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Why I had answered the phone without my proper greeting I would never know. Hopefully this wasn’t one of the random ones the higher-ups pulled for auditing purposes.

“I don’t think so. I actually — I guess I don’t know why I dialed this number.”

Oh, so it was an accidental dial. A butt dial.

“Well, that’s all right. It was great to hear your voice.” And the desperation continued.

Another stupid thing to say. I had only spoken to this man twice now. The second time was when I had called him to make sure the deposit had gone through, even though I knew that it had. I never did follow-up calls unless absolutely necessary. Somehow, I couldn’t shake his voice from my mind. I couldn’t help but think, what if we met in person? I refused to allow myself to dig deeper into his file to learn more about him. One, that was absolutely against all procedure. And two, I was developing a crush on a guy I’d never seen face to face. I knew next to nothing about him except that his voice was like warm honey.

“So, how are you?” The way he said the words almost sounded strangled, like he’s had a rough night and day and hadn’t gotten a chance to breathe yet.

“Is everything all right?” I asked. “You sound like you could use…” I didn’t know what. I didn’t know this man well enough to venture a guess on what he would consider relaxing. For all I knew, he was just fine and I was the weird one.

He let out a laugh. “I don’t even know. I wish I knew. I just — I just —”

The tremble in his voice stopped me short.

“Can I see you?” I said, hand over my forehead. If anyone heard me asking to meet this customer in person over the phone, I would be so fucked. Regardless of how long I’d worked here, that was a definite no-no.

“I don’t know. I want to, but I…” Jack said. “I’m just really out of sorts lately. It’s hard to explain, but I just don’t feel right. Maybe I’m coming down with something. I keep having the strangest dreams.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “The last couple of nights have been weird. Maybe there’s something in the water?” I lived in town, not far from the city limits, but still, I was surrounded by houses, and I swore I heard howling. The first night it happened, I sat bolt upright in bed. The second night, I really thought I was crazy. After all, there were no wolves around here. That was insane. I’d lived here my whole life and never heard anything like it before. “What have your dreams been? Maybe it will help to talk about them.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Just weird. I’ve never walked in my sleep before, but I keep waking up in strange places.”

“Oh goodness, that’s terrifying. Is your daughter back from her trip?” He’d mentioned his daughter on our second call. She lived in his guest house, so when she was home the two of them shared meals and had coffee together quite often.

“She will be tomorrow.” The longer he talked, the more rough his voice sounded.

“Jack, maybe you need to go to a doctor. Sleepwalking can be dangerous.” I think. Probably. I had no idea really. That seemed plausible though, especially for a man that lived alone.

“That wouldn’t be a terrible idea.”

And again, maybe he just needed someone to sleep next to him. I shipped that thought away. I was really taking leaps with this crush. I couldn’t even confirm if the man was into men. He had a daughter, but that didn’t mean anything. Bisexual people existed. Sexuality was a whole spectrum of things. I glanced at the monitor. So many calls waiting. My manager shot me a look from where he monitored the whole room.

Right. I was working. My job was to help people, then move on to the next call. Yet I lingered on this call like it was the only thing I cared about.

“I don’t mean to bother you. I’m sure you have other things to do,” Jack said, as if he could sense the calls waiting behind him.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m always here to help.”

“You have to say that because I’m a customer.”

“I mean, yeah, you are. But I like talking to you. I…” In for a penny, in for a pound,” I like your voice.” I cringed. That little revelation would forever be in the call transcripts. Let’s hope this would never be used for training. If so, it would be “what not to do—at your job and in flirting.”

“I bet you say that to all the callers.” Jack rumbled out a laugh, sounding better than he had since the conversation began.

Something in those words made me blush. This was ridiculous — almost 45 years old, now blushing over a phone call.

“Listen. Why don’t I go ahead and give you my direct line, just in case you need to get a hold of me again? It was only by accident that I was the one who answered the call this morning.”

“I thought I had your direct line.”

“Well, we tell people that, but it really just goes to the whole pool of customer service reps. I’m going to give you my actual direct line — the one that comes to me whether I’m at work or not.”

I hoped he understood what I was saying. I was giving him my cell phone number. My personal one. I couldn’t say that or it would really raise a red flag for the bosses.

“You can call or text me anytime you want.” And there was that desperation again.