Ask for Andrea (Ask for Andrea, #1)

by Noelle W. Ihli

“On a date that isn’t going well? Do you feel unsafe or just a little uneasy? Ask for Andrea at the bar. We’ll make sure you get home safe.”

Nature was beautiful, at a distance. Up close, it was usually terrifying.

My actual password was a combination of letters and numbers I’d created from the chorus of a Britney Spears song. She’d never guess it.

Rohypnol. I’d seen enough episodes of SVU to know the name by heart. It was one of the most common date rape drugs.

I never could have imagined the price I’d pay for rejecting him.

I’ll be here when you’re ready.

Nothing on the web was ever really gone.

I remembered the taped-up sign I’d seen in the bathroom at Gracie’s Spot. On a date that isn’t going well? Ask for Andrea at the bar. I thought of the confidence with which I had ignored that sign and walked back out to my tainted drink and my soon-to-be-murderer, imagining that this was the start of something beautiful.

my choices were now limited to whatever mercy the universe would grant me.

She’s a white lady with kids. Someone will stop and give them a ride.

stop it

I thought about the stories I’d heard about mothers lifting cars off their babies or fighting off a pack of wolves on the Oregon Trail. I’d always sort of thought they were tall tales or at least uncommon. But now I thought that maybe it was just the wolf pack at your door or the car on top of your child that was the rare thing. Maybe this strength, this superhuman power was always there, latent. I thought about my own mom, and how I would show her this moment someday when we found each other again. How I’d tell her that I knew she’d carry me this impossible distance too.