Finding Allison Wu
an excerpt

“Here we are,” she said. He glanced up and squinted at the screen. He needed new contacts.

“Found her?”

“Well, yes, but I don’t see a phone number, only an address.”

“Well, I’ve got that. I was looking for them at Hugo’s earlier today.”

“Oh, she doesn’t live with, Hugo.”

Curious. “Wonderful then, I’ll take it.”

Jessica peaked back over her shoulder at Ben. “I’m not sure that would be appropriate, Ben. Giving a girl’s address to a stranger.”

Ben thought about it a second, and sort of agreed. “Yeah, guess not.”

“I may have a cell phone on Hugo. Let me check.”

Splendid.

Jessica went to her purse, which she’d dropped on the floor, instead of the computer this time. She bent over slowly in front of him to grab it, a dangerous move with a blouse buttoned so low, but Ben avoided her upturned eyes by pretending to read some ad for a local bar. He noted the beeps as she scrolled through the contact list on her cell phone. “Got it,” she said, opening her desk and pulling out a pad of sticky notes. She pulled a pen out of a coffee mug with a drawing of a clapboard slate on it and jotted down a number. She folded it in half and held it out in Ben’s direction with two fingers. He noticed her nails were painted a dark, rose color.

“There you are young man.”

“Thanks.” Ben was less than enthused, and sounded that way. Having to go through Hugo to find Allison again was not appealing in the least.

“Something wrong?”

“Nah, it’s nothing.” Ben stood up and laid the newspaper back on the chair he was sitting in. “I appreciate the help, ma’am.”

“Jessica.”

“Right, Jessica. Would you happen to know when Allison might be by here again?”

“Well, she’s working on the set for our production that debuts in a few weeks, so she’s in here almost every day.”

“The Greek play?”

“Persephone?” Jessica’s eyes lit up. She was obviously impressed that he’d noticed during the rehearsal. “No, no. Not that one. It’s another I’m directing. It’s a little bit, wilder, shall we say.”

“Well, do you think you could pass on the message to her that I dropped by?”

“Sure, Ben, just leave me your number.”

Ben pulled the sharpie out of his pocket and gestured toward the spiraling stack of sticky notes.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” she said. “I’ll just put your number in my phone, that way I can be sure I have it with me.”

“OK. Right.” He rattled off his ten digit number and she keyed it into her phone, grinning. He shifted his eyes away from her, and noticed a number of envelopes leaning against the phone on her desk. He looked harder and noticed the first one was addressed to Hugo Anderson. And then he got it. Paychecks. And paychecks had addresses. He improvised. “Hey, is there a bathroom nearby?” He pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open, pretending to check the time, but instead setting his alarm to go off a minute later.

“Sure, it’s just up the hall,” Jessica said, standing up and sliding past him. “I could use a freshening up, myself. I’ll show you.”

Ben quickly set his cell phone on the desk. He followed her out of the office, and down the hall to the right.

“It’s just around the corner.” Ben watched her walk, praying that his phone would go off in time, and wondering to himself whether she was in fact swinging her hips a little bit more on this leg of the trip.

Then it happened, just as he noticed the door ahead marked, “Women.” Ring, ring.

Ben slapped his pockets in what was likely a horrendous job at acting, and said, “I left my phone.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll go back,” Jessica said. She was smirking that devilish smirk in his direction again.

“No, I really should get that. It could be Allison.” He turned and started sprinting back down the hall before she could object, calling out over his shoulder, “You go ahead. I can find my way back.”

His pulse was racing, and he could hear the clip-clop of her shoes behind him. She wasn’t going into the bathroom, and why would she? He was a stranger after all. Ben dashed into the office and immediately flipped to the back of the stack of the envelopes, whispering, “Wu, Wu, Wu,” to himself. And just as he thought, at the back of the stack, he found the envelope marked with Allison Wu’s name, complete with her address. Money. He crammed the envelope into his pocked and grabbed his cell phone, shutting off the alarm and pretending to answer.

“Hello? Oh, hey Chandler. Yeah, I made it OK.” He walked back into the hall, his heart pounding, and shrugged at Jessica, who was walking back toward him, her head tilted to the side. “Look, I’m in the middle of something. Let me call you back in ten minutes. Yeah, I’ll tell you then. Later.” He snapped the phone shut and slid it into his pocket quickly. He walked back toward the woman, who had stopped her curious and perhaps anxious advance. She was standing with her legs crossed and leaning against the wall. He thought he saw a twinge of disinterest in her eyes.

“Just a friend from back home,” he told her. “So no luck in the hunt for Allison.” At least not that you know of.

“That’s too bad,” she said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “Shall we try again?”

“Sure,” Ben said, relieved he’d gotten away with his little caper. “Wouldn’t miss it.”