Who Knows|✔

o n e*☎*we know

----

Avery smoothed down her, only slightly, wrinkled blouse with sweaty hands only to switch to wiping her skirt when she could feel the sweat soaking through the top.

She sat in a small cubicle, an old fashioned landline telephone sitting in front of her. Well, it wasn't really that old, it could hold and transfer calls and other stuff like that, but Avery was used to the cellphone that she could do virtually anything she wanted with.

Today would be her first day working at We Know, a relationship hotline that just opened a few weeks ago. Jaime, her best friend and frequent relationship advice receiver, had suggested she apply ASAP because spots would fill up fast and they did.

Thankfully though, Jaime was right about more than that, Avery really was an expert on relationships and she got the job almost without a second thought.

She had been nervous for her interview, but the supervisor was impressed with the sample advice Avery had provided. He hired Avery and let her start working that same day, aka today.

“Calm down, Avery! You'll do great!”

Avery glanced behind her at her cubicle neighbor, she was a sweet lady probably old enough to be Avery's mother(scratch that) young and fun aunt. If you had never heard her speak, you would guess she had one of those rosy southern accents, but actually hers was a soft, small one.

“I don't know, Meira… People have said that I'm good at this kind of thing, but if they ask for advice I just pretend I know what I'm doing and say what I would if they were my friend.”

“We all have our strategies, yours is just...unique. In fact, it works better than most people's here.”

Meira leaned on the thin walls and gestured to the telephone behind Avery's back. Until now, Avery hadn't noticed, but the phone had started ringing. Her first call.

She smiled at Meira, who gave her two thumbs up, and then spun in her swivel chair to face the wall and the phone.

“I hope so…”

Avery picked up the receiver and held up the index card with her greeting written on it.

“Hello, and thank you for calling We Know! We are here to help you with all things relationship. I'm Raine and I'll be helping you today.”

Raine was her ‘code name’, everyone at We Know had one. It was to protect their identities or something like that.

“Do you have to say that whole thing every time someone calls?”

Avery was surprised at the lightness in the man's tone. So far, the only person she had helped with relationship problems was Jaime, and when Jaime had problems, she cried...a lot. Avery almost laughed, but stopped herself.

“Actually, this is my first time receiving, but as far as I know, yes I do have to say that every time.”

“ Huh, funny. This is your first time receiving and my first time calling.”

“That's a good thing though, it means you haven't had any major problems with your relationships!”

“Mostly no, but I have one now…”

Avery imagined it was Jaime on the other end of the call and acted accordingly.

“Well, why don't you tell me about what happened.”

“My girlfriend...She and I haven't talked in a while. I think she might be seeing other guys or something, but that's such a downer! Why don't we talk about something else?”

“Uhm, this is a relationship hotline for a reason. I don't think my supervisor would like me to do that. Especially when I just barely started working here…”

“Ugh fine,” The man cleared his throat and continued speaking, “So I guess just do what you supposedly do best: advise me.”

“One thing that causes the biggest rifts between people is communication or the lack thereof, and it sounds like that was the problem with your relationship. You stopped talking to each other.

“So to aid such a big problem, I would start small. Give your girlfriend a call or shoot her a text, let her know you still care. Just not too much or it might scare her off.”

“Okay...that sounds good! Should be easy enough, thanks...what did you say your name was?”

“Ave...Raine, my name is Raine.”

“ Well, thank you, Raine!”

“You're welc--”

The man hung up before Avery could finish. He sounded excited, so Avery guessed that he was going to call his girlfriend. But she didn't have much time to think about it before the phone rang again.

“Hello, and thank you for calling We Know! We are here to help you with all things relationship. I'm Raine and I'll be helping you out today.”

This book will update next Friday.