Robert - Part Six

Beep beep beep – Beep beep beep – Beep beep beep.

“Oh shut up, you stupid thing,” Bridget yelled at the fluid pump that kept throwing error messages. She grabbed her phone out of her scrub shirt pocket, intending to call the nurses station to bring a new fluid pump to room 308, where she was currently battling with this faulty one. As she looked at her phone screen, she saw there was a text from Robert. Her heart sank. She never got texts from him while she was working, unless he wanted something.

R: See if you can get off early ;)

“Seriously?” She muttered out loud. The patient in the bed next to her gave her a sideways glance. She shook her head and dialed the nurses station.

“Hey, can you swing by room 308 with a new fluid pump, this one has some kind of vendetta against me.”

She put the phone back in her pocket, thinking about Robert’s text message. It seemed innocent enough, but she knew his game. She had told him yesterday that they were short staffed tonight, and there was no way she was going to get off early. In fact, she may even need to stay late to help cover the shortage. The request to come home early even thought he knew she couldn’t, was just an excuse to start a fight. Robert loved to fight.

Bridget grabbed her lunchbox and sat down to eat at the nurses station. They had a full break room three floors down, but Bridget had only been down there twice. There was no point of going all the way down to the break room just to be called immediately back to her station for God knows what reason.

She took a bite of her sandwich and pulled out her phone. The message from Robert still glared at her from the screen. Now she noticed there were additional messages from him.

R: You on your way home yet?

R: I’m waiting for you

She let out a heavy sigh, as her fingers began to type a message back.

B: You know we’re short staffed, I’m not able to leave early. Sorry.

She put her phone down to take another bite of her sandwich when it pinged softly.

R: You’ll find a way

Great, she thought to herself, knowing that a screaming match was waiting for her when she arrived at home.

________________________________

As she pulled into the driveway of her apartment building, she could see there was a light still on in her apartment. Her stomach dropped. She was desperately hoping he was asleep and she could avoid fighting with him until tomorrow when he had cooled off a little. But she knew by that one light in her window, he was awake and waiting for her.

She entered the apartment as quietly as a mouse, as she usually did. She took a quick glance around the place, and didn’t see him anywhere. Maybe he is asleep after all? Just then, the bathroom door opened. Robert stood in the doorway staring at her. Startled, she immediately began to plead her case.

“Hey Hun, sorry, you know we were short staffed tonight, I tried really hard to get out early but they wouldn’t let me go, they needed all the help they could get.”

“You must not have tried very hard. Your boss likes you, she would have let you go if you said it was an emergency.” He stared at her with an intensity in his eyes she had seen a few times before. It scared her.

“But, it wasn’t an emergency. You wanting sex does not an emergency make.” She knew as soon as the words left her mouth that she had said the wrong thing. The intensity in his eyes turned to ferocity in an instant.

“We’ll see about that.” He grabbed her by the ponytail and drug her into the living-room. She was completely caught off guard. Her legs instinctively followed him, her mind racing. He had never done this before. Robert had done a lot of shitty things to her in the course of their relationship, but he had never gotten physical before.

He grabbed the neck of her jacket and pulled it down over her arms, flinging it into the corner of the room. She stood in stunned silence, not knowing what was next, and not wanting to find out.

He shoved her over the arm of the couch. Her body bent uncomfortably as she felt his hands pulling down her scrub pants and panties. Was this really happening? She heard the familiar sound of him spitting into his hand. A moment later she felt him penetrate her from behind. Her body trembled as he thrust against her. How could she have let this happen? Her mind raced through the events of the last five minutes. She hadn’t actually said the word “no” so maybe this was a miscommunication. Maybe he would stop if she said something.

“Rob, please, I can’t—“ He reached around and covered her mouth with his hand.

“No talking. Your voice ruins it for me.” He kept his hand clamped over her mouth as he continued thrusting from behind her. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. He groaned loudly as his thrusting began to slow. When he had finished, he sighed and began walking back toward the bathroom without a word. Bridget stayed bent over the arm of the couch, afraid to move. Tears still spilling from her eyes, the couch cushion under her face soaking them up in dark puddle. She heard the bathroom door close, and she sank to the floor beside the couch as her knees buckled involuntarily. Just then he opened the bathroom door and glanced at her, shaking his head. He turned off the living room light and went to bed, leaving her sitting alone in the dark.