“Things Like This” was published in Open Road Review, issue 12, Feb1, 2015.

“Things Like This” opening paragraphs:

Things like this can happen. A man waits for a woman as she takes a shortcut through an alley on the way to her car that’s in a free lot—because her safety isn’t worth eight dollars.

His timing is perfect.

He knows her name. “Angela.”

What else does he know?

She goes to him like a dog whose master calls, because names have power and Angela has none.

“What color are your eyes?” he steps out from behind a dumpster that smells like soured grease.

Angela doesn’t run because the man is an impenetrable object. Too tall, too dense, too strong to resist. His face hidden in the shadows. His voice a mellow base counterpoint to the Louis Armstrong music filtering through the exhaust fans of a Cajun restaurant that serves blackened everything.

You can find “Things Like This” here.