The Virgin and the Beast

They say good things come to those who wait. Bullsh*%! My whole life has been about waiting. Playing it safe. Be the good girl, don’t color outside the lines. Put in the hard work trying to prove myself to Dad, then to my college professors, then to my boss at New World Media. Just waiting for the day when it will all pay off. And right when it was all starting to—I finally had the house, the job, I was even thinking about getting a cat—boom!—my life explodes and suddenly now I’m here and— “All done,” the doctor interrupts my thoughts, pulling off her gloves with a loud snap. Even from the bed where I’m lying, my legs spread like the Thanksgiving turkey, I can hear the impatient growl of the man standing in the doorway. If you can even call him a man. More like a beast out of a friggin’ fairytale. “Well?” Her pronouncement echoes throughout the room while the speculum is still inside me. “She’s a virgin.”