Page 30 of My Infatuation with Isabella

The question is posed to me, but the voice comes through again to answer. “Yes, hi. Can you hear me?”

Tommy flings the headset as if it’s possessed by the spirit of Annabelle. “Who the hell is that?” he whispers, utterly panicked.

“Yeah, hi. It’s Brianna.”

I’m a little calmer because I at least have experience as a receptionist. “Hi, Brianna. How may I direct your call?”

Tommy is pacing up and down the room, and I give him a hand signal to sit back down.

“Calm down,”I mouth to him as he puts his headset back on.

“I didn’t know they were making this slot a talk show, but I just wanted to say that I one hundred percent relate to you.”

Tommy and I exchange wary glances. What is she talking about? “Brianna, honey, can you...elaborate?” Tommy asks, though I’m not sure either of us wants to know the answer.

“I was talking about Izzy’s pain. I felt it like it was my own. When my ex and I broke up, I don’t think I ever got over it either.”

My mouth drops. My whole body goes stone cold with shock. I clamp my hand over my mouth to stop the mortified scream that’s about to burst out of me. A muted version of it still manages to escape. Tommy places his finger on his lips to tell me to be quiet.

“Breakups are hard.” Tom sounds calm even though he’s wide-eyed and as flabbergasted as me.

His focus shifts to the wall behind me, and his eyes enlarge to the size of saucers. I look in the same direction and see the sign lit up in bright orange that says ON AIR. How did we not see that this whole time?

“How do we switch it off?”he mouths.

“How the fuck must I know?”I mouth back.

“Bri, babe, thanks for calling,” Tommy says, still sounding calm as he frantically searches for an OFF button. “I wish you the best of luck in your future relationships, and I hope you find love again.”

“Thank you...It’s Tommy, right?”

“Kill. Me. Now!”He’s reluctant to admit his name, but it’s not like he can deny it. I’ve been calling him that the whole time. “Yep...it’s Tommy.”

He presses a button and we both let out a breath when the call disconnects. It only lasts a second though, because another voice comes through the speakers.

“Hi...hi...Am I on air?”

“Yeah, we’re all on the air,” I mutter irritably because we still can’t find the fricken OFF button.

“Where did this one come from?”Tommy mouths.

“I told you not to press anything!”

I don’t think this caller takes me seriously because she giggles. “You two are so much more fun to listen to than classical music. Tommy, you and I are cut from the same cloth. The D is also the reason I’m always broke.”

His mouth drops in absolute horror because we’re both slowly realizing what we’ve broadcasted to a whole bunch of strangers. “Wow, uh, what’s your name, hun?”

“Charlene.”

“Charlene, that sounds like...a story I wanna hear. Please, go on.” He only asks that to buy us time to find this stupid switch. Both of us are scurrying around looking for it and worried eyes meet mine when we still can’t find it.“What the fuck have we done?”

“It’s so bad,”I mouth back, tossing papers everywhere in the hopes that the switch is underneath them.

“I once booked a ticket to the Cayman Islands because the travel agent was hot.”

“Oh, you did, did you?” I ask Charlene. “Did it work? Did you get a good dicking?”

“Izzy!”

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