didn’t feel violated or injured in anyway. All these things brought her anxiety level to a manageable place, and she dared to let the light pour in as she cracked her eyes open.
There was her dresser, her nightstand, and her curtains. She was in her own room, in her own bed, seemingly safe. But who had brought her here? Michael didn’t know where she lived; perhaps he had looked at her driver’s license and used her key to put her to bed?
“Piper?” a man’s voice called from behind her. She was still cloudy and her reflexes sluggish, but she was fairly certain it was Bobby. She rolled over toward him and groaned. She didn’t think of the repercussions or the questions he may have for her, all she could think was how glad she was that he was there.
“You were given a dose of Royhpnol last night, it’s a powerful sedative that causes a person to blackout and usually have memory loss and some fatigue the following day.” Bobby had pulled the chair from Piper’s desk over to the side of her bed. He had spent the night perched there, as she slept.
“The date rape drug?” Piper whispered. Her voice was hoarse and her throat dry. She closed her eyes again. It was hard to focus on anything and the light was making her head pound.
Bobby reached for her hand and laced his fingers in between hers. “Nothing happened. Your friend Michael got you out of there before Sean could do anything. I was driving by when I saw the ambulance and stopped to see if they needed help.”
As wonderful as Bobby’s hand felt in hers, as sweet as his voice was, thick with concern—all those words brought reality back into focus. Bobby met Michael, he knew she was out with Sean, and there was an ambulance involved, probably a police report. Bobby was too insightful, too good of a friend to not pry into this situation. However happy she had been to wake up and see him sitting vigil by her, she knew everything was about to change the moment he wanted to know more.
“Piper, I’m going to ask you some questions, but first there is something I want to say. We haven’t known each other very long, but I care about you. The kiss we shared, the time we’ve been spending together, for me it isn’t some flirty game I’m trying to play. I can see myself with you. I can see this working between us. I think it’s important that you know that so when I’m asking you these questions you understand my motivation. Does that make sense to you?” Bobby had ample time that night to think about how he would approach this precarious conversation. He waited for Piper to nod that she understood and then he pulled her hand, still linked with his own, up to his lips and kissed it gently.
“When you first started coming around Betty’s house I wanted to know more about you, but you weren’t very forthcoming with information. No one else seemed to notice, but I kept leaving every Wednesday night with more questions about you than answers. Jules and Betty mean the world to me, and I was concerned that you had some ulterior motive. I called in a few favors and did a background check on you. The preliminary one came back as though you didn’t exist prior to two years ago. I thought maybe it was a glitch in the system so I pushed for more information. I went up as high as I could and even indebted myself to some guys with pretty high clearance, and still there was nothing. It really freaked me out at first, but the more I got to know you, the more I started to care about you, and the less I let it bother me. I convinced myself that you had your reasons for not sharing your past with me and that when you were ready, I’d be here to listen. I decided that you were not a threat to Jules and Betty and that I would give you time to open up to me. I committed myself to trusting you even though it wasn’t in my nature.” Bobby could feel Piper’s grip on his hand loosening, and he knew it was her recoiling from his harsh honesty, but she didn’t speak, so he continued.
“That was, until last night when I found out you’ve been untruthful about why you’re so