Dallas, Texas – Monday, October 27, 2014 – 9:00 pm.

((The flight from LAX to Dallas/Fort Worth was uneventful. A bag of peanuts, an hour or two losing herself in her iPod’s music, a crappy romantic comedy she chose to mostly ignore. Now, Roxy Cotton stands at the luggage carousel, demurely waiting, and watching as her bags roll by and back into the tunnel again, and again. She watches them pass, vacantly, twisting her hands together underneath the oversized sleeves of the XWF sweatshirt Vinnie Lane wore to her condo the first time he spent the night. Seeking comfort in happier memories.))

Miss?

((The conveyor belt slowly drifts her expensive, leather bags past her again, and she watches them through watering eyes. 24 hours ago, she would have never dreamt of leaving the house looking the way she did for this trip. Sweat pants, a lazy pony tail, the hoodie, and without an ounce of makeup on. The glamour was ripped away from her in her sleep, smeared onto a filthy hotel room pillow while she was used like a toy. Violated. She’d always rolled her eyes when she heard the term in the past, but now she understood. She was there, but not there. She had no say. Her body acted without the consent of her mind.))

Miss? Hello?

((An older man is there. He’s walked right into her field of vision, and he knows she saw him. She can’t just turn away.))

Miss? Are you okay?

((He reaches his hand out to her. She smells cologne on him and suddenly she’s hovering over her own naked body, watching a man with no face push her head into the pillows at the hotel, pushing himself into her from behind, rough, making no effort to prevent her from tearing herself or hitting her forehead on the stucco wall. She sees herself, mouth agape, blindly staring up at the ceiling as her body is pushed along the coarse sheets and ravaged, again and again. She smells the cologne, and feels the older man’s hand touch her above her elbow, and she shrieks, backing away from him like a wounded animal.))

Don’t touch me! Don’t you touch me!

What’s wrong? I only meant to help… your bags…

STAY AWAY FROM ME!

((A flurry of movement, and a rustling of fabric as the man is shoved backward by an oncoming “Loverboy” Vinnie Lane. The rock n’ roll megastar is quick as a cat, interjecting himself between the man and his beloved Roxy, taking less than a second to batter the man across his face with a back handed slap.))

Who the fuck are you, dude? What the fuck is going on here? Get off of her!

((He slaps the man again, splitting his lip. Roxy watches in awe as the man of her dreams swoops in from nowhere like a guardian angel, protecting her in her time of need. She watches the muscles ripple underneath the Aerosmith tank top she’d bought him last time they were together. She watches his wild, blond hair swinging beneath the bright red bandanna. Most of all, she watches the utter rage in his sky blue eyes as he spares his victim no quarter, grabbing the lapels of his blazer and lifting him clear off of his feet, dangling him like a child on the schoolyard.))

I didn’t… I wasn’t…

You shut your god damn mouth, motherfucker! You’re lucky I don’t beat you into the ground, you wrinkled old fuck! I’ll snap your little twig neck if you so much as look at my woman again!

((Even with a heart pumping full adrenaline, Loverboy manages to soften his voice when he turns his face to Roxy, still holding the man in the air like a puppet.))

Baby, did he hurt you? Are you okay?

I’m okay, Vinnie. I’m okay. You can let him go.

You sure? I’ll kill him, Rox, I swear to fucking Christ.

It’s okay. I’m okay.

((Slowly, deliberately, Loverboy sets the man down, and he scampers off toward the security gate, tripping over his own feet as he runs for dear life. Loverboy turns toward Roxy, and she immediately collapses into his embrace, bawling into his broad shoulder and wetting his flaxen hair with her freely flowing tears.))

Baby? Are you sure you’re okay?

((Roxy was never going to be okay. Not for a long time, at least. But how could she tell him? How could she explain to him what she had woken up to the morning before? How could she relay the fear and anxiety that came along with her visit to the medical examiner’s office, where she’d filed an anonymous charge? Where the police had visibly held back laughter at her description of a man whose face, at best, was a blur of motion whenever she tried to focus on it? How could she tell the man she loved that there were no condom wrappers anywhere to be found in that hotel room? Especially after what that medical tech had told her after her swab?))

I… Vinnie I just missed you so much…

((She grips him tighter, pulling his body against hers until she can feel nothing else. He blocks out the sun. He takes away the pain. The smell of his tan skin bringing her mind back to better places.))

Babe?

((She’s brought back to earth, but gently, swimming in a pool of warmth exuding from his smile. His beautiful, beautiful smile.))

Yeah Vinnie?

These are your bags, right? We should get going.

Yeah, those are mine. Thank you so much, baby.

For what? It’s just a couple of bags.

((For all of his talk, all of his swagger, the Loverboy she knew was just an innocent sweetheart. The façade of some big, tough, wrestler fell away immediately when the cameras were off and it was just the two of them together, intertwined beneath a blanket together or swinging their interlaced hands like school kids on the way to their pep rally. Vinnie Lane was all heart, and she loved every bit of him for it.))

That man, he scared me. I’m so glad you came when you did.

((She felt the muscles tense in Loverboy’s arm when she brought it up again. On edge. Vigilant.))

Yeah, well, that son of a bitch is lucky I didn’t rearrange his face. You know, it’s funny, I once saw Peter Gilmour whip a barbed wire baseball bat out at an airport just like this one and beat some would-be sex offender half to death with it. I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever seen. I mean, who carries that shit around with them to an airport? You can’t get eight ounces of water through security, but Pete got a god damn barbed wire bat? But I tell you what, dude. If I’d have had one just now, I’d have probably rammed it down that cocksucker’s throat. Nobody hurts my girl, you hear me? Nobody.

((Roxy smiles, but feels another welling of tear pooling in her lower eyelids, and leans her head against Loverboy’s shoulder as they continue walking towards the exit of the airport. A few people recognize him, and snap photos. For once, Roxy isn’t the recipient of any undue attention. Loverboy absorbs the adoration like a seasoned celebrity, but keeps the pace brisk, not wanting to expose his lover to any more undue attention. She was amazed. Even like this, a blubbering, dressed-down mess, Vinnie treated her like a princess. A goddess. She never knew. She felt like the luckiest girl alive. Until they were outside in the warm night air of Texas and Loverboy leaned into her, trying to kiss her passionately. For perhaps the first time, Roxy pulled away from him. He looked wounded, like a scolded puppy.))

What did I do, babe?

((She felt awful. But his breath on her skin had thrown her back in time, to a lucid dream or living nightmare, hot breath on her neck as her waist was dug into by greasy fingers, her knees and chest burning against the low thread count of the hotel sheets. The dry sting of her growing further and further up into her belly as someone forced himself inside of her for hours.))

Vinnie… I’m sorry. I just can’t right now. I’m really tired. I don’t feel well. Can we please just… go?

((Loverboy looked a little rejected, a hint of a scowl on his face, but it vanished as soon as it came. Then, the bright eyed, brilliant smile of Vinnie Lane was all she could see, as he opened to back door of a taxi for her and held her hand as she stepped in.))

Anything you need, babe. I love you.

((He closed the door and walked to the trunk, which the driver had popped open for Roxy’s bags to be placed in. She watched him through the rear windshield, not wanting to lose sight of him.))

I love you too, Vinnie.

((But her hands shook. And she knew she couldn’t lie for long.))