You Always Go And Rescue Me

Ch. 2

“Get the hell away from her.” Zach’s tone was extremely protective. He wasn’t messing around with Sean, he was ready to go at it again if he had to.

“Who the hell do you think you are? This isn’t any of your business Parise. You aren’t involved in this.” Sean was pissed. His hands were clenched into a tight fist.

“I am now, and by the sounds of it, I don’t think she wants to be involved in this either. Just go.” Zach snarled at him, he wasn’t leaving until Sean was gone.

Sean knew he lost, he let out an embarrassed laugh, “ha, this isn’t over. Far from it.” And with that he walked away.

Zach watched him leave and turned his attention to me. He squatted down next to me and put his hand to my bright red cheek. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.”

I was having a hard time trying to find the right words. This entire situation was surreal.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Now. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up. OH! Gosh, I’m so sorry, I’m Sarah by the way.”

“Zach,” he said as he took my hand. “I should’ve introduced myself first,” he said with a quick blush.

“I, I know who you are. Thank you so much for saving me like that. I don’t even know how I can begin to thank you.” I smiled up at him and looked into his eyes. I swear I felt something inside me click, but I pushed it away and just tried to register what was going on. I felt so helpless, so damsel-in-distress, but it didn’t matter to Zach, he just wanted to make sure I was okay; he was so selfless.

“Well, for starters, lets get you up.” He grabbed my hand into his wonderful strong hand and helped me to my feet. I could see in the moonlight that he had the beginnings of what could be a black eye.

I put my hand softly on the side of his eye. His eyes briefly closed. “Your eye…I’m so sorry to have put you in this situation.” I didn’t know what else to say. The guy was gonna have some evidence of a fight, and it was all my fault. He wouldn’t have gotten anything if it weren’t for Sean’s terrifying advances.

“No. It isn’t your fault. I couldn’t let him hurt you.” He paused. “So where are you going anyway? I’d like to escort you home if I could- if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh, no. No, that isn’t necessary. I’m taking the train, I have to go all the way into the city- I won’t let you go out of your way like that.” I couldn’t expect him to go into Manhattan when he lived in New Jersey. It was late and he was tired, plus he’d already done more than enough.

“I don’t care. I can’t let you go home this late by yourself, especially to the city where that psycho lives. You aren’t taking the train. I’ll drive you home myself.” His eyes had a genuine concern, but I tried to ignore it. We just met. He didn’t know me, he was just a purely nice guy-he had to be.

“I couldn’t do that-“

“No, stop it. I want to.” He smiled a wonderfully hypnotizing smile at me which took my breath away for a quick second.

There was no arguing him. He wasn’t going to let me win. I may have just met him, but I could tell that I wasn’t going to win this battle. Besides, the man had just rescued me, it was the least I could do.

“Okay. That’s very sweet of you.” I smiled at him. As much as I wanted to fight it, he was extremely handsome and his personality was just making him better looking by the minute.

He walked me to his car and opened the passenger door for me. The gesture in itself screamed gentleman, and as he closed my door and walked over to his, I couldn’t help but watch his perfectly toned body.

As he drove us into the city, I could tell his mind was racing.

“So what was that all about? You two date or something?”

“Oh! No! God, no! Never! I work with MSG and, much to my dismay, I usually cover the Rangers. I’ve worked with them for a while now and Sean…he just, he’s never understood that I’m simply not interested in him. It started with him casually making comments, then he persistently asked me out-which I always rejected. I think he’s a douche…a huge one, and for some reason he thinks I’m playing an extreme case of hard to get; in some sick way it turns him on. So, he’s escalated to grabbing my thigh or grazing my butt, completely inappropriate things that make me uncomfortable. He’s tried to get me home with him, obviously it’s never happened-it never will.”

“Wow…I can’t believe you have to deal with that.” I could tell he was angry at Sean for everything I just told him. “He’s a dick, he shouldn’t be treating you that way. It’s sexual harassment.”

“Yeah, but what am I going to do about it? Lose my job? I just try to ignore it. Nothing has been as bad as tonight. He does scare me, but I just try to make sure I’m not around him when I’m alone. Clearly, tonight I didn’t do such a good job. It makes me hate wearing outfits like this to work,” I said as I casually referenced the white button down shirt and black pencil skirt I had on, topped off with a belt and nice pumps.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I think you look beautiful.” Zach looked over at me and smiled. He thought I looked beautiful, and the thought of that made me smile back.

“Thank you, you don’t look so bad yourself. But I’m sure you know that already.”

Zach let out a laugh. We drove comfortably all the way to my apartment. It just felt so right, so safe talking with him. It was late so there weren’t any problems in finding a parking space in front of my building.

“I could get used to this, front door service,” I looked at him. “Thank you so much. For everything.”

I got out of the car, and to my surprise, so did he. He walked me to the front door of my building.

“Just making sure you get in okay,” he smiled at me.

“Well that’s very thoughtful of you.” I felt like an idiot. I was probably smiling so much I looked goofy.

His eyes wandered to the door buzzers behind me. “What apartment are you?”

“10B. Why you gonna come visit me?” I was flirting, how could I not? I didn’t want to, but I just couldn’t help it.

“Maybe,” he shot back with a flirty grin. “I’d like to see you again, that is if you’d let me.”

Suddenly a wave of fear swept over me and I didn’t know what to think.

“Oh, Zach, I don’t know...”

“Why not?” His facial expression was too much to bear. He couldn’t understand why. And how could he? I couldn’t tell him my past as I stood in my doorway and I partially didn’t expect to hear from him anyway.

“Alright, yes.” I ignored my hesitations and gave him my number. If I was meant to hear from him, he’d call. He’d already done so much, I had no reason to not trust him. I just couldn’t say no to him.

He hugged me goodnight and I walked into my building. I turned around and gave him one last smile. As I walked into my apartment I thought back to the events of the night. I still couldn’t believe them. I got ready for bed and just before I fell asleep I realized that I got home safely, and someone special actually cared.