and beating at his chest with her small fists.

"Quit it!" she wheezed, wiggling away from his fingers. "Isn't Brian due here any second?" she accused him. "You don't want him to see you fondling me like a blow up doll and have him think that you've suddenly gone straight do you?" Nick gave her a saucy wink and rapped her shoulder with his knuckles.

"Sweetie, if I were straight, I'd be taking you home to bed for myself tonight." He paused and pretended to have just had a brilliant idea, a sneaky smile creeping across his lush lips. "On second thought, Brian probably would love that. You game?"

Tabby blushed, even though she knew he was joking - or at least she hoped he was. With Nick, it was hard to tell sometimes. Being openly gay didn't stop him from flirting and teasing her at every opportunity, but she knew it was just teasing. Nick did not do chicks - his words, not hers. His partner though, was pansexual - taking whatever was on tap whether it came in the form of a male, female or some shade of grey in between. "Thanks, Nick, but I think I'll pass." She sighed and looked into the kitchen door, her misgivings rising up and making her insides feel like they just rearranged themselves upside down.

"That's a shame," he quipped. "Showing up with you in tow would have earned me some serious brownie points! Brian likes you." He waggled his eyebrows at her in a suggestively lewd manner, took a long drag on his cigarette and then grinned at her. She knew by the mischievous glint in his sparkling blue eyes that something dirty and wildly inappropriate was about to come out of his mouth. He nudged her and said, sotto voce, "We could get drunk and make you the filling in a manwich! Imagine the fun!"

"Nick!" she giggled in mock outrage and punched him in the shoulder. He painted on a wounded puppy expression, pouting prettily at her and she sighed. "You're incorrigible, you know that? I'd better get back inside and finish the clean up. I really don't want to give Jerry another reason to rip me a new one and I don't want to be here all night."

A sleek sports car pulled into the alley that ran behind the bar, illuminating them in its bright headlights. Nick beamed and waved at the driver, adoration for his boyfriend softening his features. "I can stay if you'd like, Tabs. I don't mind, for moral support and all that." To protect you, is what his body language said. He was just as worried about leaving her with Jerry as Tabby was over being left.

"That's okay, Nick. Go on, I'll be fine," she replied, not really wanting an audience for the humiliating ass-chewing she was going to receive. Plus, she knew that Nick's boyfriend was only in town for two days before he was scheduled to fly out on a business trip. He deserved some quality time, even if she was freaking out about having to deal with a drunken Jerry on her own. Besides, the ass wouldn't actually do anything other than yell and embarrass her anyway.

"Brian's waiting for you and I'm going to be stuck in there for at least another hour."

"You sure, darlin'?" Tabby nodded and pulled the door open to go back inside.

"Go on, Nick." She stood up on her tip toes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Have fun with Brian you big perv. I'll text you in the morning and maybe the three of us can get together for pancakes and you can give me the gory details." He gave her a tentative smile, not reassured by her casual attitude.

"Okay then, if you're sure. I'll talk to you in the morning, sweetie." He gave her a quick hug then ran over to his boyfriend's car, skillfully dodging the numerous puddles that dotted the alleyway. He somehow managed to fold his lanky frame into some semblance of an origami human and climbed into the small car. Both men smiled and waved to Tabby as they passed by her and she watched the taillights disappear out of the alley, leaving her alone with a mountain of worry that she couldn't ignore any longer.

It was time to go and face the music.

Tabby returned inside to find the mess waiting for her and sighed tiredly. Most of the appliances were either already off or waiting patiently for her to come clean them and the constant thump of music had finally subsided - a not so subtle hint to those lingering in the bar, that they'd be tossed out to find their way home soon.

Some of the waite staff had gravitated into the kitchen, hanging around the prep table and snacking on a plate of nachos that she had made up for the staff with whatever ingredients were leftover that wouldn't keep until the next day. They fell on the food like a pack of rabid hyenas fighting over a carcass, laughing and joking with each other as they unwound after a busy shift. Tabby just nodded, shot them a smile, but didn't have the energy to be social. She still had tons of clean up and prep to get through for tomorrow, even if she wasn't going to be there, and then there was Jerry to deal with.

As if on cue, his loud, obnoxious, bray of laughter carried into the kitchen; Jerry's slurred voice making some crude remark that was followed by a squeal of outrage by a female patron.

One of the busboys had been spying out of the rounded window and started hooting with laughter. "It looks like old Jerry is going home with his dick in his hand again tonight, people!" He announced with glee. "Judging by the slap that blonde he's been dogging all night, just gave him, she finally must have gotten fed up of Mister Grabby hands' slimy moves."

Great. That's all she needed, Tabby groaned inwardly. He's going to be a miserable bastard now and will probably be feeling vindictive after being shot down by that woman.

This fucked up day just keeps getting better. Tabby's mind was so full of worries and stressing over so many things that her head had begun an incessant throbbing right behind her eyes.

She did not want to face Jerry alone and that fear kept twisting in her gut like a restless snake, making her feel like throwing up.

I should just quit, he's probably going to fire me anyway, she thought while she scoured off the burnt-on food stubbornly stuck to the grill with a pumice stone. The scratchy, gritty sound set her teeth on edge and made her intimately aware of the pounding headache that was growing in intensity. She'd actually been too busy and distracted to even notice how much her head hurt, but now that she did, it wouldn't be ignored any longer.

"What a fucking night," she murmured, doing one last look around the kitchen and double checking that the fryer and grill had been properly shut off. The kitchen had emptied out while she'd been occupied cleaning the grill, all that remained on the plate was a scattering of tortilla crumbs with bits of melted cheese gluing the fragments into a crusty mass. A stray black olive riding shotgun on a jalapeño slice reminded Tabby's stomach that it hadn't seen food since she'd eaten a stale piece of toast with peanut butter when she'd woken up in the morning. It rumbled and gurgled embarrassingly loud in the quiet room and she rubbed her belly, wishing that her bank account held enough money for a burger from a drive-through on her way home. The way her finances stood at the moment, if she stuck her debit card into a bank machine, air would rush in to fill the void that was all that was left in her account. Food would have to wait until payday, unless she could mooch something off of her friend, Petra, when she got home.

If she got home, that was. There was still the problem of her unexpected lack of transportation.

Tabby hadn't quite figured out how she was going to manage that feat with her car having turned turtle in the parking lot. She gave a little laugh at the silly picture of her Datsun flipped on its roof waving its bald, mismatched tires helplessly in the air.

Stupid, stupid, stupid fucking car.

She glanced towards the swinging doors in time to see the lights in the main bar shut off, the view past the round glass windows going black with the exception of the glowing exit sign lit up on the far end of the room. A second later, Jerry shouldered his way through the doors, a cash register tray in one arm and a tumbler of amber liquid in the other. He glared at her with eyes that were just a little too shiny for him to be anywhere in the vicinity of sober and he got a speculative look that made Tabby's skin crawl. There was something slimy and reptilian about the way his eyes narrowed, matching the crocodile smile that slithered across his thin lips. He took a swig from the glass and licked his lips slowly, making Tabby's stomach clench in disgust.

He placed the cash drawer on the stainless steel prep table then strolled slowly in her direction, making a theatrical show of inspecting the cleanliness of the kitchen. He hummed and harrumphed, dragging a thick, meaty finger over every surface, shooting disapproving frowns her way to make sure that she was paying attention to his performance. Every so often he'd stop and take a long swallow on his drink, watching her over the rim with raw avarice in his beady, little eyes. His glass finally emptied and he discarded it with an exaggerated sigh, on the metal table, disappointment clear on his features.

He pointed at her, his index finger drifting away from its intended target like a broken compass. "In my office...now!" he slurred and then burped loudly. He smacked his lips together again with a disgusting wet sound and swayed like he was standing on the deck of a boat.

"Can't we just do this out here, Jerry? I have a few more things to finish up and we can always talk while I do them." Stall, Tabby! Her senses were picking up a dangerous vibe from the man and screaming for her to bolt, to put as much distance between him and her but he wasn't having anything of it.

"Your file is on my desk and I need it so get your ass in there now! We need to discuss your future here, girl." Tabby swallowed hard, hoping the shaking that vibrated her from the inside out wasn't obvious to Jerry. His eyes held an excited gleam under the sheen of drunkenness that unsettled her.

She should go. She really should go...right now.

Just leave and screw the job, but rent was due in a week and her cupboards didn't have enough in them to even interest the cockroaches. She needed the job and had to at least try to save it, if she could. But Jerry's odd behavior was making her seriously nervous and Tabby wished she had taken Nick up on his offer to stick around. The bar was empty, everyone had gone home - it was just him and her left and that wasn't a good situation for Tabby to find herself in.

"You deaf as well as chronically late?" he barked at her. "This is your last warning, girl. If you want to keep your job, you'll march that pert little ass of yours into my office so that we can have our little chat!" He was puffed up with his own importance, pointing towards the open door of his office with an imperious finger. Tabby took in a shaky breath that felt like she was breathing in a lungful of sand particles, then started across the kitchen to Jerry's office with him following her much too close for her comfort. He mumbled something under his breath that she didn't catch and definitely didn't want to ask him to repeat, so she ignored him and stepped into the office, which was little than a glorified, windowless closet that functioned as Jerry's base of operations. She felt immediately claustrophobic in the cramped space. The claustrophobia ratcheted up into panic when Jerry stepped in behind her, startling her when he pulled the door closed and she heard the lock click into place.

"Wh-why are you closing the door, Jerry? There's no one here but us now." Tabby's heart rate was racing like a scared rabbit at having suddenly found herself in an untenable situation. Jerry had at least a foot in height and at least one hundred pounds over her much smaller frame and now, he was blocking the only way out of the small room. He was so close that she could smell the stink of perspiration and alcohol coming off him in reeking waves, turning her stomach.

He gave a low, mean chuckle and sidled past her, brushing up against her back as he pretended to edge by. He went behind his desk and dropped his weight into a beat up, leather, executive chair that groaned alarmingly as his bulk stressed the limits of its cheap, plastic frame. "The cleaners are due in any time and I'd like privacy for our little chat." He leaned forward, resting ham sized forearms on his desk and indicating to a chair placed in front. "Sit," he demanded coldly.

Tabby slowly lowered herself stiffly into the seat, her back ramrod straight and her knee jittering and bouncing with anxiety that she couldn't completely hold inside. Deciding to take control of the situation she blurted out, "I'm so sorry that I was late again, Jerry. My car..."

"I'm not interested in your useless apologies," he interrupted, his hand slicing the air to silence her. "The fact is, I need to be able to count on my staff and you keep letting me down, girl. Your tardiness put my balls in a bind tonight. We had a packed house and neither of my cooks could be bothered to show up. I lost money I can't afford because you were late." He straightened up and gave her a devious, appraising look. She could practically hear the wheels in his head spinning with anticipation and got a very bad feeling.

"I brought you in here so that we can discuss how to rectify this situation." He sat back in his chair, a calculating smirk on his face. His eyes were shark-like with ravenous intensity and greed, making her squirm in her seat as they tracked down her chest and lingered over her breasts. Her stomach plummeted through her feet, getting a sudden, nasty idea of where this meeting was heading. As if to confirm her fears, one of his hands slid back on the desk and disappeared out of sight. Movement in his upper arm suggested actions were happening out of her sight that Tabby didn't want to know about.

Oh my god. Is he... stroking himself? She gagged on sour bile that scalded up her throat.

Holy fuck, I need to get out of here!

Jerry's eyes shone, openly ogling her breasts as his arm moved with rhythmic jerks. He grunted and his eyelids fluttered half mast, his body shuddering. Tabby didn't need to see behind his desk to know that he had just come in his pants. She felt dizzy with fizzing terror and sick to her stomach with fear.

Jerry breathed theatrically, his heavy eyes never leaving her for a second, an oily smile slithered across his lips, satisfied that she comprehended the point of his little performance. "Yes, I think we can help each other here. Don't you?" He stood slowly up and Tabby sucked in a breath, horrified at seeing the damp spot soaked into the front of his trousers, sitting right on top of the outline of an erection.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

She jumped out of her chair but barely made it a few steps before he was on her. For a big man, Jerry moved like a pit viper, whipping around the corner of his desk and grabbing a handful consisting of her long hair and the back of her shirt. He hauled her backwards, the burning shock of her hair being viciously pulled made her cry out in pain. He yanked her off her feet and flung her bodily back into the chair, knocking her breath from her lungs with a loud exhalation of air.

"Now why did you have to go and do that?" He whined like a petulant child, his little piggy eyes shining with a malevolent disapproval. "We were just having a friendly conversation and you had to go and ruin it." His eyes grew flinty, fixating on her with dangerous intent. "And we were just getting to the good part." His words were perfectly enunciated and cut the air like a razor. "Don't you want to hear the good news, Tabitha?" He spat her name with so much derision in his voice that it chilled her to the core. Fear blossomed inside her as the realization of how much trouble she was in hit her with the force of a ballistic missile.

It was then that Tabby understood the grave miscalculation that she'd made. She had badly underestimated his state of drunkenness, initially hoping to use his inebriation to her advantage. It was apparent to her now that the devious bastard had been putting on a show to lull her into a false sense of security. The ugly, brute of a man looming over her was stone sober and had played her for a fool.

Her stupidity had gotten her trapped alone with a calculating predator. Tabby felt real fear fill her chest, making her heartbeat race and skip in a sickening dance of terror.

She was in way, way over her head.

"What do you want from me?" she asked, afraid of the answer. He grinned wolfishly, displaying his oversized teeth and perched his bulk on the edge of his desk, his hand going back to the bulge in his pants and rubbing it.

"I'm a reasonable man. We can help each other out here. You need a job - I can let you keep yours." He beamed, magnanimously. Stroke went his hand over the front of his stained trousers. "You need a car - I just happen to have one that I could give you use of."

Stroke...stroke.

"All I'd want from you in return, is to fulfill a few, let's call them: 'favours' for me, okay?"

Stroke...rub...groan.

He was putting on a show for Tabby's benefit, getting more aroused as he reached the point of this discussion. "We don't have to be enemies here, Tabitha. Wouldn't you prefer to be friends?" His fist squeezed around his erection and he licked his lips greedily. His breathing had picked up again, betraying his level of excitement and his eyes couldn't seem to keep their lecherous gaze off of her breasts.

"W-what k-kind of 'favours' did...did you h-have in m-mind?" she couldn't help stammering, terror had turned her insides to quivering jelly and her mouth didn't seem to want to work properly. She had the uncomfortable feeling of being a cornered, wounded animal, being played with by a bored lion.

Jerry's hand moved faster over his erection, excited by her fear and obviously getting off on it. He stood again and Tabby instantly recoiled, trying to keep away from him, but was trapped by the chair in which she sat. He laughed, a mocking, humorless, thing that spoke volumes of the kind of illicit ideas he had stewing in his twisted brain.

He leaned in closer to her, his hands leaving his erection and drifting idly up her arm. She sat motionless, screaming inside at the disgusting feel of his fingers through the thin cotton of her uniform sleeve. "You see...my fat bitch of a wife doesn't fulfill her wifely duties for me anymore. Do you have any idea how hard that is for a man like me? Every day I slave at work and all she does is spend my money and watch TV."

"W-what does that have to do with me?" Tabby asked, stupidly, but needed to keep him talking so that she could think.

"In exchange for your job and the use of a car, I want you to take her place, be my little whore, give to me what that miserable cunt denies me."

Tabby jerked in horror, shaking her head so hard her vision spun. "No! No!"

His huge fists clamped over her biceps, squeezing hard. "Now that's not being very friendly at all, is it, girl?" he growled, gritting his teeth loud enough that she could hear the scrape of tooth enamel. Before she could react, his hands left her arms in a blur and he grabbed at the two halves of her shirt front and yanked hard, sending the buttons pinging off of the walls and metal filing cabinet like shrapnel from a pressure cooker bomb. He took full advantage of Tabby's shocked state by clutching both her arms again quickly, before she had the sense to try to get away. He lifted her out of her seat and slammed her back flat onto his desktop, the impact making her breath whoosh out in the form of another strangled scream. The back of her skull impacted the hard surface with a sickening crack, bouncing a couple of times from the force of the hit. Her vision blurred and greyed out, leaving her stunned and helpless. Pain exploded like a nuclear bomb in her head and she almost threw up from the eye-splitting agony. She moaned, head lolling to the side and fought against the giant hands trying to pull her into unconsciousness.