it really hurts

Even after taking a hot bath, Abby still felt a bit groggy. But she knew that she must go. So returning to the bedroom, she groped in the dark for her jeans, pulled them on, snapped on her bra. Threw on a shirt and looked for her shoes and off she went.

 "It will be wet and miserable out there, buddy,"

The guy mumbled reproachfully.

Sometimes he talked to her like she was a man. But it does not matter. At least he made sure that he would not touch her like she was one.

"I know," she answers so quietly he cannot have heard.

She closes the bedroom door behind her. Her wallet and keys are on the side table in the hall, and she sweeps them up with one hand. She yanks her raincoat off the hook on the front door and leaves the apartment.

*****

The police have already arrived by the time Abby and Gaston got there.