Phone Time

The phone was ringing.  My stomach was churning.  Even though this was something I wanted to do, it still made me nervous, knowing Victoria's connection to Luke.

Voicemail.

I hung up quickly, not wanting to leave a message, yet.  If I didn't hear back from her, I would send her a text message the next day.

I set my phone down, and as soon as my hand left it, it started ringing.  I quickly snatched it up, expecting to see Victoria's number, but saw it was from a number I didn't recognize.

"Hello?"  I answered tentatively.  Ever since the second Luke incident, I was scared I was going to answer and he would somehow be on the other end.

"Hi, is this Aleah Lange?"  It was a kind sounding female.

"Yes, this is she."

"Hello, Aleah.  My name is Wendy.  I work for the Department of Health and Human Services.  I was calling about a job application you had submitted through our website?"

I brightened up.  I had forgotten in all of the issues with Luke, and my worry about Aaron, that I had applied for a job working as an investigator for the child protective services.

"Oh, yes!  Thank you for calling."

"We'd like to schedule an interview with you here at the office.  Would you be available sometime at the beginning of next week?"

"I would." I didn't want to sound too available. Like I wasn't doing anything with my life.  Which, I kinda wasn't.  "I could do anytime Tuesday afternoon, if that would work, and if not I could rearrange some things to make a different day and time available?"

"Yes, that'll be perfect.  How does 2 p.m. sound?"

"That will work and I'll put it on my calendar!"

After we ended the call I stood up and did a little happy dance.  Unfortunately, Sarah wasn't home.  My mom and dad were both at work.  Who I really wanted to tell first was Aaron, but I had no way of getting a hold of him.  I sighed, loudly.  I pulled up Facebook on my phone.  I figured I would just send him a message on there, and hopefully he'd check it.  I went to my search bar and started typing in his name, but it wasn't pulling up.  "That's weird," I muttered to myself.  I went to the "About" section of my profile and scrolled to my relationship status and saw that it said "In a Relationship" but Aaron's name was gone.  I frowned.  I tried actually searching for Aaron, but there were no matches.

My temper flared up and I threw my phone against the back of the padded chair that was sitting close to the couch and watched my phone bounce off, hit the seat of the chair and slide onto the floor.

I sat back hard against the couch, not moving to get my phone.  I stayed like that for about 10 minutes, having a mini pity party and pouting.

It was at that moment that an imaginary light bulb went off above my head.  I stood up and retrieved my phone and pulled up a new text to James.  Yes, the same James who works with me at the Racquet Club and that we've had a secret attraction to each other forever.  Also, turns out, for his "real" job, James is a supervisor for the child protective services, which is how I found out about the job.  I had told him one night that I wasn't sure what I was going to do, or even where to begin searching for jobs.  He had suggested applying.  So I did. 

Guess who has an interview at your workplace next week!!!!! :)

Immediately he responded back:  You mean there's a possibility I could see your sexy face almost every day of the week?

Don't get ahead of yourself, there, James.
But yes!  haha

Meet for lunch on Friday and I can give you some pointers?

Sure!

Awesome.  I'll let you know Friday morning what time and where.

I smiled to myself, but then remembered Aaron's missing Facebook.  I pulled it up again and tried searching for him.  No results.

I sighed again and decided to call Detective Stratton.  I wanted to check in on where the case with Luke was.  Plus, hopefully he could at least let me know Aaron was alive.

As I was scrolling through my contacts to find Detective Stratton's number, an incoming call popped up on my screen.  Victoria.