It's around four o'clock on a Tuesday, the day Liam gets back from camping with his friends. For some reason, Nessa can't imagine Liam lasting a whole week in the woods camped out in a tent. She jolts in her seat once she hears the phone blaring, her hand reaching immediately to answer.
"Hello, thank you so much for calling AskAway. We are here to advise you on all your questions, concerns, and problems related to relationships. How may I assist you today?" Nessa says cheerfully, sounding exactly like how she was trained to.
"Is this a joke?" a female voice replies.
"Excuse me? This is a—"
"Who the hell are you?" she interrupts, her voice getting louder.
"Due to confidentiality agreements, I can't reveal my name to you," Nessa answers, cleverly making up an excuse. "But if you need to talk about anything else, I'm here."
"He said he was calling his mom," the female mutters to herself, anger and frustration shining through her tone. "This doesn't sound anything like Vivianne, and unless he doesn't save his contacts anymore . . ."
There's a pause between the two as the female's voice trails off into silence. Nessa twirls a pencil around her fingers, waiting for the conversation to start up again.
"Wait," the female starts, "what did you say that this was again?"
"This is a relation—"
"Wait, why is my boyfriend calling this number all the time?"
"Um," Nessa stalls as well as she can, adding in a pause. "I'm not sure that your boyfriend calls here. These calls are mostly anonymous."
Nessa glances down at her phone, pulling up her received calls log. She studies the seven digits behind the Seattle area code of the woman on the other line, realizing that she's seen this combination before. Normally, she doesn't take the time to memorize customers' phone numbers, but after seeing a number pop up so many times, it becomes engraved in her memory. This is one of those numbers.
She scrolls through the log, going through all of her history and searching for the number again.
August 9th: 11 AM
206-516-1920
August 9th: 12:30 PM
206-183-1849
August 9th: 1:00 PM
206-159-333
August 9th: 10:00 PM
206-653-781
Nessa scrolls to 10:00 PM on the next couple of days. For some reason, her heart is beating out of her chest. Her hands are trembling as she reads the numbers.
August 10th: 10:00 PM
206-653-781
August 11th: 10:00 PM
206-653-781
August 12th: 10:00 PM
206-653-781
And that's when it hits her, the realization that the number calling was Liam's number.
"Hello? Are you still there?"
And the person speaking on the other line right now was Delilah, the notorious Delilah.
"I'm still here," Nessa answers quietly.
There's a short pause before Delilah asks, "Why is Liam calling you?"
YOU ARE READING
Say Hello For Me
Short Story"Hello, we are here to advise you on all your questions, concerns, and problems related to relationships. How may I assist you today?" "I think my girlfriend is cheating on me." Everything started with this simple line.
