by Parker Wren
HOVERFLY GIRL
PROLOGUE
I stumbled in the dark and searched for the lamp. My eyes hadn’t quite adjusted, and with no moonlight, I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me. I finally felt the couch with my hands and reached up to turn the light on.
As I was fiddling with the light cord, someone grabbed my wrist.
My heart seized. I threw myself away from him, towards the couch, but he was quicker; he grabbed me by the waist and pushed me onto the floor.
Without thinking, and still unable to see in the blackness, I twisted my body to face him. I snapped my palm into the center of his throat, then kneed his groin. He cried in agony and fell.
I started to stand up to run. Suddenly, the light flickered, and I willed my eyes to adjust. But before I could run, I felt a piece of cold, hard metal against my temple.
Shit.
CHAPTER 1
Three Months Earlier
The typing woke me up. My eyes still closed, I raised my arms over my head and stretched.
Jason was out of bed and at his desk. He stopped typing and turned his head, checking to see if I was awake. Once he saw that my eyes were open, he swiveled on his desk chair, turning his whole body to face me. He was just wearing boxers.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Jason grinned. He placed his knuckles on the edge of the bed and
leaned over to kiss me. It was a slow, lingering kiss. He reclined back in his chair, and I bit my lip, still smiling. “I’m glad that you came over last night. Want to grab some brunch?”
“I wish,” I sighed. “I should get a few things done, though.”
“Anything exciting?” Jason asked. He stood up from his desk chair and walked over to his dresser, reached into his top drawer, and pulled out a pair of clean socks. Jason had an odd habit of putting on clean socks every time he left his room.
I shrugged. “Just work, really. Mostly grading student papers. I know—I live such a thrilling life.”
Jason smiled. “I’ll be right back.” He stood up from the bed, then smiled over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.
I watched him leave, observing his lean frame and messy dirty blond hair, now wearing pulled-up white socks in addition to his boxer shorts. He exuded a quirky confidence, which I liked.
Out of habit, I leaned over and rummaged through my purse, which was on the floor next to the bed. I found my phone; the time was a little after 10 a.m. I checked my email and saw that I had received a message from my boss that contained an attachment; she asked me to read the file, but she didn’t say what it concerned. I tried to open up the document, but my phone crashed from the effort.
I sighed and put my phone back in my bag. Jason still hadn’t returned from the bathroom. I laid my head back on the pillow, closed my eyes, and thought about work.
Impatient to read the attachment, I got out of bed, still in my underwear, and sat down at Jason’s desk. I opened the laptop and clicked the touchpad.
I was about to open a new tab when I saw the current page that Jason had been on. It was his email—not the one I was familiar with, not his school email, but another one: A webmail account. I was about to click away when I saw the message that he had been typing. In about four seconds, I processed what it was.
“Hey, gorgeous,
So glad to hear you’re back in town. I’ve missed you. Want to meet up tonight at the Bilt?”
Jason hadn’t finished his email; the screen was still up. Below was the previous
message that had prompted his reply:
“Hey Jason-I’m back! I can’t believe I haven’t seen you since we kicked ass at trivia night - lol! Let’s get together soon, what are you up to this week?? Been thinking about you and those sexy lips… ;) xoxo Madison”
I stared at the messages for what seemed like minutes before I heard Jason walk up behind me.
“Hey,” he said quietly, “what are you doing?”
I had been partially frozen until he spoke. I said nothing. I didn’t look at him. I got up from the desk chair, my back to him, and grabbed my dress from the floor.
I could sense Jason checking the laptop screen behind me as my back was to him. I stepped into my dress. Jason now knew what I had seen. I heard a faint click as he slowly closed the laptop. He nearly tripped over himself as he came up behind me and reached for my arm.
I slipped past him, feeling his fingertips graze my bare skin, but I didn’t meet his eyes. I kept my gaze focused on my tasks. Get dressed. Find my boots. I was glad for the simple wrap-around dress I had worn last night. I had the fabric over my shoulders and the tie waist secured in less than 10 seconds.
“Ariel,” Jason said frantically. “Let me explain.” His voice was high pitched, almost childish.
I walked out of the room, trying my best to not stomp. I kept my back straight and posture tall. I saw my boots by the apartment front door. I was thankful that none of his roommates were around. I sat on the couch in the living room and slipped on the first boot. The zipper caught, but I stifled the urge to yank on it hard. I slowly and methodically brought the zipper up until it met the top of my calf.
Jason kept talking. I imagined that his eyes were wild, darting all over the room, but I couldn’t be sure.
“It’s—it’s not like that,” he said frantically. “I know it looks like that, but nothing happened, really.” He paused for a moment. But he then seemed to interpret my silence as an accusation, so he continued having a conversation with himself.
“Well okay, we did kind of make out, but that was it, I promise! I was going to tell her that I had a girlfriend, I guess I was just confused, and I was stupid—“
“Stupid for doing it, or leaving your email up? Because that was pretty dumb.”
After I finished putting on my second boot, I looked at Jason for the first time. He seemed to lean back in response to me finally speaking. It was as if I had blasted air in his face.
“Yes, both—I mean, no, I mean, of course, stupid for hooking up with her—“
“And you know her how?” I asked coldly.
There was another pause before he replied. “Um, she was one of my students,” he finally mumbled.
I took a moment to respond as I kept my gaze on him. His long nose, which I used to think made him seem interesting and intelligent, now looked ugly.
“Okay.” I stood up, breaking my stare from his face, and walked back into the bedroom to retrieve my purse.
“Okay?” His shrill voice shifted from panic to anger as he stood in the living room. He raised his voice again as I entered the bedroom. “‘Okay?’ That’s all you have to say? Don’t you want to yell at me or something?”
I grabbed my purse and threw it over my shoulder. “Nope,” I said, then walked out of the bedroom again and towards the front door.
Another pause. I could feel Jason’s breath behind me as I reached for the doorknob, but I didn’t turn to look.
“I’m sorry, Ariel,” he begged over my shoulder. “Please just talk to me. Stay with me, and we’ll talk this out.”
I opened the front door and tried to keep my face as expressionless as possible as I turned to him. I looked at him one more time as I spoke.
“There’s nothing to say,” I said, “other than that you cheated, and I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed I ever thought you were worth it.”
I turned to walk out the front door, but a burst of anger swelled up through my stomach and out of my mouth. I turned to him again. “Oh yeah, and you were right, my friends never liked you. They thought you were a sloppy drunk with an inferiority complex.”
Jason’s mouth remained half open as I slammed the door in his face.
I walked down the steps, hugging my purse tightly to my body. I ran a mental invento
ry to see if I could have left anything behind. I had my wallet and my phone in the purse; those were the most important things.
I walked down the sidewalk, past the other monotone graduate apartments.
I couldn’t believe him. Jason had hooked up with one of his students. An undergraduate college student! Was he a complete idiot for ignoring the power issues there, too? Really, Jason? Really?
I needed to distract myself. I decided to head to Bodo’s for a bagel and coffee, hoping that I could people watch in order take my mind off my now ex-boyfriend.
Of course, in that moment, I had no idea what was about to happen and how it would change my life forever.
CHAPTER 2
I decided that I was allowed to feel sorry for myself, but only for the next few minutes. As I walked down 14th Street on my way to Bodo’s Bagels, I thought about how I wished I hadn’t met Jason and fallen for his self-deprecating, witty flirting. I should have known better than to date a graduate student in economics. I really had no good basis for saying that; it just sounded good—something I could say to my friends later. “Geez, economics, what was I thinking!” And I was angry for letting myself feel close to him, to have fallen for someone so clearly not right for me. I took comfort in the fact that I had never really opened up to him, not in the way a girlfriend should with her boyfriend. He didn’t know my most important secrets.
I didn’t cry. I just swallowed. I briefly closed my eyes and pictured a room. I threw Jason into that room, slammed a metal door on it, and turned the lock tightly. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. Done. Over it.
I arrived at Bodo’s, grabbed a bagel and coffee, and sat down at a table by the window.
I was staring outside—sipping my coffee, trying to think about anything besides Jason—
when I felt a stillness in the air. I realized that someone was standing next to me. I turned my head sharply, nearly spilling my coffee in the process.
“Ariel? Ariel James?” asked a man.
I looked up. He looked to be out of place in a college coffee spot. He was at least fifty, his hair graying on the sides, and he wore an expensive suit and carried a rather large briefcase.
I didn’t like that I was sitting down and he was standing up. I had no exit: The window, table, chair, and this man were surrounding me.
“Yes,” I replied. “And you are?” Is he professor that I should know, I wondered?
“Manuel Gonzalez,” he said. “May I join you?”
I decided he definitely wasn’t faculty, or anyone else that I had met before.
“No. Can you stand further back please?” I asked sternly.
Manuel seemed surprised by my response, but he put up his other hand in a gesture that seemed to say “sorry, I’ll back off.”
I then stood up. I wished I had been wearing heels, but fortunately, he wasn’t much taller than me.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” I asked defensively. I looked around the restaurant. No one was watching my interaction with Manuel as far as I could tell. A couple sat at the table next to me, each of them reading a book. A girl was lounged in a chair behind where Manuel was standing, and she looked half asleep. Inside my head, a voice was telling me that I was being paranoid.
“I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself differently.” Manuel reached out his hand. “I work for a company called Select Recruits. We’re currently hiring, and I wanted to talk to you about a potential job opportunity. You have a background that matches well with our unique needs.”
My mind was racing, trying to piece together what Manuel was telling me.
Reluctantly I shook Manuel’s hand. “Okay…fine. But I don’t have long.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
I remained standing as he took a seat across from me. Finally, I sat down and watched as he removed a file from his briefcase. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat.
“Aren’t you going to get something? A coffee? Bagel?” I asked.
“No, I’m fine, thank you. I just came to talk to you,” Manuel replied.
“Okay. But you realize how creepy this looks,” I said. I was stalling. My mind was still cycling through possible reasons for this man’s presence.
“My apologies,” Manuel said, but he didn’t look very sorry. He seemed happy. He had a face one could easily forget. I tried to study it, but I couldn’t find anything remarkable about it. He was clean shaven with a perfectly average nose, normal mouth, and deep-set brown eyes. Or were they hazel? Apart from the graying hair, there was nothing memorable about him. This made me distrust him even more.
“So who are you, anyway?” I asked.
There was a pause before he answered.
“Well, I’m employed by a private consulting firm that does work for the government as well as private citizens, and—"
“Wait—” I put my hand up to cut him off “—you realize that’s the vaguest description you could ever give. You might as well say you’re ‘someone that does something for the government which does everything,’ which tells me nothing.”
Manuel looked like he was trying not to smile. “Well, yes. Much of what we do is classified.”
“Naturally,” I mumbled.
“In any case, we are looking for individuals just like you to come do work for us. With your background, you are highly qualified.”
I took another sip of my coffee. It had too much sugar in it, I thought. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned by background--what’s so interesting about it?”
“Well, let’s see.”
Manual opened his file and ran his finger over the paper, his brow furrowed. It looked like he could only read what was right next to his finger, the way one learns to read as a kid.
“Your name is Ariel James, twenty-eight years of age. You are currently a PhD student here at the University of Virginia. You lived in England until you were five and then moved to Boston with your father. There is no record we could find of your mother. You attended Boston Latin and excelled at academics and sports. Your father died when you were eighteen during your senior year. You had already been accepted to UC Berkeley, where you studied drama and psychology. You were in Air Force ROTC in college, and after you graduated and commissioned, you served as an intelligence officer in the military. You’ve had a few deployments but mostly been stationed in the U.S. After that, you took some time off. We have no record of a work history for the year after you separated from the military besides a few research projects. Two years ago, you began your PhD in psychology.” He looked up from his file. “And here you are now.”
I let him wait in silence for a few moments before replying. “Yeah, that about sums it up.” I tried to keep my voice as flat as possible. “Though I don’t like how you have all this information on me while I know so little about you..”
I didn’t want him to realize how much I hated the way he had trivialized my past in a little under two minutes.
“We do our homework,” Manuel smiled.
I felt the urge to slap him. I knew I was feeling angry because of what had just happened at Jason’s apartment, but deep down, I was thankful for the distraction.
I took another sip of my coffee and forced myself to reply in a laid-back tone. “And what skills, exactly, will be helpful to your organization? Something to do with terrorism? Psychology of terrorism?”
“Yes, we know that’s one of your interests, both in the field and in research,” Manuel said. “But that’s not necessarily the only thing. I can’t tell you much now, but if you would be willing, I’d like to talk more about this with you.”
I laughed. “What? Bodo’s Bagels isn’t a secure enough location for you?”
Manuel continued to smile. “I’m afraid not.”
I thought about what he had said. I really didn’t like how he had followed me here, knew so much about me, and was presumptuous enough to think that I would drop everything for a job opportunity. One that he couldn’t even tell me about.
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“I’m afraid you have the wrong girl,” I said. “If you’re really interested, wait until I go on the job market in a couple of years when I have my PhD. Offer me a lot of money. Then maybe we can talk.”
“Oh, we can offer you a lot of money now. But I understand,” Manuel replied.
There was awkward silence as he sorted the papers, presumably papers on me. I focused my eyes on them and secretly wished my stare could burn them.
Manuel leaned over and put the file—my file—back into his briefcase. I watched him, not intending to break the silence. He turned to me.
“You know,” he said, “if you don’t explore this opportunity, you will always wonder.”
He paused, like he had just said something really serious. I felt the red-hot anger rising in my chest, but instead, I just shook my head and sighed.
“And you don’t have to leave UVA,” he said. “You have the summer off, right? You’ve completed your exams? I assume you will likely intern somewhere or do research. Probably better for your long-term academic career. But we have an assignment—something that just came up, which would just last the summer. You can be back here in the fall.”
I would be lying if I didn’t think the offer sounded tempting. I still hadn’t figured out what I was doing for the summer, and there was that itch inside of me to do something, well, different.
Still, the whole thing sounded ridiculous, and I was already inclined to hate him.
“Thanks, but no thanks.” I shook my head. “Not for me.”
Manuel laughed again. “You don’t hold back.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant this as a compliment, but I took it as one.
“Look,” he said, “if you change your mind, here is my card. I’m going back to D.C. tonight. But if you’re interested, give me call. I’d very much enjoy arranging a meeting with you.”
He handed me a business card. It was vague and simple, like his conversation: “Select Recruits” and his contact information was printed in small, black text.
Manuel picked up his briefcase and stood. I looked down at the card, thinking.
“It was nice to meet you, Ariel. I hope you’ll consider my offer.” He turned to go.