Open Arms Read Online Free PDF

much time had passed. When she saw a massive shape move out of the darkness towards her, she cried out.
    “Tammy, it’s OK. It’s Rob.”
    He turned on the light on the table next to him and he saw the fear on her face. “I’m sorry I scared you… I was just about to turn on a light in the kitchen.”
    “What are you still doing here?” she said. “What time is it?”
    “It’s just past seven o’clock.”
    “At night ?”
    “Yes.”
    She sat up now, rubbing her eyes. “But – so – you’ve been here for like… six hours?”
    “Yes.”
    “You didn’t have to do that.” Tammy was feeling stupid. God, he sat here for six hours, watching me sleep? “I mean, you do have a job.”
    “I do. But it just so happens that my boss is your best friend, and when I called her to say that I’d be here with you until you woke up, she was totally fine with it.”
    Despite herself, Tammy smiled. “She would be. She’s amazing.”
    “And she’s also very worried about you. She just wants you to feel safe, Tammy. Whatever it takes for you to feel that, Julie will do it without a second thought. You just have to ask her.”
    “I know.” She felt tears in her eyes. “But please don’t tell her about – about what happened earlier. She’ll just worry.”
    “You mean about your panic attack?”
    She nodded.
    “Do you get them a lot?”
    “No. That was the first one. It just came out of nowhere.”
    “It happened when I told you about Christine. Did what I say about her scare you?”
    “It – it made me start to remember.”
    “It did?”
    “Yeah.” She shivered. “What you said about that guy just waiting for a woman to walk by… It – I don’t know. It hit something.”
    “It triggered your memory?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know.” She looked up at him, and he saw that she was crying for the first time since he met her. “I think so.”
    Rob got to his feet and walked over to the sofa slowly. He sat down right next to her, almost touching her. He waited.
    Tammy didn’t move away from Rob this time; instead, she found herself leaning towards his warmth and solidity. She needed to be touched, for the first time since what happened in the alley. She suddenly understood that a man’s body could offer comfort and safety – she had forgotten that in the past month.
    When Tammy moved closer, Rob gently put both arms around her and pulled her head down on to his chest. She tensed.
    “Tammy?”
    “I remember a man in an alley, wearing a green hat. I think – I think he was the one.”
    “OK.”
    “I can’t see what he looks like, though.”
    “Don’t worry about that right now… you’re doing great.”
    She looked up at him, her face totally open and vulnerable and honest. “I’m afraid I may have done something to bring it on myself.”
    “Tammy. No. No, you didn’t.”
    “I always wore – my clothes were – I dressed… sexy. I wore short skirts and tight clothes and I think that maybe…”
    “No. Nothing you did or said or wore made this happen. This guy, whoever he was, made his choice to hurt you because of something he thinks or believes.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because that’s how violence works, Tammy. Christine was in a business suit. Oversized pants and a blazer and a little white blouse. Flats, almost no jewelry. She wasn’t drinking or in a bar or flirting. She was just walking to her car after a day of work. You hear me? These kinds of guys are predators, just looking for someone to hurt. My sister was just – in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like you were.”
    Tammy shook her head. “I still think that I did something. I think it’s my fault.”
    She burst in to tears now. She was too tired to pretend that she was fine anymore, and she couldn’t understand now why it was so important for her to pretend in the first place. Everyone was here for her – why wouldn’t she let them help her?
    Rob held her close as she wept, took her shaking in to his own body.