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But the cute and sweaty guys were gone for the night and the wide-eyed children were long since tucked away in their beds, and all that she knew was that the man that was chasing her wasn�t someone she wanted to let anywhere near her.
Her heels sunk into the earth, making each step even more difficult. She was regretting the fact that she had declined her co-worker�s offer of a ride home. She had thought that he was just trying to con her into stopping for dinner with him, then maybe a movie, then to her place where he would clumsily �make his move� while she tried to think of a way to get out of there without ruining their working relationship with something as fleeting as sex.
She would have gladly taken her grabby co-worker who wouldn�t go any further than she let him over running as fast as she could through a park with some unknown, shadowy man chasing her, gaining on her, and reports of a serial rapist in the area making her even more aware of just how vulnerable she could be.
The heel of her left pump got stuck in a patch of sucking mud by the water fountain that was perpetually overflowing and she tugged her foot out of it, abandoning her right shoe on the next step, and she continued running, the fact that she was ruining her pair of pantyhose without any runs in them the farthest thought from her mind.
In high school she had played volleyball, preferring short bursts of motion and more focus on hand-eye co-ordination than long distance running. Now she did yoga and swam laps at the gym on sporadic weekends.
She was regretting letting her membership lapse three months earlier.
Almost to the side of the park near her apartment, she put on a burst of speed, hoping that her pursuer wouldn�t continue chasing her once she got to the land of street lights and the neighborhood watch.
That morning she had been forced to take the long way around the park because the local high school was using the baseball diamond for their playoffs. She didn�t remember that until she had stepped on a bat, the cool metal rolling on the packed dirt of the baseline between first and second.
Her head struck the ground and she was stunned for a moment.
That moment, she knew, had cost her everything.