Page 7 of Hotline
My fists curl around the steering wheel. A new, strange sensation flows through me like something in my soul has been unlocked. Like a dam inside me has broken.
She stares him down. He stands and moves to the back of the bus like a little puppy. She helps the old lady into the seat and stands over her like a guardian angel.
The girl looks up for a moment, as though she senses me looking at her. Her keen, guarded eyes cut a smooth line through the fog, but they never reach me. The bus lurches forward and her attention is once again on the old lady.
I turn off the ignition and step out of my car as the bus drives away.
I walk up to the building. It's in a state of total disrepair. One of the glass panes in the revolving door is cracked, and the sidewalk is uneven. There's no doorman or security guard inside.
What is this place?
It’s all women in here. I look around, trying to figure out where I am. I stride to the back of the large open-plan office. There must be a boss around here somewhere. I come upon a small, windowless room buried deep in a back corner. It smells like cigarette smoke and old perfume, reminiscent of dying roses.
A woman with severe features waves me away without looking up.
"Not today," she says. She flicks her cigarette into an ashtray. "Go complain to someone else."
"There was a girl," I say.
The woman's eyes drift up to mine.
"There are lots of girls, but you'll have to call if you want to talk to one.”
I shake my head in frustration.
“No. I'm looking for a specific girl."
She throws her pen on her desk and leans back in her chair.
"Care to describe this mystery girl? What was her voice like? Did she bore you to death?”
Boring? I’ll never have another boring day in my life.
"She was...she was just perfect."
The woman huffs out a breath and rolls her eyes.
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
"She looked…lost, in a way,” I say. "She wasn't very tall. Brown hair. Came out of this building a few moments ago.”
"You could have stopped at ‘lost,'" the woman says with a wry smirk, "I know exactly who you're talking about. Beautiful voice. Sexy. Innocent.New.”
A weird little smile stretches across her lips as she flips through a stack of files on the corner of her desk. She shuffles one of them out and drops it on the desk in front of me.
“Is that the girl you’re talking about?”
I lift the file as my veins start to pump harder.
Yes. This is the girl.
My heart clenches in my chest as I look down at her photo.Opal Harper.It fits her. It fits her perfectly. It’s gorgeous. I love it. It’s going to feel so good on my lips.
“Opal…” I whisper, touching the photo.
I was right. Her name does feel wonderful on my lips.
She is just so beautiful. There are details here that I know will knock me on my ass when I get to see them up close. The way there are strands of golden blonde hair in the dark, chocolate brown strands that frame her face.
