Five Minutes

The Final Countdown

The sound of the door seemed to echo through the front of the house when Veronica stepped into the entrance. She felt oddly alleviated and better then she had in months.

Who knew such simple words could have such a drastic impact? What Linda had said were lasting in her mind; she had thought about them deeply on her way home.

She walked over into the library, where Ralston had pegged his working room. It was lined with shelves and shelves of books that reached upwards to the ceiling.  She always thought it looked too cluttered and confined, but somehow it had the opposite effect on Ralston.  His desk was positioned on the right side of the room.

His eyes drew themselves away from his laptop and directly on her when he heard her walk in. Removing his glasses, he stood up from his chair and approached her.

"How did it go?" he asked her.

"Not that good at the start," she admitted. "At first, I just wanted to get out of there, but I'm gonna be going back."

"Really?" he asked, his voice vibrant.

"Yeah, the counsellor was really nice. I guess I felt comfortable around her. There was something authentic about her. I don't know if that's even the right word." She hoped she didn't suddenly find herself having doubts, resulting in her fishing for excuses not to attend any future sessions.  It seemed that pessimism hit her unexpectedly at times.

"I'm happy to hear that. I was worried you'd leave halfway through, or stand by the door and think, Shit, I can't go in."

"I did think that, actually. I wanted to run the other way," she said. "I forced myself to go in."

"Did you tell them what happened to you?" he asked. 

A part of her suspected he already knew the answer, though she decided to address the question anyway. "No."

"Do you think you ever will?"

She stalled before replying. "I don't know."

"That's fine. You going there at all is kind of a big deal," he said. "Anyway, um... a bunch of people have been asking me what you wanted to do for your birthday."

"Wow, your segue into that wasn't subtle at all," she teased. She was grateful for the shift in topic anyway. "I don't want to do anything."

"I get it," he said. "I'll let them know."

She mulled over that decision quickly and rethought her response. "Wait... maybe it's not a bad idea to have a party or something."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" he asked.

"No, but it's what I think I need right now." What she needed and what she wanted weren't often mutually exclusive. She just knew that if she did nothing she'd somehow end up making herself miserable. Besides, she had to avoid regressing as much as she could.

"So that's what you want? A party? Low key or all out? You don't want to make reservations at a restaurant?" he inquired.

"Maybe we could reserve a whole place for that night."

"You want that many people at your party?"

"Do I have time to think about it?" she asked him.

"Yeah, let me know whenever you've decided."

Sometimes she couldn't help wondering if maybe his patience wasn't waning and he simply didn't show it. Even making the smallest of decisions had become increasingly difficult out for her.

As they settled into bed hours later and Ralston fell asleep, Veronica stared up at the ceiling, wondering what she would even tell her support group once she was ready to come forward about her story. Was she to keep the identity a secret? Would the woman even believe her if she told them her rapist was a director?

Did they know about the stories Daniel had spread? They had made no mention of it, but Veronica instantly decided it was no appropriate place to discuss it. Besides, none of the women had looked her disapprovingly or with disgust when she'd walked in. She would have noticed if they had.

She turned over to look at Ralston. He was on his side, his face turned in her direction. There were no lines of unease; he looked serene. And she kept watching him, thinking back to the story he told about the director who'd assaulted him.

It was, obviously, before they'd met, though if he was twenty at the time, it did narrow down the possibilities.

Veronica leaned to the other side to grab her phone from the nightstand. Once she'd unlocked the screen and clicked on Google Chrome, she went into IMDB and looked up Ralston's name.

Ralston had worked steadily in films for a few years but it was no more than one or two projects a year. The ones that properly aligned with the age he disclosed were Disreputable and Out In The City. Both directors were male, which didn't remotely assist in process of elimination.

The director who worked on the former was Dominic Ames, the latter was Tanner Wright. Wright was a little geekier, scruffy with thin thin framed glasses. Ames was classically attractive. Dark blue eyes, an almost perpetual tan and thick, nearly black hair.

Veronica was somewhat familiar with both directors. Ames was single and known for being a notorious womanizer. He, however, had no history of inappropriate behaviour besides formerly battling alcoholism. Wright was openly gay and married to a man.

If she had to make conclusions based on what she knew, it was likely Wright. Ralston saw himself as being geeky. She could believe Wright approached him to say he saw a lot of himself in Ralston.

She searched images of him and looked at that stupid face, wanting to disfigure it. And she'd wondered if that was how Ralston felt about Daniel too.