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.”

seconds, I couldn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even tell where I was. All I knew was that everything hurt.

I thought about the sign in the bathroom at Gracie’s. Ask for Andrea. Andrea couldn’t help me now. No one could.

I wasn’t wind: I was air. But air could go places. And that gave me an idea.

An hour ago, he had taken everything I had. I didn’t know how, but I planned to return the favor.

He was the kind of beautiful that drew you in before you even considered the fact that beautiful things can be poisonous.

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

that the people we love are not gone forever. That everything we ever loved, ever did, ever said, ever read, ever experienced, comes back to us.

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.

On a date that isn’t going well? Ask for Andrea at the bar. We’ll make sure you get home safe.