Still Wifey Material by Kiki Swinson

motherfucking head with this pistol,” he threatened.
    Carmen knew that the nigga was serious, so she didn’t want to take any more chances with him. Carmen took off all her things and set them on top of the desk, but that wasn’t good enough for the nigga who was doing all of the demanding. He wanted her to stuff everything on the desk into a black bag he retrieved from his back pants pocket. After that was done, he picked up the loaded bag, looked at his partner, and said, “Take those two into the bathroom and lock them up in there while I have a few moments with this one.” He gestured at Carmen.
    “Whatcha about to do?” the other guy asked.
    “I got to take care of some business with big mouth right here.”
    I got an uneasy feeling. I knew that the “business” couldn’t mean nothing else but rape, so I got up the nerve to speak up. “Is that n-necessary?” I stuttered. “I mean, the owner of this place has been out all day, so he should be on his way back to lock up the place, and I would hate for this to get any uglier.”
    “Yeah, man, she’s right,” the second guy agreed. “We got what we came here for, so let’s get the hell out of here!”
    The leader hesitated. “Yeah, a’ight,” he finally said. I let out a silent sigh of relief. Then the leader fondled Carmen’s breasts. “Damn, shawty, these joints are soft as hell!” he laughed. “Count your blessings, because if me and my homeboy here wasn’t in a rush, I would’ve had some fun with you.”
    Carmen stood frozen with a humiliated expression on her face. I knew she was mortified and wanted so badly to spit in his face, but the fear of losing her life behind it probably crossed her mind, because she looked the other way. All Rachael and I did was stand there in shock.
    “Come on, man, let’s go!” the second guy insisted as he walked backward out of the office.
    “Slow your ass down, man!” the leader snapped. “We got to lock their asses up in the bathroom before we go anywhere.”
    The other guy peeped out into the hallway. “Ain’t no lock on the outside of the bathroom door, so we gon’ have to leave ’em in here.”
    “A’ight. Well, come on.” The leader yanked the phone cable out of the wall so that there was no way that we would have been able to plug it back up to use it. He made us give him our cellular phones and demanded that I hand over the keys to the shop. “They’re in the top left drawer of the desk,” I told him.
    They backed out of the office, closed the door, and locked us inside. The feeling we all had once those bastards left our presence was indescribable. Rachael looked like she was about to pass out, and Carmen acted like she was about to have a meltdown. Her eyes welled up with tears and before I could utter one word, she began to sob uncontrollably. I immediately embraced her.
    “Go ahead and let it out,” I encouraged her as I held her tightly. Carmen was as stiff as a board. I knew she was suffering from emotional defeat because I could not get her to embrace me for nothing in the world. The fact that we were locked up in that small-ass room didn’t help the situation at all. Rachael made it even worse by complaining about how claustrophobic she was and that if somebody didn’t come to let us out soon, then she was going to have a panic attack.
    “Can you please calm the hell down?” I roared. “Remember, you aren’t the only one stuck in here.”
    “How can I be calm when I have a medical condition?”
    “I’m not a fucking doctor! So you’re going to have to come up with a solution on your own,” I snapped.
    Rachael wasn’t trying to hear me. She wanted out of that office more than we could imagine, so she started banging on the wall, hoping it would get the women’s attention from the African braiding shop next door. Unfortunately for us, their music was blasting so loudly that there was no way they were going to hear us.
    We sat there and prayed that someone would come